“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.”

(who amongst us, etc)

This week we're talking Kafka's 1915 novella The Metamorphosis.

Rich swoons over Gregor and is deeply moved by his plight. Cam wonders whether the giant freaky bug might bear some responsibility for events. Benny starts out sorta lukewarm on the whole thing but comes around in the end.

Is this story meant to be a depiction of depression? An autobiographical work about an artist becoming alienated from his philistine family? A Marxist commentary on capitalism? A subconscious Freudian incest thriller?

We fearlessly explore all of these interpretations... and if you can believe it, even more

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) reinterpreting kafka thru the lens of richard dawkins tweets
• (00:01:50) what kinda filthy vermin are we dealing with here??
• (00:06:57) arguing about what Gregor’s initial reaction means
• 00:15:44) part two synopsis: I didn't choose the bug life
• (00:19:17) Cam’s incest theory: who is the real parasite?
• (00:25:15) Metamorphosis as kafka's autobiographical self-therapy
• (00:36:30) Alienation and depression
• (00:44:12) genuinely upset about Gregor’s plight
• (00:50:48) Is kafka meant to be funny?
• (00:54:23) Refreshing subversion of realism
• (01:01:29) closing thoughts

Send us mail: doyouevenlitbro@gmail.com

NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

Ubik - Philip K Dick The Fall - Camus Hamlet - Shakespeare

Wrapping up Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which we all loved.

Nature vs nurture: the monster as proto-incel, to what extent do we feel sympathy for him, should Victor have made him a bride, self-loathing and recrimination, and whether hot people are actually more virtuous than ugly people.

Also: why rousseau was a giant piece of shit, the monster as Byronic hero, importance of pariahs and moral entrepreneurs, pitbull discourse, etc

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) just grave robber problems
• (00:05:20) peephole language learning montage
• (00:09:00) Nature vs nurture debate
• 00:17:00) Cam’s crank theory that hot people are more virtuous
• (00:24:11) Frankenstein as the original incel
• (00:28:40) pitbull digression
• (00:33:31) Ethics of making frank a bride and letting him go
• (00:42:20) The monster as the true Byronic hero
• (00:52:50) Sympathy for the devil
• (00:59:02) Romantic heroes as moral entrepreneurs

Send us mail: doyouevenlitbro@gmail.com

COMING UP

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

Ubik - Philip K Dick

The Fall - Camus

Discussing chapters 1-10 of Mary Shelley's 1818 genre mash-up Frankenstein.

On Mary Shelley's stacked genetics, the 'scenius' with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, questions over authorship including a suspiciously accurate depiction of post-nut clarity.

Forbidden knowledge: are infohazards real, taking accountability for new technology, guilt and the disgust instinct, strong parallels with AGI, arguments for and against creating new species. Can we defend a parochial concern for our own family/friends/species?

Is the monster innately evil? Or a product of his environment?

We love this book. hyped to hear the monster's side of the story in part 2.

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) pop culture Frankenstein and namespace collision
• (00:04:55) synopsis
• (00:07:56) Initial reactions
• 00:11:20) Suspiciously accurate depiction of post-nut clarity
• (00:13:38) Mary Shelley’s elite genetics
• (00:16:54) Forbidden knowledge and infohazards
• (00:26:08) Victor as deadbeat dad
• (00:31:15) AGI comparison: how do we feel about creating a new species?
• (00:38:00) The burden of guilt (the bumblebee incident)
• (00:41:27) Nature vs nurture and rebelling against god
• (00:45:08) Back to the question of AGI and creating new species
• (00:55:35) Parochialism and expanding moral circles
• (01:03:45) Cultural legacy of this book
• (01:08:43) should Zuckerberg and friends try to model consequences of AI?

Send us mail: doyouevenlitbro@gmail.com

COMING UP

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

Ubik - Philip K Dick

The Fall - Camus

Wandering through Samuel Beckett's 1953 absurdist play Waiting for Godot.

Did Beckett actually have an interpretation in mind, or did he deliberately write a maximally vague story that everyone could map their own interests onto?

How well does the humour hold up over time? Where does Beckett rank in the canon of absurdist and existentialist writers? What proportion of reported suicides are actually autoerotic asphyxiation accidents? etc

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) gooning oneself to death
• (00:05:28) synopsis (nothing happens, twice)
• (00:07:32) Initial reactions + arguing about interpretation
• 00:17:16) What are we waiting for?
• (00:22:09) Religious, Freudian, Marxist interpretations
• (00:26:56) tHaT’s sOOO RANdoM!!
• (00:31:00) Beckett’s fame
• (00:35:01) Beckett vs Camus
• (00:38:02) The One True Interpretation

Our final session with W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge (chapters 5-7).

