Phi Fic: Truth in Fiction

One of Nietzsche’s favorite novels, Le Rouge et le Noir contains some of the most profound psychological analysis in all of fiction.  The novel tells the story about a young man from a modest background who seeks a glorious career, but ends up in enormous trouble as a result of his love affairs.  The novel is divided into halves, with the first half being about a job where he  Continue Reading …

For this episode, we discussed Edith Wharton's novel The Custom of the Country, which was published in 1913.  It's a satirical novel about a very American type of ambition.  At the novel's center is the shockingly narcissistic anti-hero Undine Spragg, a young woman from the midwest who comes to New York to do some major social climbing and leaves a trail of wreckage on her way  Continue Reading …

On this episode, we perform close readings of four poems, each of which was selected by one of the show's contributors: Emily Dickinson's "The Brain is Wider Than the Sky"; Charles Baudelaire's "The Albatross"; Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art"; and Lord Byron's "Darkness." Below are links to the poems and the starting point in the audio file for each segment. Regarding the poems  Continue Reading …

NEW CHAPTER IN PHI FIC! We are adding shorter discussions in between our more expansive literary discussions. These more abbreviated talks will cover short stories, essays, articles and whatever else lights out fancy! Life’s what you see in people’s eyes…” -An Unwritten Novel   Today we discuss Virginia Woolf’s short story An Unwritten Novel.  There  Continue Reading …

TWITTER AND HELL “...Farewell, happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor—one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” --Satan in Paradise Lost, Book 1 In this episode, we read  Continue Reading …

SO SORRY FOR BEING AWAY TOO LONG! GUESS WHY? BEGINS WITH "P" AND ENDS WITH "C". In this episode we discuss EM Forster’s novel Howard’s End as well as take a look at the 1992 movie of the novel starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. “Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him—” --Howard’s End The story revolves around three families: the Schlegels––  Continue Reading …

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS BOOK? In this episode we struggle, spin and madly rub our eyes as we work through the puzzling and enigmatic beauty of William Faulkner’s "The Sound and the Fury". Father said clocks slay time. He said time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. -The Sound and the  Continue Reading …

In this episode, we are discussing the Pardoner's Tale from the Canterbury Tales, a book of stories by the Late Medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer.  This follows up on our last episode, where we discussed other selections from the book, which is about a group of not-quite-pious pilgrims traveling to Canterbury Cathedral who pass the time by telling each other stories. Here is a  Continue Reading …

Join us with Mark Linsenmeyer in a previous discussion on two short stories by James Baldwin: “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon” and “Sonny’s Blues.” Both are included in the collection Going to meet the Man (1965). This is an unprecedented and critical time to listen to this remarkable man. For the first time in my life I felt that no force jeopardized my right,  Continue Reading …

It happened in that season that one day In Southwark, at The Tabard, as I lay Ready to go on pilgrimage and start For Canterbury, most devout at heart, At night there came into that hostelry Some nine and twenty in a company Of sundry folk happening then to fall In fellowship, and they were pilgrims all That toward Canterbury meant to  Continue Reading …

We are Reposting our Discussion on The Machine Stops by EM Forster because The Machine is stopping. Stay Safe! 'Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space  Continue Reading …

There was some element of loneliness involved—so easy to be loved—so hard to love. -Tender is the Night This episode we are reading Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Reflected upon by Ernest Hemingway: “…in retrospect, Tender is the Night gets better and better,” which came a good time after his first comment to F. Scott: “Not as good as you can do.” The  Continue Reading …

Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be. -Sula In this heart wrenching and brilliant novel by Toni Morrison, we are carried through a world called The Bottom: That was the way it got started. Not the town, of course, but that  Continue Reading …