Jake and Phil discuss Philip Roth's 1961 essay "Writing American Fiction" and the Qohelet, also known as the Book of Ecclesiastes
The Manifesto:
Philip Roth, "Writing American Fiction"
https://www.commentary.org/articles/philip-roth/writing-american-fiction/
The Qohelet
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%201&version=KJV
Jake and Phil are joined by Amy Sohn, author of The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, to discuss the 1967 anti-war manifesto A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority and Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem Howl.
The Manifesto:
A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority
https://vietnamwar.lib.umb.edu/warHome/docs/1967CallToResistIllegit.html
The Art:
Allen Ginsberg, Howl
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl
Jake and Phil are joined by Roy Scranton, author of Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress, to discuss the Dark Mountain Manifesto by Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine and The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft.
The Manifesto:
The Dark Mountain Manifesto
https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/
The Art:
HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx
Roy Scranton, Impasse
https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/impasse
Jake and Phil discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s Notes from the Moral Wilderness and Camus’ short story The Guest
The Manifesto:
Alasdair MacIntyre, Notes from the Moral Wilderness
https://www.scribd.com/document/123091458/Notes-from-the-Moral-Wilderness-Alasdair-MacIntyre
The Art:
Camus, The Guest
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1957/12/the-guest/642533/
Phil is joined by Morten Hoi Jensen, literary critic and author of the forthcoming "The Master of Contradictions
Thomas Mann and the Making of The Magic Mountain," to discuss Thomas Mann's 1914 "Thoughts in Wartime" and Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
The Manifesto:
Thomas Mann, "Thoughts in Wartime"
https://www.nyrb.com/products/reflections-of-a-nonpolitical-man
The Art: Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
https://www.nps.gov/linc/learn/historyculture/lincoln-second-inaugural.htm
To pre-order Morten's book:
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300233742/the-master-of-contradictions/
Jake and Phil discuss Clement Greenberg's 1939 "Kitsch and the Avant-Garde" alongside Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" and Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"
The Manifesto:
Clement Greenberg, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch"
https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1606923282/slcschoolsorg/wumlyaskvhhzawsvbbzc/Avant-GardeandKitsch.pdf
The Art:
Taylor Swift, "I Knew You Were Trouble"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoKguSdy4Y
Leonard Cohen, "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWZo7UmCbBc
Jake and Phil discuss Teilhard de Chardin's 1946 Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb and Charles Mingus' "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me," off of his 1962 album Oh Yeah.
The Manifesto:
Teilhard de Chardin - "Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb"
https://www.religion-online.org/book-chapter/chapter-8-some-reflections-on-the-spiritual-repercussions-of-the-atom-bomb/
The Art:
Charles Mingus - "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaeVLd4G1Zg
Jake and Phil discuss David Jones 1939 essay on Hitler, courtesy of Thomas Dilworth's "David Jones and Fascism," alongside Gregor von Rezzori's "Troth," from his Memoirs of an Anti-Semite
The Manifesto:
Thomas Dilworth, "David Jones and Fascism"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3831437
The Art:
Gregor von Rezzori, "Troth," from his Memoirs of an Anti-Semite
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/04/26/memoirs-of-an-anti-semite
Phil and Jake discuss Witold Gombrowicz's "Against Poets" and Czeslaw Milosz's "Ars Poetica?"
The Manifesto:
Witold Gombrowicz, "Against Poets"
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300183399-006/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOopUFE9LX61sfmOAYszduQw78uOlvfHGgFOUPvi-0afjm9eQ2nhI
The Art:
Czeslaw Milosz, "Ars Poetica?"
