Solomon & Smith

*- Andrew's list is pasted below -*Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membershipIn this video Andrew discusses his favourite works of fiction decade by decade, starting in 1800 and going 200 years, decade by decade, until they reach the borders of our present century. If you would like to be interviewed by us about your favourite books, please send an email.Two bonus decades are available over on Patreon!1800sTales from Shakespeare - Mary & Charles Lamb1810sPride & Prejudice - Jane Austen1820sA barren decade.1830sThe Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens1840sVanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray1850sMada-- Bleak House - Charles Dickens1860sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll1870sMiddlemarch - George Eliot1880sTreasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson1890sThe Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith1900sThe Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame1910sHoward's End - E.M. Forster1920sA High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes1930sA Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh1940sTitus Groan - Mervyn Peake1950sThe Ginger Man - J.P. Donleavy1960sThe Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien1970sWatership Down - Richard Adams1980sThe Old Devils - Kingsley Amis1990sBlue at the Mizzen (representing the full 20-book Aubrey-Maturin series)00:00:00 Introduction00:05:11 1800s00:08:29 1810s00:13:56 1820s00:14:45 1830s00:19:20 1840s00:22:40 1850s00:27:48 1860s00:32:13 1870s00:38:06 1880s00:42:20 1890s00:45:33 1900s00:51:46 1910s00:56:20 1920s01:01:45 1930s01:08:16 1940s01:11:51 1950s01:16:47 1960s01:22:48 1970s01:28:06 1980s01:31:25 1990s01:36:07 Conclusion

Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membershipIn this conversation, Scott McGill and Susanna Wright join Jack and Milo to discuss their recent translation of Virgil’s *Aeneid*: one of the foundational poems of Roman literature, a work of exile, empire, grief, violence, duty, divine terror, and extraordinary poetic control.The conversation begins with the problem of collaboration: how do two translators produce one poem? McGill and Wright discuss the six-year process of translating the *Aeneid* together, from early divided drafts to an intensely collaborative line-by-line revision, and reflect on what it means to develop a single poetic voice out of two sensibilities.Much of the discussion centres on Virgil’s style: his elevation without bombast, his emotional restraint, his “majesty of sadness,” his difference from Ovid, and the challenge of translating a poem that is at once ancient, literary, musical, political, and deeply humane. We talk about Tennyson, Dryden, Emily Wilson, Homer, Ovid, alliteration, metre, syntax, wordplay, and the question of how far a translator should go in making an ancient poem feel modern.The conversation also explores the *Aeneid*’s relationship to Homer. Is Virgil merely reworking the *Iliad* and the *Odyssey*, or is he creating something radically new out of inherited material? We discuss Roman originality, translation as collaboration with the dead, the poem’s strange “cinematic universe” of myth, and the way Virgil turns Homeric models inside out.In the second half, we turn to the poem’s darkest and most difficult questions: Aeneas and Turnus, the shocking final killing, whether the poem is Augustan propaganda, the human cost of empire, and Virgil’s extraordinary capacity to extend pity even to enemies and monsters. The episode also ranges through Dido, Mezentius, Lausus, the fall of Troy, the shield of Aeneas, the future of Rome, and the burden of history.Expect reflections on:Virgil’s *Aeneid* and why it still mattersHow two translators collaborate on one poemThe difference between Virgil, Homer, and OvidEmily Wilson, translation, accessibility, and “otherness”The emotional gravity of Virgil’s LatinDido, Aeneas, Turnus, Mezentius, and LaususThe ending of the *Aeneid* and the killing of TurnusWhether the *Aeneid* is Augustan propagandaEmpire, violence, pity, duty, and the costs of historyAlliteration, assonance, metre, syntax, and wordplayRoman originality and the creative use of the pastThe fall of Troy and the terror of the godsIf you enjoy long-form conversations on classical literature, translation, poetry, mythology, philosophy, history, and the strange afterlives of ancient texts, subscribe to the channel and leave a comment below.What is your favourite translation of the *Aeneid*? Is Virgil’s ending a failure, a shock, or the whole point of the poem?00:00:00 The Fall of Troy and the Terror of the Gods00:01:06 Introduction to Scott McGill, Susanna Wright, and *The Aeneid*00:08:04 Guests arrive: Rome, Christianity, and imperial continuity00:11:47 Poetic epigraph00:13:04 Two translators, one poem00:18:38 English poetic traditions, Tennyson, and translation taste00:22:07 The Emily Wilson Revolution00:27:58 What is Virgil’s Latin like?00:35:39 Virgil, Homer, and originality from the past00:45:29 Turnus, Achilles, and the second Trojan War00:47:53 The shocking ending of *The Aeneid*00:53:26 Ecumenical pathos: Empathy in Virgil00:59:35 The *Odyssey* and unending battle01:06:46 The shadow of heroism01:10:00 Ancient endings, unfinished poems, and Lucan01:14:00 Sound, syntax, alliteration, and Virgilian texture01:23:25 Roman history, prophecy, and the shield of Aeneas01:29:36 First encounters with *The Aeneid*Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr (BWV 639) performed by Chiara Bertoglio and shortened for the video, under the following license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Harry Potter, the work of a 'socialist', is in love with the trappings of the upper-class. The wizarding world is based entirely on the aesthetics Britain's elite institutions. It is not the story of an outsider, but a fantasy about inheritance, privilege, and belonging to an ancient, racially pure elite.In this episode, we discuss Harry Potter as a British class allegory.We discuss- Hogwarts' resemblance to elite boarding schools and Oxford colleges- The contrast between the suburbian pleb Dursleys and the rustic pleb Weasleys- Harry Potter as an aristocrat trapped in suburbia- The relationship between magic, bloodlines, and social hierarchy- JK Rowling's internally conflicting attitudes toward modernity, tradition, and class- The influence of Charles Dickens and J.R.R. Tolkien on the Pottiverse- Hogwarts as an escape from modern, middle-class life and cultural rootlessness00:00 Intro01:21 The Hype04:10 Rowling's main weaknesses08:03 Rowling's main strengths10:28 HP as Gay Allegory12:26 HP as Class Allegory16:01 The disdain for pleb mediocrity and modernity22:25 British Class - Poshos magic, plebs muggles25:50 British Elite Public Schools are the model of Hogwarts28:35 Harry as member of master race aristocracy32:32 Why isn't mudblood Hermione the main character?35:55 Parallels with Star Wars and Superheroes38:55 Harry as posh boy cannot fail41:18 Malfoy as posh boy purist44:57 Rowling as a socialist47:00 Rowling as SJW

Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membershipIn this episode of Solomon & Smith, Jack and Milo speak with classicist and translator Stephanie McCarter about her acclaimed translation of one of the most influential works in Western literature, Ovid's Metamorphoses.Ovid retold Greek myths of transformation, and in so doing transformed Greek mythology. We talk about why Roman writers saw translation as an act of cultural conquest, and about what is gained and lost when Latin poetry is brought across into modern English. McCarter discusses her approach to translating Ovid, her decision to render sexual violence explicitly rather than euphemistically, and why she believes no translation can ever be faithful.We discuss Roman attitudes toward Greece, the philosophy of transformation, the poetic differences between Ovid, Virgil, and Horace, the politics of translation, and why Ovid remains one of the most modern voices from the ancient world.Topics include: Ovid's Metamorphoses Ancient Greek mythology Roman literature Classical studies Translation theory "To translate is to conquer" Stephanie McCarter's Penguin translation The history of Rome and Greece Mythological retellings Poetry and meter Horace, Virgil, and Catullus The politics of storytelling Women in classical literature Sexual violence in ancient texts The philosophy of change and transformation00:00:00 Translation as conquest00:01:28 Introduction00:05:00 Flux, Rome, and McCarter’s translation00:10:07 Stephanie McCarter arrives00:13:04 Poetic epigraph00:14:34 English poetry, Dickinson, Byron, and Chaucer00:16:45 Horace and the magic of Latin00:21:51 Ovid in Latin: speed, play, and rhetoric00:25:27 Virgil, allusion, and Ovidian style00:30:30 Epic, epyllion, and the structure of the *Metamorphoses*00:38:08 Greece, Rome, and translation as conquest00:42:35 Translating Ovid: negotiation, constraint, and compensation00:53:38 McCarter vs Mandelbaum: architecture and line01:00:16 Apollo, Daphne, archaism, and poetic style01:06:06 Puns, wordplay, Catullus, and the “fuckathon”01:09:12 Sexual violence, legal language, and Roman readers01:14:54 Arachne, power, Augustus, and exile01:20:14 Ovid’s immortality and the final metamorphosis01:21:27 Nature, flux, Lucretius, and the minded cosmos01:29:58 Ovid, Shakespeare, and negative capability01:36:30 First Encounters and Farewells

Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membershipIn this conversation, Professor Ritchie Robertson joins Jack and Milo to discuss Thomas Mann’s *The Magic Mountain*: one of the great modern European novels, a thousand-page comic-philosophical epic about illness, love, death, time, politics, and the fate of humanism.Ritchie Robertson is one of the leading English-speaking scholars of German and European literature. He is the author of a major study of the Enlightenment, general editor of the current Oxford World’s Classics Thomas Mann translations, and translator of Mann’s *Death in Venice* and *Doctor Faustus*. Here, he helps us situate *The Magic Mountain* within Mann’s wider work, German intellectual history, and the political crises of the early twentieth century.The discussion begins with the Enlightenment, and with the novel’s two great intellectual antagonists: Settembrini, the liberal humanist and advocate of progress, and Naphta, the Jesuit-communist defender of terror, sacrifice, and revolutionary violence. Between them stands Hans Castorp, Mann’s magnificently ordinary hero: a young engineer who travels to a Swiss sanatorium for a short visit and accidentally remains there for seven years.Much of the conversation centres on Hans Castorp’s education. In the Berghof sanatorium, he is removed from ordinary life and exposed to fundamental experiences: illness, erotic fascination, biology, music, death, philosophical dispute, and visionary solitude. Robertson discusses the “Snow” chapter as the philosophical heart of the novel, in which Castorp sees both the possibility of a golden age and the permanent human possibility of blood, cruelty, and sacrifice.We also explore why *The Magic Mountain* remains so readable despite its reputation for difficulty. Mann’s novel is undoubtedly a book of ideas, but it is also comic, sensuous, characterful, musical, and full of memorable scenes: Behrens, Joachim, Clavdia Chauchat, Mynheer Peeperkorn, the sanatorium routines, the medical lectures, the erotic charge of biology, and the strange theatricality of life above the “flatland.”Expect reflections on:Thomas Mann, music, Wagner, and novelistic compositionThe Enlightenment as an unfinished projectSettembrini, Naphta, liberalism, communism, and terrorHans Castorp’s development from passive mediocrity to individual consciousnessLove, death, illness, and the sanatorium as a school of experienceThe “Snow” chapter and its vision of paradise and blood sacrificeWhether *The Magic Mountain* is really a difficult novelRereading, Adorno, and the book’s strange addictive powerHomosexuality, erotic indirection, and Clavdia ChauchatRussia, the East, Orientalism, Dostoevsky, and revolutionThe First World War and the novel’s battlefield endingPremonitions of catastrophe, and the danger of reading later history backwardsSusan Sontag’s criticism of Mann as an “over-cooperative” novelistWhether you are already a devoted reader of *The Magic Mountain*, or have been meaning to climb it for years, this conversation offers a detailed, lively, and intellectually generous guide to Mann’s strange, comic, terrifying, and inexhaustible novel.If you enjoy long-form conversations on literature, philosophy, theology, politics, German thought, and the great novels of European modernism, subscribe to the channel and leave a comment below.Have you read *The Magic Mountain*? And if so: should one read it once, three times, or a thousand?00:00:00 The Snow chapter: paradise and blood sacrifice00:01:18 Introduction to Ritchie Robertson and *The Magic Mountain*00:03:31 What is *The Magic Mountain* about?00:05:56 Why do people still read *The Magic Mountain*?00:13:33 Ritchie Robertson arrives00:14:16 Poetic epigraph: Eichendorff and longing00:16:19 Thomas Mann, music, and *Doctor Faustus*00:19:38 The Enlightenment, Settembrini, and humanism00:25:49 Clavdia Chauchat, love, and Hans Castorp’s education00:30:07 Illness, death, Joachim, and transformation00:34:04 The “Snow” chapter explained00:38:24 Difficulty, rereading, Naphta, and Lukács00:49:10 Erotic memory, homosexuality, Russia, and the East00:58:38 Revolution, utopia, and the meaning of life01:04:03 The ending: war, death, song, and love01:07:28 Nazism, later history, Sontag, and Mann’s over-explanation01:12:34 Conclusion

Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membershipThis discussion is largely a response to some of the reactions to our most recent DBH interview. We discuss Nietzsche, Chesterton, antisemitism, Christianity, nihilism, morality, Nazism, Darwinism, Schopenhauer, and On the Genealogy of Morals.We examine Nietzsche's critique of Christian morality, his relationship to Nazism, the influence of Darwin and Schopenhauer on his philosophy, and why Genealogy of Morals remains so provocative.00:00 Introduction02:28 Chesterton's claim that Hitlerism was "Jewish"05:19 Conspiracy theory that Nazism was a Jewish plot06:38 Nietzsche, Judaism, and Christianity08:00 Christianity as the universalisation of ressentiment10:48 Was Nietzsche a precursor to Nazism?12:42 Nietzsche, Darwin, and evolutionary thought13:13 Schopenhauer, the Will, and Darwinism16:06 First impressions of Genealogy of Morals18:16 Nietzsche's style21:16 Reading Nietzsche for the first time24:39 The power of Nietzsche's literary voice27:11 The crisis of morality before Nietzsche31:35 Nietzsche's wordplay and philosophy of affirmation33:25 Compassion, suffering, and Christian morality34:06 Christianity as "the most practical form of nihilism"35:38 Socrates, asceticism, and the origins of morality38:07 Determinism and the psychology of belief40:53 Nietzsche's collapse and legacy41:22 Nazi appropriation - Hitler, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche43:23 Nietzsche's anti-nationalism and anti-anti-Semitism