Episode · Conversations with Tyler · 2023-10-04
Books mentioned on Ada Palmer on Viking Metaphysics, Contingent Moments, and Censorship
Ada Palmer is a Renaissance historian at the University of Chicago who studies radical free thought and censorship, composes music, consults on anime and manga, and is the author of the acclaimed Terra Ignota sci-fi series, among many other things.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
The Histories (King Henry IV. Part 1 / King Henry IV. Part 2 / King Henry V / King Henry VI. Part 1 / King Henry VI. Part 2 / King Henry VI. Part 3 / King Henry VIII / King John / King Richard II / King Richard III)
Discussed“Remember those very telling lines in Henry IV Part II where young Henry V is advised by his father, "Busy minds with foreign wars achieve peace at home by sending our ambitious noblemen to other places to fight wars."”
Where to get it
-
The prince
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is a foundational political treatise that outlines practical strategies for acquiring and maintaining power.
Discussed“If it's I love these people and I want to meet them and get to know about them, I either want to go to a dinner party at Diderot's house or I want to talk to Machiavelli, you know, late in his life about the importance of his work after he's written The Prince.”
Where to get it
-
Jacques the Fatalist
Discussed“Why is Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist an interesting work? That Lots of reasons. So, Jacques the Fatalist is among other things an exercise in getting you to realize that there is less in the author-reader contract than you think.”
Where to get it
-
Candide
Candide is a classic 1759 satirical novella by François Voltaire that ridicules philosophical optimism and the notion that this is the best of all possible worlds through the absurd misfortunes of its protagonist.
Discussed“This is very much what Voltaire depicts in Candide, which is full of contrived and improbable reunions and encounters that clearly serve to teach us a moral lesson.”
Where to get it
-
Rameau's nephew,
Discussed“Diderot has other work that's about sexuality. He has a lot of discussions sexuality in Rameau's Nephew.”
Where to get it
-
The Nun. by Diderot. Translated from the French. ... of 2; Volume 1
The Nun by Denis Diderot is an 18th-century epistolary novel that chronicles the harrowing experiences of a young woman forced into a convent against her will.
Discussed“He of course famously went to the Bastille for writing The Nun, which is a pornographic lesbian novel about nuns.”
Where to get it
-
L'Encyclopédie
L'Encyclopédie is a monumental 18th-century French reference work edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert that sought to compile and disseminate human knowledge across the arts, sciences, and trades.
Discussed“This is why, for example, Diderot's and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie is approved by the French censors, but banned by the Pope as of volume seven, I think it is, the letter H.”
Where to get it
-
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K.
Discussed“In Ursula Le Guin, if you read the major novels At least in the fiction, there seems to be this suggestion that the only way you can get rid of war is to really narrow or abolish or limit distinctions between men and women. Do you think that's in you know, Left Hand of Darkness or Dispossessed?”
Where to get it
-
The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed by Ursula K.
Discussed“In Ursula Le Guin, if you read the major novels At least in the fiction, there seems to be this suggestion that the only way you can get rid of war is to really narrow or abolish or limit distinctions between men and women. Do you think that's in you know, Left Hand of Darkness or Dispossessed?”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“She's the author of an acclaimed four-volume series of science fiction novels known as Terra Ignota. The first and most famous volume is Too Like the Lightning, but that's really just the beginning of what she's about.”