Manifesto!

Phil Klay is joined by Kathleen Kilcup, author of Between the Light and Me: A Memoir of Beauty and Violence, to discuss Flannery O'Connor's The Church and the Fiction Writer and the 12th century icon The Ladder of Divine Ascent

The Manifesto:
https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/1957/03/30/flannery-oconnor-church-fiction-writer-148496/

The Art:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_of_Divine_Ascent_(icon)#/media/File:The_Ladder_of_Divine_Ascent_Monastery_of_St_Catherine_Sinai_12th_century.jpg

Katie's memoir:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/between-the-light-and-me-kathleen-kilcup/1149674487?ean=9780802885272

Phil is joined by Dan Walden, formerly a professor in the honors college at the University of Tulsa, to discuss Dan's essay "The Left Case for Great Books," alongside Plato's Symposium.

The Manifesto:
Dan Walden "The Left Case for Great Books"
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/the-left-case-for-great-books/

The Art:
Plato's Symposium
https://hackettpublishing.com/symposium

Phil and Jake are joined by the philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin, whose new book To Arrive Where We Started: Belonging in the Modern World, is out today. We discuss Nancy Fraser and bell hooks.

The Manifesto:
Nancy Fraser, "From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump--and Beyond"
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/progressive-neoliberalism-trump-beyond/

The Art:
bell hooks, "Habits of the Heart"
https://www.amazon.com/Belonging-Culture-Place-bell-hooks/dp/041596816X

Ian's new book:
To Arrive Where We Started: Belonging in the Modern World
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300263626/to-arrive-where-we-started/

Jake and Phil are joined by Jenn Frey, a philosopher at the University of Virginia, to discuss Iris Murdoch and Madame Bovary

The Manifesto:
Iris Murdoch - The Sovereignty of Good
https://eganphilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Murdoch-The-Sovereignty-of-Good-Over-Other-Concepts.pdf

The Art:
Flaubert - Madame Bovary

Manifesto! A Podcast is sponsored by Fairfield University

Jake and Phil are joined by Vladislav Davidzon to discuss Kazimir Malevich's The Manifesto of Suprematism and the poetry of Serhiy Zhadan.

The Manifesto:
Malevich, The Manifesto of Suprematism
https://designmanifestos.org/kazimir-malevich-the-manifesto-of-suprematism/

The Art:
Serhiy Zhadan
https://poetrysociety.org/poems/three-poems-by-serhiy-zhadan
https://www.wordsforwar.com/take-only-what-is-most-important

Jake and Phil discuss Jake's new book, THE DISINFORMATION STATE, where he argues that the technological infrastructure we've built to make society safer and more rational has steadily replaced democratic freedoms with systems of digital control.

To buy the book:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250363121/theinformationstate/

Jake and Phil are joined by internet culture reporter Katherine Dee to discuss The Fictosexual Manifesto and "Aye and Gomorrah..." by Samuel Delany

The Manifesto:
The Fictosexual Manifesto
https://vocal.media/humans/fictosexual-manifesto

The Art:
Samuel Delany, "Aye and Gomorrah..."
https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/aye-and-gomorrah/

Phil and Jake are joined by Aaron Gwyn, an author and associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

The Manifesto:
Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1998/1998-h/1998-h.htm

The Art:
McCarthy, Blood Meridian
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/110472/blood-meridian-by-cormac-mccarthy/

Other Links:
Aaron Gwyn's The Cannibal Owl
https://bellepointpress.com/products/the-cannibal-owl

Jake and Phil discuss Philip Roth's 1961 essay "Writing American Fiction" and the Qohelet, also known as the Book of Ecclesiastes

The Manifesto:
Philip Roth, "Writing American Fiction"
https://www.commentary.org/articles/philip-roth/writing-american-fiction/

The Qohelet
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%201&version=KJV

Jake and Phil are joined by Amy Sohn, author of The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, to discuss the 1967 anti-war manifesto A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority and Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem Howl.

The Manifesto:
A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority
https://vietnamwar.lib.umb.edu/warHome/docs/1967CallToResistIllegit.html

The Art:
Allen Ginsberg, Howl
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

Jake and Phil are joined by Roy Scranton, author of Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress, to discuss the Dark Mountain Manifesto by Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine and The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft.

