Do You Even Lit?

cam and benny feat. rich
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stemcel tragics use THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP to read litfic and classics

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Thank God for Incognito Mode

    Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde really gets the juices flowing. Rich tells on himself big time, we find out we're all faking our authentic selves, and Benny is forced to bite some weird philosophical bullets. The Ring of Gyges: Are all men secretly depraved? How much bad stuff would you actually do if you had total anonymity? Rich says a lot; Benny is suspiciously optimistic. A typology of evil: Teasing out the banality of evil vs sociopathic indifference vs pure sadism. Where does Hyde fit? How does someone develop a taste for cruelty? On the opponent process model, why serial killers escalate, and our porn viewing habits. Virtue ethics vs utilitarian brain: Rich is losing faith in galaxy-brained consequentialist reasoning. Can you corrupt yourself by consuming bad things even if no one is harmed? On the Westworld problem, violent video games, and other gnarly thought experiments. Incongruous f*ggots: do we feel like a unified self or a coalition of competing entities? Why does Cam hide his books when his uncle comes to visit? On code-switching and the different masks we wear. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Listener mail: Nicole and Stefan (00:06:48) synopsis and the big twist (00:16:25) The perfect crime (00:21:53) Hyde's sordid pleasures (00:24:16) the Ring of Gyges: are people good when no one's watching? (00:29:43) A typology of evil (00:38:49) Developing a taste for sin (00:51:14) utilitarian brain vs virtue ethics (01:05:34) Is there anything beneath the mask   WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: American Pastoral — Philip Roth

    1hr 16min

  2. 26 MAR

    Atomised, part 2: Sympathy for the Incel

    IMMORTAL ASEXUAL CLONES: YES NO? Did aella's birthday gangbang generate positive externalities? Why is Cam's fridge full of dead chickens? These are the big questions of our age and we are the only ones brave enough to tackle them. Join us as we wrap up our discussion of Houellebecq's Atomised (also known as The Elementary Particles). The sexual marketplace has no safety net: Houellebecq says individualism devours the rational structures meant to protect us. Rich argues we've already mostly solved this problem in the economic realm. Sex is harder tho. Are there any positive-sum status games to play here?Why do we tolerate redistributive policy for wealth but not for sex? Is Freddie deBoer a hypocrite for clowning on incels?  Bruno visits the Lieu de Changement: A sex commune with much kindly compassion for the outcasts masturbating on the fringes. Could this scale beyond extremely rule-following Germans? Is enforced monogamy the real solution, or has that ship long since sailed? Houellebecq's rhetorical sleight of hand: is paternal love purely instrumental? Do hippies really have a direct lineage to sadists and serial killers? Is the hedonic treadmill of transgression a real thing? probably not but we love our cheeky boy. One trillion identical Cams: Michel's solution is to eliminate sexual reproduction, individuality, and desire entirely. Would this even work? Is H being serious or just proving the problem is insoluble? What happens to science and progress in a world with no genetic or ideological diversity? CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) penis size chat (00:05:41) Brave New World and other failed utopias (00:15:30) The intractable problem of inceldom (00:25:58) Sexual social democracy and compassion for the lone masturbator (00:37:22) Houellebecq's rhetorical sleight of hand (00:41:30) the hedonic treadmill of transgression: hippies to serial killers (00:47:25) positive externalities of aella's birthday gangbang and other status games (00:54:01) Rich rants about positivism and quantum physics woo (01:00:22) the third metaphysical mutation: asexual immortal clones (01:11:12) Next book announcement   WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — Robert Louis Stevenson American Pastoral — Philip Roth

    1hr 13min

  3. 15 MAR

    Was the sexual revolution a mistake? (Houellebecq's Atomised, part 1)

    Houellebecq's 1998 novel Atomised (also known as The Elementary Particles) is prophetic, provocative and absolutely filthy. This chat covers the first ~200 pages: On the sexual revolution: Are inceldom and looksmaxxing the inevitable consequences of the intrusion of market forces into every facet of human society? If Clavicular did not exist, would it be necessary to invent him? Fertility crisis: Can we rely on new technologies to save us from population crash? Rich argues that this time might really be different; Benny is more optimistic. Do any of us really want to RETVRN to forced monogamy? Is liberalism at risk of extincting itself? Which cultures will win the memetic battle? ...and more   CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Metaphysical mutations and historical determinism (00:08:00) Bruno the proto-incel and Michel the proto-asexual (00:15:30) Mother nature is Bad, Actually (00:21:50) Clavicular and the sexual marketplace (00:32:36) Enforced monogamy and slut shaming (00:42:30) The fertility crisis and population crash   WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Atomised — Michel Houellebecq (part 2)

    1hr 3min

  4. 9 MAR

    Stefan Zweig's The Royal Game: What's the ultimate desert island book?

