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Phi Fic LogoPhi 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.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Refer your friends to us at PhiFicPodcast.com!

Originating from The Partially Examined Life’s Not School and its Philosophical Fiction group. Sign up for a small recurring donation for access to many more discussions!

Phi Fic #40 The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

June 2, 2021 by Laura Davis Leave a Comment

WAS THIS HIS BEST? In this episode we discuss Ernest Hemingway’s last published work in his lifetime: The Old Man and the Sea. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954. And all of us wondered as read and reread and debated—of all Hemingway’s writings, was this the one that should have achieved those awards? The  Continue Reading …

Combat & Classics Ep. 36: Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

June 17, 2020 by Sanya Kerksiek Leave a Comment

  Join Brian, Ashley Johnson (https://www.writethinkdream.com/) and Anne Kniggendorf (twitter: @annekniggendorf) in their discussion of the 19th century classic, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Get more C&C on the PEL site or at combatandclassics.org.  Continue Reading …

Combat & Classics #9: Joseph Conrad’s “Typhoon”

July 5, 2017 by Brian Wilson Leave a Comment

Lise, Jeff and Brian discuss another work by Joseph Conrad, a rip-roaring, seafaring tale! In his novella Typhoon, Conrad tells the story of Captain McWhirr, his crew, and his ship’s brawling passengers as they sail through a typhoon. The work raises questions about leadership in the face of human conflict and natural disasters. Listen to more Combat and  Continue Reading …

Combat and Classics #8: Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Sharer”

July 5, 2017 by Brian Wilson Leave a Comment

In this episode, Lise, Jeff and Brian discuss Joseph Conrad's short story "he Secret Sharer," which features a psychological drama between an young, unnamed captain who is uncertain of his ability to lead his ship and a mysterious man named Leggatt who swims up to the side of the ship, naked and adrift. Listen to more Combat and Classics.  Continue Reading …

Combat & Classics #7: Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus”

July 5, 2017 by Brian Wilson Leave a Comment

 How do military leaders relate to the civilians they protect? In this episode, Lise, Jeff and Brian discuss that and other questions raised by this Shakespearean tragedy. The story of Coriolanus, a Roman general, starts with an heroic victory for Rome, but ends with exile, defection to the enemy, and ultimately death. Listen to more Combat and Classics.  Continue Reading …

Phi Fic #7 “The Call of Cthulhu” by H. P. Lovecraft

November 1, 2016 by Nathan Hanks 5 Comments

Get ready for the frightening, the horrifying, the sublime—the (in)famous Cthulhu! It’s time for H.P. Lovecraft! Join us as we read the tome of this scandalous mythos, this perturbing unrealism—The Call of Cthulhu. Lovecraft opens his work about the green, gelatinous, multi-dimensional creature with fear for all us human sycophants: The most merciful thing in the world, I  Continue Reading …

Phi Fic #6 “The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James

October 1, 2016 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." So said dear Nietzsche, and seemingly on his heels, the sentiment was reiterated by Henry James. Our discussion of the short story The Beast in the Jungle pushes the question of madness and love to the limit. Mary and Laura exclaim over the remarkable narcissism of the character John  Continue Reading …

Phi Fic #5 “Pale Fire” by Vladimir Nabokov

September 1, 2016 by Nathan Hanks 8 Comments

So, you think Lolita was Nabokov’s best? We humbly submit a solid contender. Cezary, in his wisdom, suggested the book for this episode: Pale Fire. 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…” Join us as Cezary kicks it off with an  Continue Reading …

Martha Nussbaum on Emotions, Ethics, and Literature

August 12, 2016 by Ana Sandoiu 12 Comments

Martha Nussbaum has been recently described as a "philosopher of feelings" and indeed, throughout her career, she has written on disgust, shame, desire, sex, patriotism, love, empathy, and most recently, anger. According to Nussbaum, there is ethical value in emotions, and we are wrong to ostracize them outside the sphere of philosophical relevance. Understanding our emotions  Continue Reading …

The Genre of Despair

January 14, 2016 by Lancelot Kirby 10 Comments

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated  Continue Reading …

Lucian: the Well of Laughter

July 22, 2015 by Hiram Crespo 4 Comments

I was … concerned … to strike a blow for Epicurus, that great man whose holiness and divinity of nature were not shams, who alone had and imparted true insight into the good, and who brought deliverance to all that consorted with him. –Lucian, in Alexander the Oracle Monger Lucian of Samosata (c. 125–180 CE) was a Greek-speaking Assyrian satirist. He’s particularly relevant  Continue Reading …

Philosophical Fiction Reading: Woolf’s To The Lighthouse

March 7, 2015 by Nathan Hanks Leave a Comment

We are going to read To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf for our conversation this March in Philosophical Fiction. A few regulars and I chose a book from our List of Suggestions to read before our conversation where we'll go over the plot, discuss the characters, recall apt passages, and try to get at what everything is all about anyway. To The Lighthouse will be my first  Continue Reading …

Reading Fiction in February, ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ by Flannery O’Connor

February 24, 2015 by Nathan Hanks 1 Comment

Our Philosophical Fiction story for February is 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' by Flannery O'Connor, where a grandmother and her family go on vacation yet encounter an outlaw known as The Misfit. "The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind. Bailey was the  Continue Reading …

Literature and Philosophy: Antagonists or Partners?

September 28, 2012 by Chris Mullen 16 Comments

Can literature be philosophical? Can philosophy be considered literature? What are the roles of literature and philosophy in relation to "truth?" Why should philosophers be interested in literature? While trying to come up with something to post in relation to the recent PEL discussion on Cormac McCarthy’s "No Country for Old Men" I came across an interesting discussion over  Continue Reading …

Ripping the Classics

April 7, 2010 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

An amusing article by Jeanette DeMain on Salon.com about Amazon one-star reviews of classic books caught my eye. Its thesis is that for every book our culture (or likely, you in particular) finds great, there's likely a horrific review of it posted. Now, of course many of these reviews are by semi-literate anti-intellectual assholes. Still, I think that history and other  Continue Reading …

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