Young Heretics

Latest Episodes:

Words Words Words 13: Viking Visibility Week May 17, 2024

Show notes

This week we're going still further back in time, and further north, to read some Middle English from the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight. It's a galloping adventure that's been translated by some of the greats--including J.R.R. Tolkien--and reading the original is a good chance to practice dipping your toe into the more obscure forms of English that make the past feel like another country. Plus: how we appropriated Viking culture.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Tips on pronouncing Middle English:

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cb45/middle-english-basic-pronunciation-and-grammar

https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/mediawiki/media/images_pedia_folgerpedia_mw/1/1f/How_to_pronounce_Middle_English.pdf

Recordings of expert readings:

https://www.arthuriana.com/sggk-rendall

Why Read? iPads, Culture Wars, and the Point of the Canon May 14, 2024

Show notes

So you want to defend the Western canon, huh? Why, exactly? In this episode I take a step back and ask why, outside of politics, we should care about books. Especially in the age of podcasts and digital media, with the publishing industry bleeding profits, it's easy to think of books as obsolete. But that might be exactly why we need them most--to hold ourselves together in a world of digital dissolution.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

We maked this: Lists of recommended works at The New Jerusalem. https://open.substack.com/pub/thenewjerusalem/p/list-16-brightness-visible?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Words, Words, Words 12: English is a Foreign Language May 10, 2024

Show notes

Have you ever thought about how weird it is that our oldest English literature is somehow...in another language? If you want to become a better communicator, understand your own history better, and just generally have an awesome time reading cool stories about knights and stuff, you could do no better than to read the great chivalric tales of the English past. But how to start? Today I'm embarking on a new Friday series that will answer that very question, for busy people who want to read Aurthurian romances and have time to play Prince of Persia.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute (now offering Old English instruction!): https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Doin' It Live: How to Read a Poem for the First Time May 07, 2024

Show notes

If you've never read a great work of literature before...where do you start? This week, in response to a listener request, I'm taking a poem I had never read before and walking through my process of getting to know it with you step by step. Hopefully, this will help give you some tips and pointers for getting acquainted with new authors and new ideas. If nothing else, by the time we're done you'll know which English queen helped make Shakespeare's career possible, what sorts of romantic entanglements can end you up in the Tower of London, and how to telegraph your sad boy vibes without getting your head chopped off.

A review of Graven With Diamonds, by Nicola Shulman: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/graven-with-diamonds-by-nicola-shulman-2286444.html

A podcast with Susan Bridgen, author of Thomas Wyatt: The Heart's Forest: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-just-the-tudors/id1564113869?i=1000554333559

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

I maked this: "The Tale of the Brothers True," at Rejoice Evermore: https://open.substack.com/pub/rejoiceevermore/p/the-frat-bros-of-the-round-table?r=wm1tt&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Words, Words, Words 11: The Translation Cinematic Universe May 03, 2024

Show notes

When it comes to picking a translation, which brands can you trust? Like streaming services and video game consoles, publishers are always competing for eyeballs, which means no one imprint is going to be able to gather all the best authors and translators under one roof. But here are some good rules of thumb to help you understand the lay of the land when it comes to choosing a translation or series of translations, so you always know what you're getting yourself into.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

The Abolition of Sex: IVF, Designer Babies, and Goethe's Faust Apr 30, 2024

Show notes

Before C.S. Lewis, before George Orwell, there was Goethe: in Faust Part II, the magician's servant Wagner concocts a literal test tube baby--a "homunculus" or "little man" made without any sexual intercourse at all. This picture of humanity cut off from its natural origins is frighteningly familiar, and it leads to a final word on science, magic, and the coming age of genetic screenings. Where do we go from here? Only the past can help guide us into the future.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

We maked this: The New Jerusalem, featuring Andrew Klavan's latest essay on antisemitism: https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/p/essay-4-antisemitism-is-the-devils

Words, Words, Words 10: The Holy Ghost Story Apr 26, 2024

Show notes

Why do we say "Holy Spirit" more often than "Holy Ghost"? It's not just because we're scared of things that go bump in the night. This week I'm taking a listener question about why "Spirit" and "Ghost" seem interchangeable in early modern English translations of the Bible, but not so much anymore. It's about how English has changed, how the Biblical languages changed over time, and how we've changed since salvation history began.

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

Nope-ing Out on Humanity Apr 23, 2024

Show notes

"We're not a good species": that's the rallying cry of Les Knight, founder of the Voluntary Extinction Movement. But the idea that humanity was a mistake didn't just spring out of nowhere. It was built up gradually over centuries, as a side-effect of the scientific revolution. Goethe's Faust is a brilliant attempt to recover and sanctify the role of humanity in creating reality. It is more important now than ever.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

I maked this: "China's Three-Body Problem--and Ours," at Law & Liberty: https://lawliberty.org/chinas-three-body-problem-and-ours/

Interview: Jeremy Carl, [Insert Youtube Warning Label Here] Apr 19, 2024

Show notes

Is it OK to be white? Claremont Institute Senior Fellow is out with a provocative new book about anti-white discrimination in America, and what's to be done about it. We got into a really interesting discussion about race, culture, and politics--including questions like whether Western culture is "white" and what racial harmony in 21st-century America can and should look like. Take a listen, and then check out Jeremy's book:

The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism is Tearing America Apart: https://www.amazon.com/Unprotected-Class-Anti-White-Destroying-America/dp/1684514584

Find Jeremy on Substack: https://jeremycarl.substack.com

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com

I maked this: "Civil LARP," a review of Alex Garland's Civil War: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2963967/civil-larp-the-journalists-are-at-it-again/

Say Yes to the Dress: Goethe, Newton, and the Internet's Biggest Fight Ever Apr 16, 2024

Show notes

Blue and black? Or yellow and white? For eons, mankind has grappled with this essential question. Wars have been fought. Families have been torn asunder. Brother has turned against brother and father against son. But now, at last, we can resolve this most important of debates with help from none other than--Ludwig Goethe? Turns out the whole affair brings up all the important issues we need to start moving from Marlowe's Faust to Goethe's, and on the way to pick up a whole new vision for the future of science.

Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/

Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM

Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com

I maked this: "Civil LARP," a review of Alex Garland's Civil War: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2963967/civil-larp-the-journalists-are-at-it-again/

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