    This week's between-novel quick read is Stefan Zweig's The Royal Game: A Chess Story, written in 1941, immediately before Zweig obliterated his map. We argue over the perfect answer to the 'desert island book' question, whether it's possible to fracture your own mind into pieces, why Cam sucks at chess, and whether we should pressure our kids to become pro athletes/chess prodigies/concert pianists.   CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) plot summary (00:05:43) What’s the perfect desert island book? (00:17:00) Tulpas and fractured psyches (00:26:10) Our own chess performance (00:34:56) On monomania and pressuring kids into sports/music/chess   WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Atomised — Michel Houellebecq

    46 min

  5. 25 FEB

    Moby Dick finale: Ahab Derangement Syndrome

    Tell me if you've heard this one: A mentally unstable old man abuses his position of power to pursue his own personal agenda. He alternates between smooth talking—tremendous moxie, the best speeches—and threatening the LOSERS and HATERS who stand in his way. He runs roughshod over checks and balances, ignores the norms of civil society, and whips his followers into a fervour against an imagined enemy. In his egotistical mania, he takes down everyone else with him. We are talking of course about Herman Melville's MOBY DICK (chapters 81-135). Rich gets political: On Melville's egalitarian dream, the milk and sperm of human kindness, Ahab as demagogue, why the crew don't mutiny, parallels to the current political moment, and Latin America as a cautionary tale. Does Rich have a point here, or has he fallen victim to Ahab Derangement Syndrome? Benny is all symbolism-ed out: Bad omen after bad omen, we get it. We can see the ending coming a mile away. Has Melville created too rich of a feast for us? Does the explicit fatalism make Ahab a more or less interesting character? Did any of us feel any narrative tension in this last third of the book? What is with the pacing? What's it all about: Cam proposes the 'interpretation interpretation'. We talk about the limitations of Ahab's approach to meaning-making, vs Ishmael's more pluralistic approach. And our final thoughts on tackling this behemoth of a book.  CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) don’t cry for me argentina (00:07:30) what did we think of the final section? (00:16:02) What does it all mean? (00:20:30) Ahab vs Ishmael meaning-making project (00:28:23) overdosing on omens and symbolism (00:37:40) Pip the cabin boy (00:44:07) The milk and sperm of human kindness (00:47:48) Ahab the demagogue (00:59:18) Next book announcement   WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The Royal Game — Stefan Zweig Atomised — Michel Houellebecq

    1hr 6min

  6. 11 FEB

    Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein: Look how they massacred my boy

    Quick film review before we get back to the final part of Moby Dick. Guillermo del Toro's long-awaited Frankenstein adaptation is absolutely cleaning up in the Oscar nominations, including a nod for Best Picture. Benny and Rich make the comparison with Mary Shelley's source material and find it to be sadly wanting (altho we do have some nice things to say). On the dumbing-down of nuanced morality stories, and the ubiquity of daddy issues/therapy speak in modern media. Can't a guy just be a crazy hubristic scientist anymore??  Plus: a brief detour through the horror of quantum immortality. WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The final third of Moby Dick The Royal Game — Stefan Zweig Atomised — Michel Houellebecq

    53 min

  7. 4 FEB

    Moby Dick, part 2: A conceptual analysis of Whiteness

    We continue our voyage with chapters 40-80 of Herman Melville's leviathan MOBY DICK. Talking nihilism and meaning-making, the deeper significance of making the whale white (seriously), the terrifying vastness of the ocean, animal welfare and charismatic megafauna, and whether we're OK with reading an abridged edition of the book.  In short: we're having a whale of a time. Tune in next week for our third and final instalment.  CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) They should make some kind of 'abridged' version of this book (00:12:21) BULKINGTON (00:19:18) Whiteness conceptual analysis (00:32:10) First whale encounter (00:41:51) The bloody, brutal business of the sperm whale fishery (00:52:32) Charismatic megafauna / animal ethics (01:00:48) Tashtego falls into a vat of sperm (01:10:02) Listener mail: Is it OK to use another man's Anki deck?   WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The final third of Moby Dick ??

    1hr 20min

  8. 20 JAN

    Moby Dick, part 1: My name is Ishmael and my special interest is whales

    Starting the year off right by signing on for an epic voyage with Herman Melville's MOBY DICK; OR, THE WHALE, published in 1851, and widely considered to be the great American novel. It's quite the beast so we're dividing it into three parts, with this first convo covering chapters 1-40. Call me Ishmael: Dissecting the iconic opening line, why we love Ishmael as a narrator, on the optimal strategy for getting snuggly in bed, the precise nature of his relationship with (we claim) our fellow New Zealand native Queequeg, and the question of race and class politics onboard a whaling ship. The mysterious Captain Ahab: various ominous warnings, initial thoughts on Ahab's motivations, punching through the pasteboard mask, and a climactic ritual atop the Quarter-deck. Infamous infodumps: Benny's eyes glazed over at times, Cam skimmed the Cetology chapter, but Rich makes the case for soldiering through. Plus we look at some of the interesting formal choices Melville makes, the early seeds of modernism, and can't help but make some comparisons to Blood Meridian and Butcher's Crossing.   CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Ahoy shipmates (00:03:20) Call me Ishmael analysis (00:11:33) NEW ZEALAND MENTIONED!!! (00:17:32) Race politics in international waters (00:23:51) Perilous adventures for young men (00:29:29) The infamous cetology chapter (00:34:44) Jonah and the whale/biblical allusions (00:42:20) We need to talk about Ahab (00:54:48) Infodumps, genre mashups and the roots of modernism (01:01:10) Listener mail: Adam G in NYC    WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: ??

    1hr 4min
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stemcel tragics use THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP to read litfic and classics

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  • Creator
    cam and benny feat. rich
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Do You Even Lit?

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