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In this episode of The Big Book Project, Lori Feathers is joined by translator Ursula Phillips to discuss her extraordinary translation of Ice, the monumental, genre-defying novel by Polish author Jacek Dukaj.

Clocking in at nearly 1,200 pages, Ice is both an alternate-history epic and a philosophical meditation on truth, language, power, and perception. Phillips guides us through the novel’s vast imaginative scope—from its reimagining of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century, and its complex political, religious, and commercial entanglements in a world frozen by ice, to the deeply personal story of its hero, the Polish mathematician Benedykt Gierosławski, who travels to Siberia in search of his exiled father. Along the way, Phillips offers insight into the intellectual and technical challenges of translating such a singular work.

This conversation moves fluidly between plot, prose, and process, exploring how Ice engages with 19th-century novelistic traditions while pushing the boundaries of science fiction, historical fiction, and metaphysical inquiry. Phillips also reflects on narrative voice, linguistic instability, and the role of the translator as both craftsman and interpreter.



What We Discuss in This Episode





An overview of Ice’s alternate-history premise and frozen world after the Impact



The novel’s protagonist, Benedykt Gierosławski, and his search for his exiled father, who has become a cult figure in the Land of Winter



Political theories, religious movements, and commercial interests shaped by the Ice



The historical and speculative roles that the Russian Empire and the Trans-Siberian Railway serve in the novel’s plot.



The unusual shifts in narrative voice and perspective and how this is executed. The translator’s postscript and the philosophical problems of language and meaning



The technical and conceptual challenges of translating a 1,200-page novel



Dukaj’s lush, sensory language



Connections to Kafka, Dostoevsky, and the 19th-century “big novel” tradition



Recommendations on other Polish literature for readers to explore



Notable Moment

Lori reads a striking passage describing Benedykt’s first experience wearing frosto-glaze glasses—a scene that transforms the world into a riot of color and movement, highlighting the novel’s extraordinary visual imagination and the precision of Phillips’s translation.



About the Guest

Ursula Phillips is an acclaimed literary translator specializing in Polish literature. Her translation of Ice has been widely praised for preserving the novel’s philosophical depth, linguistic complexity, and stylistic ambition.



About the Book

Ice by Jacek Dukaj is an alternate-history novel set in a world reshaped by a mysterious climate-altering event. Blending science fiction, political theory, metaphysics, and historical fiction, the novel interrogates how truth, logic, and power shift under radically altered conditions.



Listener Tip

Ice includes a Glossary and Dramatis Personae to help readers navigate its neologisms and cast of characters.

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In this episode of The Big Book Project, Lori sits down with novelist and philosopher Mark de Silva to explore his monumental 2022 novel The Logos — a thousand-page meditation on art, perception, capitalism, and the visual texture of contemporary life.

A writer steeped in philosophy and the visual arts, Mark reveals how The Logos emerged from nearly a decade of research into advertising theory, image culture, and the psychological forces that shape our desires. Lori and Mark’s conversation ranges from the phenomenology of seeing, to the dark glamour of New York City, drawing versus painting, and the strange seductions of stealth marketing.

Together, Lori and Mark dive deep into:

• The narrator’s crisis of art and identity — and how success in the gallery world becomes a trap
• Drawing vs. painting as competing ways of capturing truth
• The philosophy of visual perception and why looking too closely can dissolve the world
• Advertising as the new public art, and the blurred lines between art, manipulation, and influence
• Daphne and Duke, the quasi-celebrities at the center of a massive, ambiguous ad campaign
• New York City as a psychological landscape — its light, darkness, and peripheries
• Emotional stuntedness, knowledge as alienation, and the costs of obsessive perception
• The Logos as a portrait of contemporary capitalist culture — the beauty and the rot
• Mark’s new work-in-progress: a sweeping novel about psychiatry, objectivity, homelessness, and agricultural labor in California

Mark also recommends some of the big books currently on his mind, including:

• Hermann Broch — The Sleepwalkers and The Death of Virgil
• Solvej Balle -- On the Calculation of Volume series

This is a rich, layered conversation about what it means to see, what it means to make art, and what it means to capture the truth of a world defined by images.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — The twin crises at the heart of The Logos
00:40 — Introducing Mark de Silva
02:00 — Nine years of research and writing
04:20 — An artist losing faith in the art world
06:15 — Advertising as the new public art
08:10 — Portraiture, obsession, and the essence of a person
10:00 — Seeing too closely and dissolving boundaries
12:00 — Drawing vs. painting: form vs. sensory seduction
15:15 — The sensory trap of consumer culture
17:30 — Ubiquity vs. usefulness in advertising theory
20:00 — Stealth campaigns, non-celebrities, and identity
23:00 — Art or capital? Garrett’s mysterious motives
25:30 — The darkness underneath Daphne and Duke
29:00 — New York City as a living organism
33:00 — Emotional stuntedness and the alienation of knowledge
37:00 — Writing through the eye — the book’s visual intensity
40:45 — Art after capitalism: what still matters?
45:00 — Is commercial art “real art”?
47:20 — Mark’s next novel: psychiatry, mind, and California
51:00 — Big book recommendations
55:00 — Closing reflections

In this final discussion of Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner, Lori is joined once again by Dr. Larry Allums to close out one of the most haunting and inexhaustible novels in American literature.

