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Lessons Learnt from Deep Reading the Great Books (Patreon)

Published:
2021-06-20 10:44:24
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2026-06
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Content

Today I wanted to do something different and talk off-the-cuff about my impressions and takeaways from rereading, teaching, and living the Great Books across 2020 and 2021.

We cover a lot of ground, and this was quite a personally revealing audio for me, touching upon some of the tough times we've weathered. 

We're talking about using imaginative literature as vicarious learning experience, finding meaning in tragedy, and becoming a deep reader. 

There may be some very light spoilers about Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, and Persuasion. 

I don't give away much overtly in the way of plot details, but I may allude to things and the atmosphere of the novels.

We're also talking about Siddharta, Don Quixote, and In Search of Lost Time.

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 waking up halfway into 2021
  • 2:00 imaginative literature as prophetic dreams
  • 2:30 how to give yourself advice
  • 3:00 how I rang in the new year
  • 5:00 the highest degree of pain
  • 7:00 contemplating our smallness
  • 7:30 on becoming a deep reader
  • 10:00 my takeaways from Anna Karenina
  • 15:00 my takeaways from Crime and Punishment
  • 20:00 carrying your cross and Judgement Day
  • 21:30 the difficulty of achieving Aristotle’s virtues
  • 22:00 books as vicarious learning experience
  • 26:00 Persuasion and coming to Austen
  • 27:00 collecting authors like souvenirs
  • 28:40 Hesse’s Siddharta and Eastern philosophy
  • 30:00 constancy of love - Austen vs Plato
  • 30:30 memento mori and the grief of Persuasion
  • 34:00 the sad humour of Don Quixote
  • 35:50 Les Misérables, George Eliot, and secret Dickens
  • 37:00 living in the history books
  • 37:20 reading the Great Books in 2020 and 2021
  • 38:00 how to turn tragedy and suffering into meaning
  • 38:00 trust yourself to weather the storm
  • 38:00 how I persevere through hard times

Thank you for listening, and for reading along.

Let me know what reading the Great Books have meant to you.

Happy reading!

Comments

Nawrast

Thank you very much

Florian Pesantes

Benjamin, how quick your brain is. Like a rollicking trout jumping high above the waterline in a lively rivulet the body twinkling silvery in the sunlight. Or maybe another image fits better.: That of a young barely tamed horse jumping and twisting kept under control by firm pressure of the thighs. Were your sharp intellect not paired with such kindness and love I’d think you were on some recreational helper ;-) Having finished Persuasion, slowly reading on my beautiful Proust, going back to Nietzsche from time to time, some rereading and copying Shakespeare, my time I can spare for the great adventure of reading is quickly used up. So right you are to avoid social media; for me the big time wasting activity was reading actual political information in several newspapers. Habit and addiction almost. Of course my life will be over within some years, over for me, over for the few that know me. The wider world will be completely unimpressed. I’m very happy with that, I’m not aspiring to leave an impression after the footman will have hold my coat for the way out. So it doesn’t matter to anyone what I do with my spare time. But I love to use it with pleasure and in my own pace. So, I can estimate some 5000 hours for reading left. Not enough by far to read all I’d like to. I very much like how you are instilling appetite to the most challenging books instead of giving us sour tasks, to-do lists, musts and shoulds. Right now I am really rejoicing in Proust’s book. This magician has unlocked so many memories that might seem fairly irrelevant to anyone who would hear them reported. They seemed irrelevant to me long time, but they weren’t as I get to know these days. The day I ejected myself of my personal Eden, the day I spoiled the innocence of my preschool childhood by choosing to go with the pack and committing treason on some worthy friends for the sake of fitting in with the majority has so much defined my life ever since in all twist and turns. “We need so much healing” you said. So true! I think this healing is already happening. If I see how I look at my partner these days with tender affection after over twenty years of ups and downs and how he responds I think: healing is happening. And only today I realised the title says “lost time” ( not past time ). What a relief to think one can go at a search of this lost time, and I’m quite an expert in loosing time. So Proust is it, and one or three books to go to simultaneously. I’ll have to decide and choose (or been chosen) a next book. Dorian Gray, maybe, or “A midsummer night’s dream”, Goethe’s Faust II or something from James Baldwin, an American you’d mentioned from time to time en passant. May I ask you for a recommendation what I might like from Baldwin? I much liked the word haphazard you used in this lecture. Had to look it up. I hope you can maintain the strength of your thighs to keep yourself in the saddle for long. Furthermore I hope so much for you to find your new home soon! You deserve it so much.

