As I should introduce myself to future listeners, I would say that it is remarkable the extent to which Matt describes an intellectual journey quite similar to how I described my own starting my substack 4 years ago, though I don't believe he read this.
Really looking forward to doing this!
[I feel compelled to add, I was out of practice at writing when I wrote this, and also of course life takes you unexpected directions, I began to write quite different things than I expected, largely very long pieces about the history and current events of various countries.]
Looking forward to your discussions with Matt! The books & short stories on ATW were a haven for those of us tossed about by the sea of outrage engulfing media & pop culture. Can't wait for the Aristophanes excursion. Any chance you will be interested in Ibsen plays? Or Apuleius' The Golden Ass? Let's go...
Welcome! Best of luck. Don't be too concerned about the writing, subjective reactions to books you've actually read will be very welcome, especially in a discussion format. Very best wishes and cheers to your success!
My writing is overall fantastic, I was just not in practice when I wrote this introduction as I hadn't been writing anything in long form regularly for years 😅
This is a recent book review I am very happy with:
I've always meant to read those and still never have! I am not great at reading and following epic poetry, but am always trying to get better at it. I am, at heart, a prose man. Also, I actually know a legit Dante specialist (who I just interviewed for a magazine feature about a largely unrelated matter.)
Would love to see Dante covered. One great thing about The Divine Comedy is that it is always relevant to the goings on.
The political schisms surrounding Dante that serve as the background for much of the work are echoed in politics today. Dante’s exile = cancel culture with no half measures…
I love Herodotus. I also love the fact that Very Serious People were so skeptical of his work for so long only for it to be consistently proven accurate.
The David Grene translation of The History, by Univ. of Chicago Press, is amazingly read-able. By Herodotus's own words, his purpose in writing was: "to preserve from decay the remembrance of what men have done." So whether it's the wonders of the travelog he presents or the current relevance of the battle between the Greeks (Western World) vs. the Persians, you just keep marveling bout how nothing's really changed in lo, these last 2500 years or so. Which, to me, at least, brings a sense of calm and peace.
If Im remembering the person correctly he has a book called "Armada from Athens" I want to read and also translated a section of Diodorus I havent read.
It all sounds very promising, Matt. I loved the short story and book segments of ATW, so I'm delighted to hear you're doing something similar with a new co-host.
BTW, just a suggestion for when Halloween gets here...how about discussing a little bit of H.P. Lovecraft? I just read a collection of his stories, and I really enjoyed them, especially "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."
I read a lot of Lovecraft as a teen. Later I introduced him to my son. We've shared many a nightmare over the years. I preferred Lovecraft over Stephen King for horror genre.
Having overactive imaginations required both of us to take a break!
May we have some lead time re. the book list? I’m old and need time to shuffle to the independent bookstore. Let alone Deep Read an honest to god book.
Yes, this was the only problem with ATW. I’d have to save the episodes before the book part to give me time to read. Would love it if there was a longer heads up.
Us older readers have to look for larger print editions, or settle for an e-reader to increase the size. I'm a reader more than an Audible listener. Maybe I need to change that to keep up?
I find it challenging to get into most stories on Audible. I do consider oral storytelling to be the most authentic form, but I get lost in stories that are too intricate. Some though, when told by a quality voice actor, are great experiences.
Thankfully, I still have a wee bit of juice left in the eyes, after all that I tortured them, hiding under the covers reading with a flashlight as a kid up way past my bedtime. I try to read classics in the Everyman's Library editions when I can find them. Great experience as few make quality books anymore, but they still do.
If I can't find it there, I tend to just get them on my Kindle. And I do crank up the word size pretty high as it is much more relaxing.
I am hearing impaired and am not a great auditory learner in general. To be honest, I would never watch this podcast, preferring to just read the book myself.
A long time ago (1970-ish) public schools tried to replace ignorance with knowledge into children before they could influence society as adults. Now, knowledge is racist or something. It's a sick society.
YES! The bookclub is back!!! And what a great new pick. I will read it in Greek of course. I have attended the play in Greece in the ancient theater of Epidaurus. Can't wait for the conversation.
That's incredible. I wish I was better at learning languages. I am really good at English and bad at learning foreign languages, partly I think because my natural aptitude for English stopped me from developing study skills. According to DuoLingo after a grueling almost three years I am almost a high B2 French speaker, according to them, but that isn't the reality
(I know French well enough to watch French shows with French subtitles and follow everything fine, so that is certainly some level of knowing French, at the very least.)
I am Greek so I had to learn English since I was 6 years old (we have a rarely spoken/learned languange), started French when I was 10. Learned some Spanish after that. All because only ~12 million people speak my language. So it is a curse and a blessing to speak English as native language for sure. Still, it is great that you tried to learn other languages. I am not sure if I would!
I did guess you were Greek from the name, nevertheless I meant to say I wish I knew Greek as a lover of classics but dont think I could learn it well enough for it to be of any use.
