Literary Hangover

Latest Episodes:

25 - 'The Pioneers' by James Fenimore Cooper (1823) - Part 1 Jul 27, 2019

Show notes

This is the free Literary Hangover feed. To support the show and access the premium episodes on George Orwell (Orwell|er), become a Patron at Patreon.com/LiteraryHangover

Alex and I discuss the underrated first novel of James Fenimore Cooper's 'Leatherstocking Tales,' ***The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale. ***We discuss James' father 'self- made' landlord father, William, who settled central New York after obtaining massive amounts of land following the flux of the American Revolution. William and James, slaveowners. Coopers lamentable race science fixation and commendable proto-Marxist materialism. Judge Temple as the first Dick Cheney. The American frontier myth. Maple trees as short-term and long-term commodities. No settlements without commodification. Environmentalism as a test of gentility. Maple sugar: the market solution to carribbean sugar slavery.

@Alecks_Guns, @MattLech

@LitHangover

Sources:

Barbara Mann and Alan Taylor, April 23, 2001. Writings of James Fenimore Cooper on C-Span ( https://www.c-span.org/video/?163765-1/writings-james-fenimore-cooper )

Taylor, Alan. 1995. William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic. New York: A.A. Knopf.

The Pioneers read by Gary W. Sherwin ( https://librivox.org/the-pioneers-by-james-fenimore-cooper/ )

24 - 'Utopia For Realists' by Rutger Bregman (2016) Jul 06, 2019

Show notes

This is the free Literary Hangover feed. To support the show and access the premium episodes on George Orwell (Orwell|er), become a Patron at Patreon.com/LiteraryHangover

This week, Chris and I take a look at Rutger Bregman's "Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World." We revisit Bregman's two viral moments: telling Davos the answer is to raie taxes and telling Tucker Carlson he's part of that problem. The need for imagination and AOC. Good UBIs and trash UBIs like Andrew Yang's. "Non-reformist reforms." Nationalism and basic incomes. Bregman's open borders argument. 15-hour work works. Nationalistic rhetoric.ch

References:

Bregman, Rutger, and Elizabeth Manton. 2017. Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World.

Battistoni, Alyssa. "The False Promise of Universal Basic Income." Dissent Magazine. Accessed July 06, 2019. https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/false-promise-universal-basic-income-andy-stern-ruger-bregman.

Chavez, Aida. "Tucker Carlson on Rupert Murdoch in 2010 Radio Segment: "I'm 100 Percent His Bitch"." The Intercept. March 12, 2019. Accessed July 06, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/03/12/tucker-carlson-tapes-rupert-murdoch/.

Davos 2019 - The Cost of Inequality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mG-r_3eRCw

Bernie Sanders Endorsed by "Gordon Gekko"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wAa9DqHZtM

How To: Academy: Rutger Bregman - How to Build a Better World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDelnwNmDQ

23 - 'The Blithedale Romance' by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1852) Jun 22, 2019

Show notes

This is the free Literary Hangover feed. To support the show and access the premium episodes on George Orwell (Orwell|er), become a Patron at Patreon.com/LiteraryHangover

Alex and Matt discuss Nathaniel Hawthorne's third major novel, inspired by his time at the Transcendentalist/Fourierist Brook Farm Commune in West Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1841. A deeper introduction to utopian socialist Charles Fourier, who is mentioned in both this novel and The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne's fear of mesmerism and political reform. Coverdale's incel energy. Hollingsworth's fascist misogyny. Women's work. Marx and Engels dunk on utopian socialists.

Follow: @Alecks_Guns @LitHangover @MattLech

References:

Beauchamp, Gorman (2002). Hawthorne and the Universal Reformers. Utopian Studies. 13 (2):38 - 52.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, and Richard H. Millington. The Blithedale Romance. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011.

Jennings, Chris. Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism. New York: Random House, 2017.

Lawrence, D. H. Studies in Classic American Literature.1923. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP6wDm8WHGk

Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and A. J. P. Taylor. The Communist Manifesto. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.

22 - 'Woman in the Nineteenth Century' by Margaret Fuller (1845) May 25, 2019

Show notes

This is the free Literary Hangover feed. To support the show and access the premium episodes on George Orwell (Orwell|er), become a Patron at Patreon.com/LiteraryHangover

Alex, Grace, and Matt are back to discuss the extraordinary (for structural reasons!) life of Margaret Fuller, a feminist and later socialist who is often mentioned in relation to the Transcendentalists. We talk about her time as a professional conversationalist in Boston, her self-sacrificing editorship of 'The Dial,' the Transcendentalist magazine. The tuopian community Brook Farm. Fuller the columnist/foreign correspondent at Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. Her Orwell-like radicalisation in Europe during the revolutionary 1840s.

@Alecks_Guns, @GraceJackson, @MattLech

@LitHangover

Sources:

Librivox narration by Elizabeth Klett:

https://librivox.org/woman-in-the-nineteenth-century-and-kindred-papers-relating-to-the-sphere-condition-and-duties-of-women-by-margaret-fuller/

Interlock Media, Jorge Alonso Maldonado Performances and Films. Margaret Fuller Documentary.YouTube. July 20, 2017. Accessed May 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQgQHj_CeNo.

Kennedy, J. Gerald. Strange Nation: Literary Nationalism and Cultural Conflict in the Age of Poe. New-York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Marshall, Megan. Margaret Fuller: A New American Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

Matteson, John. The Lives of Margaret Fuller: A Biography. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &, 2013.

Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Knopf, 2003.

21 - 'The Song of Hiawatha' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855) May 11, 2019

Show notes

This is the free Literary Hangover feed. To support the show and get occasional premium content, become a member at patreon.com/LiteraryHangover

Alex and Matt are once again joined by Grace, this time to discuss 'The Song of Hiawatha' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an epic poem published in 1855. We discuss: trochaic tetrameter!, Native American Christ, Longfellow's timidity and desire to speak out on issues like slavery, The New York Times' racism, Edgar Allan Poe's racism, inevitablism, video game bosses, pestilence comes from the wealthy, and why "civic nationalism has always been a lie to apologize for race-based violence.

A+ narration by Peter Yearsley at Librivox

Sources:

Lepore, Jill. How Longfellow Woke the Dead. The American Scholar. March 2, 2011.

McClatchy, JD. “Bookend; Return to Gitche Gumee.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2000.

New York Times. 1855 December 28. "Longfellow's Poem": The Song of Hiawatha, Anonymous review.

Slotkin, Richard. 1973. Regeneration through violence: the mythology of the American frontier, 1600-1860. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press.

Ziskin, Laura, Avi Arad, Alvin Sargent, Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, et al. 2004. Spider-Man 2. Culver City, Calif: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

Charles Calhoun on his book, Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life https://youtu.be/f7QsL_7SEcQ

@LitHangover

@mattlech

@Alecks_Guns

@gracejackson

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