Elliot Templeton as the last relic of a dying age. Was he really happy? We consider his self-worship and clout-chasing Catholicism as a counterpoint to Larry's spirituality. Rest in power queen.

Sophie MacDonald attempts to climb off the wheel of suffering via more prosaic means. Did she get what she wanted? An argument over whether Isabel is a total psycho or only a minor-league bitch.

Larry's spiritual journey as a synthesis of the best parts of the Eastern tradition. Was this whole book just a delivery mechanism for Vedic philosophy? On the transmigration of souls, God as a deadbeat dad, and whether it's bad for society to encourage serenity-maxxing.

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) tattoo discourse
• (00:02:18) The sad (?) saga of Elliott Templeton
• (00:16:31) The sad saga of Sophie MacDonald
• (00:29:25) Is this whole book just a delivery vehicle for vedic philosophy?
• (00:36:18) Larry’s struggle with the problem of evil
• (00:42:11) Oneness and universality of transcendent experience
• (00:47:03) Buddhism as a mind-killing philosophy
• (00:52:22) The boys experience with meditating

Discussing chapters 4 and 5 of W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge.

Larry becomes aloof and reserved. Is he really bringing anything to the table besides his sexy forearms? Has he gone full woo-woo granola cruncher? Why can Kosti only talk about spirituality when he's drunk? Why aren't muses a thing these days?

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) Synopsis
• (00:02:23) What do we think of Larry now?
• (00:13:54) Curing Gray’s headache
• (00:16:50) Christian mysticism as thinly veiled Buddhism
• (00:20:05) What does Kosti’s character represent?
• (00:28:30) Why we can take Larry more seriously than typical hippie
• (00:33:10) This book would hit way harder at age 18 or 20
• (00:41:28) What happened to muses? (these old service sector jobs)

Cracking into the first three chapters of Maugham's 1944 spiritual odyssey.

Why do we love Larry so much? Rich talks about his own years of loafing around. Is Larry's decision to take a step off the beaten path less admirable given his 'trifling' $54,000 inflation-adjusted stipend?

Talking about the spergy drive to collect All the Knowledge, and how to think about which problems to work on. Is the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake a noble activity, or should we actually be building stuff in the world?

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) Synopsis
• (00:02:18) Everyone loves Larry
• (00:06:26) The perils of stepping off the beaten path
• (00:09:30) Larry the trust fund kid
• (00:12:34) Pursuit of knowledge vs building stuff
• (00:20:00) How to choose which problems to work on?
• (00:26:00) Larry as mythic Siddhartha figure
• (00:28:00) Sex as a brief respite from 10 hours of reading
• (00:33:04) Maugham’s style and Herman Hesse comparison
• (00:37:01) Predictions for how Larry’s journey plays out

Starts with light and breezy over-sharing of our masturbatory habits, ends with a downer discussion about how we should re-contextualise Wallace's work thru the lens of the abuse allegations against him.

The main stories we talk about:

Brief Interview #59: Logically coherent masturbation fantasies (00:01:34) is this a universal experience, why are adolescent boys so creepy, the rare 'gooner to godhood' pathway.

Brief Interview #28 (00:10:20) Does feminism create a double bind for modern women, was the sexual revolution a mistake, what's with the neo-trad movement, why everyone should have the freedom to make mistakes and explore their preferences.

On His Deathbed, Holding Your Hand... (00:30:02) a paean to r/childfree? do parents sometimes secretly hate their children, why small kids are sociopaths, was the father an unreliable narrator, 'radical honesty' is a terrible idea, are lies of omission morally permissible, rich's experience of fatherhood.

Church Not Made With Hands (00:52:42) dreamlike disorientation, modernist subjectivism redux, what does the title mean, ego and pride as an obstacle to healing.

The Mary Karr abuse allegations (01:10:38) what are the allegations against DFW, can mental health ever absolve people of responsibility, a framework for separating art from artist, should we reanalyse DFW’s work in light of what we know about his life, to what extent is he telling on himself in this book.

Brief Interview #20 and #46: The Granola Cruncher and the Viktor Frankl guy (01:27:25) are harm and traumatic events 'good' if they lead to more meaningful lives, could you weaponise this argument to justify anything, epic levels of cope never before conceived of.