Len Larsson

Well done Ben. I read a quote recently "Good books make you want to read them again, GREAT books make you want to examine your soul" ... I thought that was a good way of thinking about what we are doing when reading these books. With AK I returned to fiction after many years, and there was an adjustment to be made. It didn't really resonate with me, to be honest, but I don’t think I did it justice, being far too keen on reaching the end. I may come back to it another time. C&P I found very disturbing, and found it confusing. R was the ubermensch who thought others less worthy, and he needed to assert himself to “cross the line”. When I finished I immediately thought of another work “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga. In that book, the main protagonist also commits murder, but the man he murders considers himself the ubermensch. The protagonist strikes a blow against the oppression, and issues a warning - we are the new generation, and we are coming for you ! I I wonder - is R the ubermensch - or is he just asserting his humanity and his right not to be oppressed and accept his “place” in the system, where everyone is born into their level, and has to bear the suffering that follows - Redemption through suffering. If that was indeed the message, I didn’t like it. I suppose this makes it a GREAT book after all. I’m not finished with it, and need to think on it a lot more. I really enjoyed Persuasion. I found it difficult reading at first, the rhythm or construction of the sentences I think. I took your advice, and listened to an audio book at 90% (Juliet Stevenson - superb) while reading the text … it slowed me down, and I found my rhythm. I then realised my habit was to speed read/skim as if it was non fiction. That was a great tip. Great work Ben. And good luck with the house hunting. Stay safe, stay well and remember to take good care of your Self. Len

Bill Freeman

Ben – what a whirlwind. I must comment that even your “unplanned” reflections have the discipline and cohesion of your lectures. There is great truth in that we never learn anything as well as when we teach it. I like your advice about being your own sage; when you got this down, please made a podcast to teach me. I am so loving this book club. Where I am now is a deep dive into short stories (against the daily drumbeat of Proust). These include: “Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov” and “A Sportsman’s Notebook” by Turgenev (both Ben’s recommendations). Also, “The Hemingway Stories,” and a delightful collection, “The World’s Greatest Short Stories, Dover Thrift Editions.” Thanks!

hardcoreliterature
>>62223629

Ah, the recreational helper, for those interested, happens to be two double espressos and a San Pellegrino sparkling water atop a verve for the literature :) Austen, Proust, Nietzsche, Shakespeare - such a powerful procession of great writers. All so different, yet all sharing such time-transcending commonalities. I love the way you detail your reading routines, but I would contest your belief that the wider world would be unimpressed - I think we are all very impressed here, and I certainly know that I am. 5000 reading hours on the clock! Gosh... Every now and then I try to count out the remaining reading hours allotted me and I always come to the same conclusion - "There's not enough time!" Which leads me to slowing down considerably. One cannot read everything, so let's make what we can read count :) Regarding Baldwin, two recommendations for you. Fiction: Giovanni's Room. Gorgeous narrative. Non-fiction: Notes of a Native Son. Bonus: The Paris Review "Art of Fiction" interview with Mr. Baldwin is a nourishing read. Do let me know if you enjoy reading my kindred spirit - beautiful man, tender soul, eloquent through and through.

hardcoreliterature
>>62254332

Thank you, Len! Such a wonderful quote, and as I mentioned to Florian in the comment above - when we find we don't have enough time to read everything, the best we can do is slow down and make what we can read count. Very nice comparison with 'The White Tiger' - I actually picked this one up recently from a little independent bookstore in the Cotswolds, and with your prompt I shall start reading it soon :) I'm so happy to hear you've been enjoying Persuasion. This novel deepens each time I reread it, and allows me to appreciate her other novels like Pride and Prejudice. I also have the Juliet Stevenson audiobook, which has kept me company on the treadmill and across a few long car journeys. You're so right about different reading speeds. I skim non-fiction too, trying to zero in on the pertinent info. Imaginative literature needs to be soaked up and paused over. And thank you for your well wishes! Fingers crossed this weekend will bear good news on that front. Stay safe too, Len :)

hardcoreliterature
>>62291252

Thank you, Bill :) I really appreciate that. I remember back in Oxford, we used to teach our respective materials to one another leading up to finals. My friends were all Biochemistry students, so I learnt a lot about that, and they learnt a lot about Shakespeare. We both relished giving the other side of our brain hemispheres some renewed electrical activity. Great idea for a podcast - I can't recall if I spoke about this at length in the Rilke or Jung shows as they were a while ago now, but if not this would be a tremendous show idea. Just the other day I was asked to put together a show on books for leadership and management - this could very well tie in nicely :) And great reading - soul-soothers all of them!

Bill Freeman
>>62291252

Ben - I really like the study pairing you did at Oxford for finals. This really is brilliant. Thank you for your reply.