The Manifesto:
The Dark Mountain Manifesto
https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/

The Art:
HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx

Roy Scranton, Impasse
https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/impasse

Jake and Phil discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s Notes from the Moral Wilderness and Camus’ short story The Guest

The Manifesto:
Alasdair MacIntyre, Notes from the Moral Wilderness
https://www.scribd.com/document/123091458/Notes-from-the-Moral-Wilderness-Alasdair-MacIntyre

The Art:
Camus, The Guest
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1957/12/the-guest/642533/

Phil is joined by Morten Hoi Jensen, literary critic and author of the forthcoming "The Master of Contradictions
Thomas Mann and the Making of The Magic Mountain," to discuss Thomas Mann's 1914 "Thoughts in Wartime" and Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

The Manifesto:
Thomas Mann, "Thoughts in Wartime"
https://www.nyrb.com/products/reflections-of-a-nonpolitical-man

The Art: Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
https://www.nps.gov/linc/learn/historyculture/lincoln-second-inaugural.htm

To pre-order Morten's book:
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300233742/the-master-of-contradictions/

Jake and Phil discuss Clement Greenberg's 1939 "Kitsch and the Avant-Garde" alongside Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" and Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"

The Manifesto:
Clement Greenberg, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch"
https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1606923282/slcschoolsorg/wumlyaskvhhzawsvbbzc/Avant-GardeandKitsch.pdf

The Art:
Taylor Swift, "I Knew You Were Trouble"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoKguSdy4Y

Leonard Cohen, "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWZo7UmCbBc

Jake and Phil discuss Teilhard de Chardin's 1946 Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb and Charles Mingus' "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me," off of his 1962 album Oh Yeah.

The Manifesto:
Teilhard de Chardin - "Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb"
https://www.religion-online.org/book-chapter/chapter-8-some-reflections-on-the-spiritual-repercussions-of-the-atom-bomb/

The Art:
Charles Mingus - "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaeVLd4G1Zg

Jake and Phil discuss David Jones 1939 essay on Hitler, courtesy of Thomas Dilworth's "David Jones and Fascism," alongside Gregor von Rezzori's "Troth," from his Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

The Manifesto:
Thomas Dilworth, "David Jones and Fascism"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3831437

The Art:
Gregor von Rezzori, "Troth," from his Memoirs of an Anti-Semite
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/04/26/memoirs-of-an-anti-semite

Phil and Jake discuss Witold Gombrowicz's "Against Poets" and Czeslaw Milosz's "Ars Poetica?"

The Manifesto:

Witold Gombrowicz, "Against Poets"
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300183399-006/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOopUFE9LX61sfmOAYszduQw78uOlvfHGgFOUPvi-0afjm9eQ2nhI

The Art:
Czeslaw Milosz, "Ars Poetica?"
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49455/ars-poetica-56d22b8f31558

Jake and Phil discuss Phil's New York Times essay "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military" and Homer's "Embassy to Achilles"

The Manifesto:
Phil Klay, "Trump, Hegseth, and the Honor of the American Military"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/opinion/trump-hegseth-military-morality.html

The Art:
Homer, "Embassy to Achilles"
https://www.penguinbookshop.com/book/9780140275360

Jake and Phil discuss Thomas Hardy’s The Oxen, TS Eliot’s Journey of the Magi, and The Pogues Fairytale of New York

Thomas Hardy - The Oxen
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53215/the-oxen-56d232503c32d

TS Eliot - Journey of the Magi
https://poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi/

The Pogues - Fairytale of New York
https://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8?si=AWYk4ya5bFPUyFtd

Jake and Phil are joined by Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist and author of the forthcoming Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, to discuss Ross' essay "Is the World Ready for a Religious Comeback" and Christian Wiman's 2008 essay in the American Scholar, "My Bright Abyss"

The Manifesto:
Ross Douthat, "Is the World Ready for a Religious Comeback"
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/opinion/religion-atheism-books.html

The Art:
Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss
https://theamericanscholar.org/my-bright-abyss/

Pre-order Ross' book
https://www.zondervan.com/9780310367604/believe/

Jake and Phil discuss Leon Trotsky's "Communist Policy Toward Art" and Gogol's "The Overcoat"