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49455/ars-poetica-56d22b8f31558
Jake and Phil discuss Phil's New York Times essay "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military" and Homer's "Embassy to Achilles"
The Manifesto:
Phil Klay, "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/opinion/trump-hegseth-military-morality.html
The Art:
Homer, "Embassy to Achilles"
https://www.penguinbookshop.com/book/9780140275360
Jake and Phil discuss Thomas Hardy’s The Oxen, TS Eliot’s Journey of the Magi, and The Pogues Fairytale of New York
Thomas Hardy - The Oxen
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53215/the-oxen-56d232503c32d
TS Eliot - Journey of the Magi
https://poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi/
The Pogues - Fairytale of New York
https://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8?si=AWYk4ya5bFPUyFtd
Jake and Phil are joined by Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist and author of the forthcoming Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, to discuss Ross' essay "Is the World Ready for a Religious Comeback" and Christian Wiman's 2008 essay in the American Scholar, "My Bright Abyss"
The Manifesto:
Ross Douthat, "Is the World Ready for a Religious Comeback"
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/opinion/religion-atheism-books.html
The Art:
Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss
https://theamericanscholar.org/my-bright-abyss/
Pre-order Ross' book
https://www.zondervan.com/9780310367604/believe/
Jake and Phil discuss Leon Trotsky's "Communist Policy Toward Art" and Gogol's "The Overcoat"
The Manifesto:
Leon Trotsky - "Communist Policy Toward Art"
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1924/lit_revo/ch07.htm
The Art
Gogol - "The Overcoat"
https://www.fountainheadpress.com/expandingthearc/assets/gogolovercoat.pdf
Phil and Jake discuss Joan Didion's "Politics in the New Normal America" and Robinson Jeffers "Fire on the Hills"
The Manifesto:
Joan Didion, Politics in the New Normal America
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2004/10/21/politics-in-the-new-normal-america/
The Art:
Robinson Jeffers, Fire on the Hills
https://ronnowpoetry.com/contents/jeffers/FireontheHills.html
For more on Jeffers in Czechoslovakia, see The Warm Reception of Robinson Jeffers’s Poetry in Cold War Czechoslovakia, by Petr Kopecky
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/169/edited_volume/chapter/1524695/pdf
Jake and Phil are joined by Nate DiMeo, podcaster and author of the forthcoming The Memory Palace, to discuss the Riot Grrrl Manifesto, Steve Albini's The Problem with Music, and The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
The Manifestos:
Kathleen Hanna, The Riot Grrrl Manifesto
https://actipedia.org/project/riot-grrrl-manifesto
Steve Albini, The Problem with Music
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music
The Art:
Penelope Spheeris - The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DZu6T8aDCA
Nate's podcast:
https://thememorypalace.us/
Nate's book:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706914/the-memory-palace-by-nate-dimeo/
Phil and Jake are joined by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman, the authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice, to discuss David Benatar's 1997 paper "Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence," alongside Paul Schrader's 2017 film First Reformed.
The Manifesto:
David Benatar - "Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20009904
The Art:
Paul Schrader - First Reformed
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438/
Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman - What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250276131/whatarechildrenfor
For more of Anastasia's work
https://www.anastasiaberg.com/
Rachel's work at The Point
https://thepointmag.com/author/rwiseman/
Jake and Phil are joined by the poet and critic Alice Gribbin to discuss Ezra Pound's The Serious Artist and Eliot Weinberger's The Life of Tu Fu
The Manifesto:
Ezra Pound, The Serious Artist
https://archive.org/details/literaryessaysof00poun/page/n5/mode/2up
The Art:
Eliot Weinberger, The Life of Tu Fu
https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-life-of-tu-fu/
For more of Alice's writing:
https://www.alicegribbin.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile
Jake and Phil are joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, to discuss Wallace Stegner's 1987 novel Crossing to Safety.
Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and chronicler of post-secular religious movements, Tara Isabella Burton, to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's 1939 essay “On Fairy-Stories” and Christina Rossetti's 1862 poem, "Goblin Market."
The manifesto:
https://ieas-szeged.hu/downtherabbithole/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tolkien-On-Fairy-Stories.pdf
The Art:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market
Tara's new novel, Here In Avalon:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Here-in-Avalon/Tara-Isabella-Burton/9781982170097
Phil and Jake are joined by the Matt Gallagher, author of Daybreak, to discuss George Orwell's "Looking Back on the Spanish War", and Benjamin Busch's photographs from Ukraine, "Nine Dialogues: Conflict in Context"
The Manifesto:
George Orwell, "Looking Back on the Spanish War"
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/looking-back-on-the-spanish-war/
The Art:
Benjamin Busch, "Nine Dialogues: Conflict in Context"
https://www.wlajournal.com/copy-of-busch-gallery
Ben's hair:
https://lthumb.lisimg.com/939/13342939.jpg?width=280&sharpen=true
