Jack, a Canadian soldier recuperating in a European hospital during World War I, begins a correspondence with Louisa, the librarian in his hometown whom he has only seen and loved from afar. Their letters turn romantic. But when the war ends and he returns home, Jack never shows his face to Louisa and marries another woman, leaving Louisa to wonder if sheโs been the victim of some diabolical trick. Then Jack becomes the victim of an accident at the local factory. Wes & Erin discuss Alice Munroโs short story โCarried Awayโ and asking how the unforgiving machinery of a factory might mimic the so-called machinery of courtship, and how being carried away, whether by love or by ideas, might prove dangerous.
The post (sub)Text: Losing Your Head in Alice Munroโs โCarried Awayโ first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.In the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, Doc Brown plans to use his Delorean time machine to head 25 years into the future and see, as he puts it, โthe progress of mankind.โ But like the license plate on the Delorean, Doc is out of time. Through his absent-mindednessโand angering some terroristsโDoc has failed to provide a future into which he or his friend Marty McFly can progress. Meanwhile, Martyโs own options and possibilities have been foreclosed by the mistakes of his parents, whose inaction and passivity have failed to secure happy lives for themselves or their children. Out of time and without a viable future, Martyโs only way forward is back. Wes & Erin discuss the 1985 film, โBack to the Future,โ and how securing the provisions for oneโs own future depends on two modes of confrontation: one in the present and one with the past.
The post (sub)Text: Time and Taboo in โBack to the Futureโ (1985) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.In โHoly Sonnet 14,โ John Donne would like his โthree personโd Godโ to break instead of knock, blow instead of breathe, and burn instead of shine. This vision of redemption is about remaking rather than reform. And it seems to be motivated by a sense that reason and the typical rhetoric of faith are not enough to bridge the mortal and the divineโwhatโs needed is Godโs violent intervention. Wes & Erin discuss Donneโs surprising and paradoxical use of war and rape as metaphors for salvation.
The post (sub)Text: The Violence of Redemption in John Donneโs โBatter My Heartโ (Holy Sonnet 14) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.A recusant Catholic turned Protestant, a rake turned priest, a scholar, lawyer, politician, soldier, secretary, sermonizer, and of course, a poetโ John Donneโs biography contains so many scuttled identities and discrete lives, perhaps its no wonder that his great subjects were mortality and death. His Holy Sonnets, likely composed between 1609 and 1610, and published posthumously in 1633, are a collection of 19 poems written after the sea change in Donneโs subject matter from the secular to the sacred. They reflect his anxiety over his conversion to Anglicanism and his eventual decision to enter the priesthood, and meditate on salvation, death, and the wages of sin. Erin & Wes discuss Sonnet 10 in this series, โDeath Be Not Proud,โ an address of Death personified, whose power gradually diminishes beneath the force of Donneโs dazzling poetic rhetoric.
The post (sub)Text: Mortal Pretensions in John Donneโs โDeath Be Not Proudโ (Holy Sonnet 10) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.Roman Polanksiโs 1974 film โChinatownโ seems to have little to do with its titular neighborhood, which is the setting for only one horrible and final scene. Chinatown functions instead to represent the traumatic moment that drives this story just because it is hidden from viewโa place indecipherable even to the hard-boiled private investigator who has seen it all โฆ the place he doesnโt go โฆ the place that bothers him to talk about โฆ the place where inaction and evasion are the only ways to avoid causing harm. Wes & Erin discuss what Chinatown has to do with โChinatown,โ and how the theme connects the seemingly disparate themes of police work, political corruption, water rights, and incest.
The post (sub)Text: Trauma and Repetition in Roman Polanskiโs โChinatownโ (1974) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.