The Manifesto:
Leon Trotsky - "Communist Policy Toward Art"
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1924/lit_revo/ch07.htm

The Art
Gogol - "The Overcoat"
https://www.fountainheadpress.com/expandingthearc/assets/gogolovercoat.pdf

Phil and Jake discuss Joan Didion's "Politics in the New Normal America" and Robinson Jeffers "Fire on the Hills"

The Manifesto:
Joan Didion, Politics in the New Normal America
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2004/10/21/politics-in-the-new-normal-america/

The Art:
Robinson Jeffers, Fire on the Hills
https://ronnowpoetry.com/contents/jeffers/FireontheHills.html

For more on Jeffers in Czechoslovakia, see The Warm Reception of Robinson Jeffers’s Poetry in Cold War Czechoslovakia, by Petr Kopecky
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/169/edited_volume/chapter/1524695/pdf

Jake and Phil are joined by Nate DiMeo, podcaster and author of the forthcoming The Memory Palace, to discuss the Riot Grrrl Manifesto, Steve Albini's The Problem with Music, and The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years

The Manifestos:

Kathleen Hanna, The Riot Grrrl Manifesto
https://actipedia.org/project/riot-grrrl-manifesto

Steve Albini, The Problem with Music
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music

The Art:
Penelope Spheeris - The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DZu6T8...

Phil and Jake are joined by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman, the authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice, to discuss David Benatar's 1997 paper "Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence," alongside Paul Schrader's 2017 film First Reformed.

The Manifesto:
David Benatar - "Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20009904

The Art:
Paul Schrader - First Reformed
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438/

Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman - What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice
...

Jake and Phil are joined by the poet and critic Alice Gribbin to discuss Ezra Pound's The Serious Artist and Eliot Weinberger's The Life of Tu Fu

The Manifesto:
Ezra Pound, The Serious Artist
https://archive.org/details/literaryessaysof00poun/page/n5/mode/2up

The Art:
Eliot Weinberger, The Life of Tu Fu
https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-life-of-tu-fu/

For more of Alice's writing:
https://www.alicegribbin.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile

Jake and Phil are joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, to discuss Wallace Stegner's 1987 novel Crossing to Safety.

Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and chronicler of post-secular religious movements, Tara Isabella Burton, to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's 1939 essay “On Fairy-Stories” and Christina Rossetti's 1862 poem, "Goblin Market."

The manifesto:
https://ieas-szeged.hu/downtherabbithole/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tolkien-On-Fairy-Stories.pdf

The Art:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market

Tara's new novel, Here In Avalon:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Here-in-Avalon/Tara-Isabella-Burton/9781982170097

Phil and Jake are joined by the Matt Gallagher, author of Daybreak, to discuss George Orwell's "Looking Back on the Spanish War", and Benjamin Busch's photographs from Ukraine, "Nine Dialogues: Conflict in Context"

The Manifesto:
George Orwell, "Looking Back on the Spanish War"
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/looking-back-on-the-spanish-war/

The Art:
Benjamin Busch, "Nine Dialogues: Conflict in Context"
https://www.wlajournal.com/copy-of-busch-gallery

Ben's hair:
https://lthumb.lisimg.com/939/13342939.jpg?width=280&sharpen=true

Jake and Phil are joined by the novelist and essayist Jared Marcel Pollen to discuss Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless” and The Velvet Underground’s second album, White Light/White Heat

The Manifesto:
https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/1979/01/the-power-of-the-powerless.pdf

The Art:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJy0LP8iYPg&list=PLaVHibd49QFIsKywss9Jh0rati5skWEYD

Jared's essay, The Metaphysician-in-Chief, in Liberties
https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/the-metaphysician-in-chief/

Jake and Phil discuss "How Money Culture Hurts the American Family," by Ian Marcus Corbin, and episode seven of the first season of Girls

The Manifesto:
Ian Marcus Corbin, "How Money Culture Hurts the American Family"
https://www.capita.org/money-culture

Girls, Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident
https://www.hbo.com/girls/season-1/7-welcome-to-bushwick-a-k-a-the-crackcident

Jake and Phil are joined live at Fairfield University by the great critic and essayist George Scialabba to discuss Last Men and Women

At a time of war, impending ecological disaster, and partisan rage, our commitments to the modern, liberal order are being questioned like never before. Do we understand ourselves best as individuals or as members of a community? Must we renew our absolute commitment to political freedoms, or accept greater state control to deal with the dangers and allures of new technologies? Should the future be post-liberal, neo-liberal, or some other, perhaps more frightening and...

