Phi Fic means Philosophical Fiction. Each episode, we have a candid dicussion on a heady work of of fiction, full of SPOILERS. Join host Nathan Hanks and readers Cezary Baraniecki, Daniel St. Pierre, Laura Davis, and Mary Claire, plus the occasional guest.
This time, we talk about a novella in the late, great Iain M. Banks’s famed Culture sci-fi series, which is centered around a utopian, post-scarcity society that spans various planets (and other habitats) within the Milky Way galaxy.
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Phi Fic #14 “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov
For this month’s episode, we discuss Isaac Asimov’s famous short story that (repeatedly) asks the question: Can we find a way to reverse entropy?
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Phi Fic #13 The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky
This time, the group discusses The House of the Dead, Dostoevsky’s semi-autobiographical novel about life in a labor camp.
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Phi Fic #12 Stories by James Baldwin
For this month’s reading we chose two short stories by James Baldwin: “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon” and “Sonny’s Blues.” Both stories are included in the collection Going to meet the Man (1965). Unfortunately, Daniel had to be absent this time, but we did get Mark Linsenmayer to join us!
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Phi Fic #11 The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
Our book this time is The Body Artist by Don Delillo, an absorbing look at Lauren, a performance artist, and her experience of loss at her husband’s death.
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Phi Fic #10 The Fall by Albert Camus
We discuss the novel about what you do when you’re “called” and how you live afterward. You can listen along while Cezary, Daniel, Laura, Mary, and Nathan discuss The Fall by Albert Camus, which Sartre claimed was “perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood” of Camus’s books.
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Phi Fic #9 The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoevsky
We discuss the poem within The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
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Phi Fic #8 Erewhon by Samuel Butler
For this month’s discussion, Daniel had us read Erewhon by Samuel Butler. We had a discussion that we all enjoyed much more than reading the book.
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Phi Fic #7 The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” —H.P. Lovecraft
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Phi Fic #6 The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James
Join the Phi Fic group for a discussion of The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James.
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Phi Fic #5 Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
So, you think Lolita was Nabokov’s best? We humbly submit a solid contender. Structured as a 999-line poem followed by an extensive afterword and index, Pale Fire has been described by the critic Harold Bloom as “the surest demonstration of [Nabokov’s] genius…”
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Phi Fic #4 Grendel by John Gardner
The group discusses the novel Grendel by John Gardner. Nathan Hanks is joined by Cezary Baraniecki, Daniel St. Pierre, Laura Davis, and Mary Claire.
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Phi Fic #3 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
We talk about the novel by Mary Shelly, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Nathan Hanks hosts fellow readers Cezary Baraniecki, Daniel St. Pierre, Laura Davis, Mary Claire, and special guest Wes Alwan from the Partially Examined Life.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.
Phi Fic #2 The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
We talk about the novel The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. Nathan Hanks is joined by Cezary Baraniecki, Daniel St. Pierre, Laura Davis, and Mary Claire.
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Phi Fic #1 In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka
The first “official” episode of the new Phi Fic podcast! (What used to be the Not School Philosophical Fiction group, now gone public.) We talk about the short story In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka. The crew: Nathan Hanks, Cezary Baraniecki, Daniel St. Pierre, Laura Davis, and Mary Claire.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.
Phi Fic #0 Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
In which we talk about the novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. This origin/zero-episode is taken from an older (2013) recording of the Philosophical Fiction group, before our current group of readers got together. Included in this crew is Nathan Hanks, Jordan Payne, and special guest Dylan Casey from the Partially Examined Life Podcast.
Hear more Phi Fic discussions at PhiFicPodcast.com.
Not School This February
It’s February! Time to check out the Citizens’ Forum and Not School proposals.
January News for PEL Citizens and Not School
Happy New Year! Nathan Hanks brings us up to date on January’s Not School offerings for PEL Citizens. And if you’re not a Citizen yet, what better way to start the year than by making a commitment to your intellectual health?
New from the PEL Citizens’ Forum and Not School
It’s December! Time for PEL Citizens to join or propose groups and discussions in the Citizens’ Forum. Guaranteed to make your holidays more enjoyable! Join an existing or proposed Not School group, or create one of your own.
New in Not School: Niebuhr, Kant, Zizek, Lovecraft
We have group proposals for October on the table, including Zizek’s Contingency, Hegemony and Universality, Reinhold Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History, and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. The Fiction group will be reading The Call of Cthulhu.