Yes, that's true, I meant to say the odds of my getting good enough at Greek to read in Greek or to be able to look at the original of a sketchy translation passage is unlikely. I could, on the other hand, learn plenty about English from the study of Greek.
I think you mean "currently paused" - at least I hope so, Mark!
I started with his short stories and bought the CD of the novel. The more I understood, the more I hated the book, and Camus. The Little Prince is a much mellower read and twas my alternate for years. I still have all three.
Heart of Darkness in French is one of my regular listens, must have been through dozens of time, I get a bit more each time. Can't say enough good about Audible. And for free?
I dont understand why The Little Prince is such a common book for French language learners (and inf act it is translated into other languages and used for the same purpose.) It is too abstract and unpredictable to be particularly useful for that purpose. I am currently reading some TinTin now and again which is good. Part of me wants to hold off on Les Miserables again until I feel competent to read it in French, but I don't think I actually want to deprive myself of Les Miserables for that long (I only first read it 3 years ago and am obsessed, will probably do a third read this year) and I don't think I will ever find joy in struggling through a novel in the original language when there is an English translation I am happy with.
I just don't like learning foreign languages. I intend to vacation to Quebec City which I'm told is the best city in the world for French learners (in terms of having a more classical vocabulary etc as well as a population really determined to speak French instead of speaking English if you're struggling) so we will see if that helps. I also want to go to Dakar.
I don't generally like travelling but must admit that approaching my 40s living in my small home town I am growing somewhat bored.
Almost a shock to see that word "bored". You hear it so little in these days of doomscrolling.
Although I dedicated my life to travel when I vagabonded rough through Great Britain at 18, I'd found that the more I learned about the history of the place, the more fulfilling it was.
You've got a great foundation for that.
I thought I'd be baking travel into my life once I'd married my wife in Bosnia. Unfortunately, she's been bedbound with Long Covid, and so I've learned to appreciate suburbia.
My advice is to travel when you can, if you at all feel the urge, as I wish my wife and I had done more.
I shouldn't describe my life as boring, particularly because my almost 2 year old son is a maniac and keeps things interesting all the time, but nevertheless, I used to be addicted to marijuana and then kind of quit all at once for no clear reason and it turned out it was causing all of the problems in my life I thought it was mediating, so suddenly I can travel and only have normal amounts of anxiety and not disordered amount of anxiety. I learned this when my wife's mom took us to Hawaii to get legally married to her long-time partner. I only had normal person anxiety about leaving at 4AM to get my 3 year old daughter on a long flight, not like, anxiety that anyone else would't have because that is objectively stressful.
Nevertheless, I can travel without it being bad now, though I will always prefer travel writing to actually traveling. I love travel writing. I am an obsessive consumer of travelogues of various kinds.
I may have pushed it harder, if my passions hadn't shifted to Florence (having studied there for a year and fallen in love with the city), Dante and the Italian language -- which I found to contain most of everything I loved about French, with much easier pronunciation. Never could get my nasals right.
I pursued Italian, in part, to have a better foundation for The Divine Comedy. I'm not fluent, but I can get by in slow conversation and have better tools to dig into the original text.
Speaking of Camus and Dante, The Fall is quite a read alongside The Inferno. I still love The Stranger, but I haven't reread it since I was in my 20's, and so I don't know what it would say to me today.
I should give French another crack. At the time, I'd thought I was from the Blairs of Scotland, but since learned I yield from the Bel Aires of France, via French Canada. Had I known that, I might have mustered up a bit more oomph to get over the hump.
And, as a longtime wannabe Italian, I've learned I have a smidgen of Sardigna to at least anchor me closer to my spiritual home. As I love sardines, it makes some sense.
my man, look for the forthcoming issue of The American Conservative, where I have a profile of a woman who moved to Florence to learn to read Dante in his native tongue. That isn't what the story is about, it is just her background, but nevertheless.
Good for you. I've a modest foundation in Latin, and did a bit of Attic Greek. The inflected grammars and cases are sufficiently similar to reduce the challenge significantly. I've Orlando Furioso, La Gerusalemme Liberata, and the Inferno in audible. Wonderful long listens - the first two far more lyrical and melodic than the third. Recognize about 1 word in 20, or so. Like you, I'm sure assume I'm very pleased that Matt and Brad will be resuming the book discussions. Plenty for us all to learn and share.
Thanks, Paul! Last year you introduced me to your work regarding Gericault back when we had that Candide discussion last year, and I'd been meaning to dig more into your work, but you know how there never seems to be enough time to get to all the tabs in your browser... and then the whole damned thing crashes. Will read this! Masaccio was one of my favorites over there.
I love my own language (English) so much that I can’t seem to learn another. I HAVE tried—Spanish, Greek, Latin, German… I was excited when Duolingo appeared, and wowzer—was I going to succeed at last? Nope. Four year streak and I STILL can’t speak Italian.
We're actually hard wired to understand languages. Production is a function of social interaction, so please don't let the challenges of trying produce L2 (second language) without real social exchanges cloud the real progress you've made from 4 years of "failure".