Jake and Phil discuss Josef Skvorecky's "Red Music," an account of playing jazz under Nazism and Communism, alongside Mal Waldron's "Mal Waldron Plays Erik Satie"

The Manifesto:
Josef Skvorecky, "Red Music"
https://harpers.org/archive/1986/03/red-music/

The Art:
Mal Waldron, "Mal Waldron Plays Erik Satie"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juNNxsUXvQw

Phil talks with poet and translator Philip Metres about the current conflict, the position of a Western observer in regards to what is happening in Gaza, his poem "Remorse for Temperate Speech," as well as his book "Returning to Jaffa."

https://philipmetres.com

Phil asks Jake about the recent conflict in Israel, and they take listener questions.

Phil is joined by Sam Kimbriel, director of the Aspen Institute's Philosophy and Society Initiative, and Jennifer Shyue, a Spanish language literary translator, to discuss her recently published translation of Augusto Higa Oshiro's The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu.

https://archipelagobooks.org/book/the-enlightenment-of-katzuo-nakamatsu/

Jake and Phil are joined by Walter Kirn to discuss Kirn's essay "The Bullshit" alongside Mark Twain's "My First Lie and How I Got Out of It"

The Manifesto:
Walter Kirn, "The Bullshit"
https://walterkirn.substack.com/p/the-bullshit

The Art:
Mark Twain's "My First Lie and How I Got Out of It"
https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/my-first-lie-and-how-i-got-out-of-it

Jake and Phil are joined by Santiago Ramos, a contributing writer to Commonweal Magazine, to discuss Michael Novak's The Secular Saint and the epilogue to Michel Houellebecq's 1998 novel The Elementary Particles.

The Manifesto:
Michael Novak, The Secular Saint
https://www.amazon.com/theology-radical-politics-Michael-Novak/dp/B0006BZ4H2

The Art:
Michel Houellebecq, The Elementary Particles, Epilogue
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/83039/the-elementary-particles-by-michel-houellebecq/

Phil is joined by Becca Rothfeld, BD McClay, and Jon Baskin to discuss Norman Rush's 1991 novel Mating, and whether it offers a roadmap for love in the 21st century.

Becca Rothfeld is the nonfiction book critic at the Washington Post and an editor at the Point.
BD McClay is an essayist and critic who has written for publications like Lapham's Quarterly, The New Yorker, and New York Times Magazine.
Jon Baskin is Deputy Editor at Harper's and a founding editor of The Point.

The Art:
Norman Rush, Mating
https://www.penguinrandomhouse...

Phil is joined by the great novelist, short story writer and essayist Mary Gaitskill to discuss Gaitskill's essay "The Trials of the Young" in the most recent Liberties Journal, alongside the Nirvana songs "Drain You" and "Moist Vagina."

The Manifesto:
Mary Gaitskill, "The Trials of the Young "
https://marygaitskill.substack.com/p/the-despair-of-the-young

The Art:
Nirvana, "Drain You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJUpHxlJUNQ

Nirvana, "Moist Vagina"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRT6sYzVN78

Jake and Phil are joined by Gurwinder Bhogal to discuss Poe's Law and Philip K. Dick's Faith of Our Fathers

The Manifesto: "Poe's Law"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

The Art: Philip K. Dick's "Faith of Our Fathers"
https://genius.com/Philip-k-dick-faith-of-our-fathers-annotated

Also discussed:
Gurwinder Bhogal, "The Best Cure for Fake News is Fake News"
https://rabbitholemag.com/the-best-cure-for-fake-news-is-fake-news/

Ryan Ruby, A Golden Age?
https://www.vinduet.no/essayistikk/a-golden-age-ryan-ruby-on-literary-criticism-and-the-internet/