Episode · Conversations with Tyler · 2023-10-04
Tyler Cowen & Ada Palmer: books mentioned on Conversations with Tyler
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.
Ada Palmer discussed Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare, The prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, Candide by Francois Voltaire, Rameau's nephew, by Denis Diderot, The Nun. by Diderot. Translated from the French. ... of 2; Volume 1 by Denis Diderot, and The Poetic Edda by Edward Pettit. Tyler Cowen discussed Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot and others, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Henry IV, Part II
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
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The prince
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is a foundational political treatise that explores how rulers gain, maintain, and wield 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
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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
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Candide
Candide by Francois Voltaire is a classic philosophical novella that satirizes blind optimism and societal absurdities through the endless 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
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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
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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
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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
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The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness 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
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The Poetic Edda
Discussed“And this is one of the big problems with paywalls because all of this is in journals that are behind paywalls or the ridiculous Oxford Annotated Poetic Edda, three volumes, $300 a volume. No wonder nobody has this book.”
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.”