Together, they trace Faulkner’s labyrinth of narration—Quentin and Shreve’s imaginative reconstruction of the Sutpen story—and explore what it reveals about truth, storytelling, and the South’s enduring obsession with its past. Lori and Larry discuss themes of fatalism, love, terror, and the moral weight of history, examining how characters like Judith and Charles embody both the inescapability of inheritance and moments of grace within it.

They also reflect on Faulkner’s ambivalence toward the South—his simultaneous hatred and love for it—and how that tension gives the novel its tragic depth. From the image of the blackbird referring to Wallace Stevens’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” the conversation concludes by considering what it means, as readers, to seek truth in a story that resists any single interpretation.

A fitting end to The Big Book Project’s journey through Absalom, Absalom!—and a reminder that the most profound books never truly end; they continue to reverberate in the imagination long after the final page.

Chapters:00:00 — Introduction02:00 — The unreliable narrators: Quentin and Shreve15:30 — Judith and Charles: love, fate, and moral choice35:00 — The curse and fatalism of the Sutpen legacy50:00 — Faulkner’s ambivalence toward the South1:02:00 — Wallace Stevens and the search for truth1:04:30 — Closing reflections

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In this episode of The Big Book Project, Lori Feathers and Dr. Larry Allums delve into Chapter 7 of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!—one of the novel’s most intricate and revealing sections.

They trace Thomas Sutpen’s backstory from his rugged Appalachian boyhood to the life-altering moment that shapes his “design.” What begins as a story of social humiliation—being told to “use the back door”—unfolds into a meditation on innocence, ambition, race, and the American faith in self-invention.

Lori and Larry discuss Sutpen’s fatal pursuit of a perfect plan, the symbolism of the front door, and Faulkner’s devastating irony: the man who vowed never again to reject a child as he had been rejected ends by repeating the same cruelty.

Together they explore how Faulkner layers fate and free will, class and color, guilt and innocence—linking Sutpen’s vision to larger American myths of reinvention and control, from The Great Gatsby to The American Adam.

Chapters & Highlights
0:00 — Opening reflections on Chapter 7
4:30 — The twin taboos: race and kinship
10:15 — The front-door incident and the birth of “the design”
20:00 — Innocence, ambition, and moral blindness
30:00 — Haiti, revelation, and the seeds of tragedy
40:00 — Charles Bon’s return and the great irony
50:00 — Wash Jones and the novel’s most brutal reckoning
58:00 — Faulkner and the myth of the self-made man

📚 Subscribe to The Big Book Project for more deep dives into literature’s boldest novels.
🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

In this episode of The Big Book Project, host Lori Feathers and literary scholar Dr. Larry Allums continue their deep exploration of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!—turning to the enigmatic and multi-layered Chapter 6.

This chapter introduces a new voice into Faulkner’s intricate web of narrators: Shreve McCannon, Quentin Compson’s Canadian roommate at Harvard. Lori and Larry discuss how Faulkner weaves Shreve into the novel’s chorus of storytellers and how this outsider’s perspective both contrasts and transforms as he becomes absorbed in the haunting saga of Thomas Sutpen.

Their conversation delves into the chapter’s dizzying narrative structure—its use of italics, parentheses, and shifting points of view—and the profound questions it raises about race, family, innocence, and inherited guilt. They also examine Faulkner’s portrayal of characters like Clytie, Judith, Charles Bon, and Sutpen himself, and how the themes of lineage and identity echo through generations.

As Lori notes, reading Absalom, Absalom! feels like piecing together a vast jigsaw puzzle—frustrating, dazzling, and endlessly rewarding.

Listen to this episode to explore:

• Why Faulkner introduces Shreve in Chapter 6 and what his voice adds
• The evolving narration and blurred lines between storytellers
• The moral and racial complexities surrounding the Sutpen family
• The concept of “innocence” in Faulkner’s modern world
• How memory, myth, and history intertwine in Southern storytelling

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and recap of Absalom, Absalom!
02:15 – Welcoming Dr. Larry Allums back to discuss Chapter 6
04:05 – The arrival of Shreve McCannon: a new narrator enters
07:40 – Faulkner’s use of multiple voices and shifting narration
10:55 – Why Faulkner gives Shreve an outsider’s Canadian perspective
14:20 – Quentin and Shreve’s dynamic: skepticism vs. obsession
18:10 – Revisiting Sutpen’s Hundred after 43 years
21:00 – Deaths, births, and the letter announcing Rosa’s passing
24:45 – Understanding Charles Bon and questions of race
29:30 – Thomas Sutpen’s suspicions and the “design” of his life
34:20 – Innocence, guilt, and the Southern moral code
39:00 – Judith and Clytie’s shared loyalty and quiet defiance
44:30 – The role of New Orleans and the octaroon society
48:15 – Charles Bon Jr.’s identity struggle and racial ambiguity
52:40 – Family lineage, belonging, and Faulkner’s concept of “passing”
56:25 – The haunting of Sutpen’s legacy across generations
59:10 – Faulkner’s use of italics and parentheses in Chapter 6
1:02:30 – The mystery of the cemetery and Judith’s epitaph
1:06:00 – Memory, inheritance, and the Southern sense of place
1:09:10 – Shreve’s humor and levity amid tragedy
1:12:00 – The brilliance of Faulkner’s narrative control
1:14:45 – Closing thoughts and preview of Chapter 7

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Welcome back to The Big Book Project, hosted by Lori Feathers. In Video 2, Lori continues her discussion of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! with returning guest Dr. Larry Allums. Together, they unpack the intense drama of Chapters 4 and 5, where Rosa Coldfield’s narration reveals her humiliation at the hands of Thomas Sutpen — and Faulkner deepens his exploration of race, obsession, and the tragic design at the heart of Sutpen’s Hundred.

In this episode, Lori and Larry discuss:

• Rosa’s fateful journey to Sutpen’s Hundred and the death of Charles Bon
• Judith’s shocking composure and Clytie’s defiance
• The detective-story structure of Faulkner’s storytelling
• Sutpen’s bizarre “courtship” of Rosa and his obsession with producing a male heir
• The moral and emotional unraveling of the Sutpen dynasty
• The chilling ending of Chapter 5 — and what may still be “alive” inside the dark house

If you’re reading Absalom, Absalom! along with us, this video helps illuminate Faulkner’s intricate web of narrators, memory, and myth.

📚 Next episode: We’ll continue the conversation with Chapters 6–7.

🔔 Subscribe to join our Big Book discussions and never miss a new video.

Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome back to The Big Book Project
01:10 – Rosa’s journey and the murder of Charles Bon
11:25 – Judith’s calm and Clytie’s defiance
21:45 – Rosa’s narration and Faulkner’s detective style
31:30 – The “courtship” of Rosa and Sutpen’s obsession
49:00 – Reconstruction and loss of Sutpen’s Hundred
1:04:00 – Rosa’s outrage and the theme of humiliation
1:20:00 – The mysterious presence in the house

Keywords:
William Faulkner, Absalom Absalom analysis, The Big Book Project, Lori Feathers, Larry Allums, Faulkner deep dive, Rosa Coldfield, Thomas Sutpen, Southern Gothic, literary discussion, American classics, book club, big books, modernist fiction, Faulkner interpretation

In this episode of The Big Book Project, Lori Feathers is joined by Dr. Larry Allums to launch our collective read of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! — one of the most complex and unforgettable novels in American literature.

They unpack the biblical and mythological dimensions of the novel, explore its shifting narrators, and discuss how Faulkner used the story of Thomas Sutpen to expose the South’s tangled history of ambition, race, and memory.

Whether you’re a first-time reader or a lifelong admirer of Faulkner, this conversation offers insight and encouragement as we journey together through the first three chapters.

Highlights

• The meaning behind the title Absalom, Absalom!
• Rosa Coldfield’s rage and unreliable narration
• Sutpen’s “Hundred” and his mysterious design
• The “fever and the disease”: Faulkner’s metaphor for the South’s legacy of slavery
• Why Faulkner’s idea of innocence redefines tragedy

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This week on The Big Book Project I’m joined by Nick During, publicist at New York Review Books, for a deep dive into Henrik Pontoppidan’s monumental novel A Fortunate Man translated by Paul Larkin.

Pontoppidan, who won the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature, gives us one of the great portraits of ambition, love, and disillusionment at the turn of the 20th century. His protagonist, Per, dreams of modernizing Denmark through a grand engineering project, but struggles with depression, family estrangement, and a doomed romance with Jakobe, a brilliant woman from a wealthy Jewish family.

Nick and I explore:

• Why Per is both “lucky” and cursed by self-sabotage
• Jakobe’s role as lover, mentor, and tragic figure
• The tension between rural tradition and modern progress in Denmark
• How the novel anticipates modern psychology while rooted in 19th-century realism
• Pontoppidan’s trilogy and why A Fortunate Man deserves a place alongside Tolstoy, Ibsen, and Chekhov

Nick also shares exciting news on upcoming big books from NYRB, including rediscoveries by Gabriele Tergit and Manuel Mujica Laínez.

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Episode Highlights

• Per’s brilliance vs. his depressive self-sabotage
• Love and mentorship in his relationship with Jakobe
• Anti-Semitism and social class in turn-of-the-century Denmark
• The clash of engineering ambition with political compromise
• Pontoppidan’s overlooked place in world literature

A Fortunate Man (NYRB Classics) is available now — highly recommended for anyone ready to spend time inside one of the richest, most complex novels of modern Europe.