One of strongest and most infuential L2 teachers won't let his students attempt production without a two-year solid base of listening. L2 should be easy and fun, like a doing a jig-saw puzzle with our ears. Pick a story you like in English with a grammar text in a language you kind of understand and enjoy and search out the audio.
Here's David Nunan from 1997. He's right. https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2203-listening-language-learning: "Listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning. All too often, it has been overlooked by its elder sister: speaking. For most people, being able to claim knowledge of a second language means being able to speak and write in that language. Listening and reading are therefore secondary skills -- means to other ends, rather than ends in themselves."
I only know one person in the real world who's satisfied with the results of Duolingo. Lots of others who place listening and reading first (input) arrive at output able to understand what we hear and read. You're not at fault! Jump back in and enjoy the journey. The older we get the bigger the ROI.
I mean, man, I can watch French films with French subtitles and understand what is going on in a way that it doesn't even really tax me to do so, so I have gained "receptive literacy", as my friend who is a Spanish teacher calls it.
I know a ton more French than I would if I hadn't done all this DuoLingo. I have to spend time where everyone actually speaks French to get better at it though, for sure. Perhaps with my fancy new job co-hosting a podcast with Matt Taibbi, I can make that a reality. I don't think anyone would begrudge me doing an episode from a hotel room in Dakar or Papeete
Some people like language courses. Great. But as you note, without the opportunity to speak, which is what lots of unhappy customers want, even satisfied users like you are going to have adopt different speaking and writing strategies. I entered these search terms in Google: "Duolingo will improve your speaking skills!" Three guesses what turned up. Understanding what others are saying and writing is far, far, far more important to me than mouthing off in another language. Once immersed, the basic necessary communication skills come quick.
Not being confident in one's ability to follow a native conversation is by far the biggest impediment to L2 social exchanges.
I taught English presentation skills to L2 learners who read and wrote English fairly well, but couldn't understand sh-t with their ears.
Berlitz runs effective ads featuring business types acing a presentation - and then sh-tting bricks the moment a native English speaker raises his/her hand with "I have a question." Check one out - embarrassment all can appreciate. The Japanese you hear is "Yes!! Nailed it."
My guess is that if didn't have confidence in your listening skills you wouldn't be planning a trip to say - Haiti? Closer, cheaper, and you'd get a very different educational experience. I have family who studied in Senegal. Loved it. Enjoy the ride. Isn't a test or a competition. (Never worked for Berlitz, btw, the rest of the ad is pure buy our products bs. Works!)
tbf I live in Washington, Quebec City is a much closer and easier trip than Haiti, and also based on Canada's new insanely expansive citizenship laws everyone in my house but me are Canadian citizens already.
I want to go to Dakar because I am obsessed with Africa generally and it is the only place in Francophone West Africa you can safely take your family without feeling like an asshole, I keep joking to my wife I want to go to Timbuktu and try to avoid the Jihadists, but I am friends with an amazing journalist in Senegal who has a son the same age as my son and she said we could stay at her house, so, you know, that is a bit different than throwing it into the unknown, and it is also a direct flight from US airports.
(I am something of an Africa specialist- at the very least obsessed with the continent and have written a ton about it- if you want to dive into the most difficult piece I have ever written, feel free, https://www.thewaywardrabbler.com/p/the-uaes-neo-venetian-empire)
Thank god. I've missed the podcast immensely. Can't wait. And about books and literature and the meaning of life... the last podcast I listened to was RFK J (I'm a fan) with some guy about microplastics, and he said that the negative impact of microplastics on fetal growth can be measured in adulthood in terms of "anogenital distance." I didn't know that was a thing, and now I'm permanently scarred and walking around with a ruler thinking everyone's eating Glad Bags. I can't wait to get back to books, like "Train Dreams". I was so innocent when we read that.
Ok. I'm back. This sounds great and I will do my best not to compare it to ATW. I couldn't agree more re: education and the classics. When I entered graduate school at Harvard in 1991, my lesbian advisor suggested I might not really want to take that class in which the professor "only taught dead white males." It was the beginning of that excision of the classics you're describing. I took the class anyway, and he turned out to be my favorite and most engaging professor. I look forward to the conversations.
Gotta love it .. you prove the urban legend … a article on bringing back the book club yields a reply that … third sentence in.. “ when I entered graduate school AT HARVARD…”
How do you know someone went to Harvard? Just wait they will tell you …
Yay! I look forward this weekend to renewing my acquaintance with Aristophanes. And
later with other great authors. And, too, to making the acquaintance of Brad Pearce, though I can't promise not to miss Walter Kirn, who was about my age.
Yes, Matt, if you didn't realize raunchy humor and enlightenment have existed through most of mankind's history, you didn't get as well educated as I did, despite your Ivy League college and my GED+extensive reading from pre-1900.
In my first novel, one character is utterly dissatisfied with his college education, and sets himself to read great works, fiction and non-, to get to a worldview he can live with.
For an interesting exploration of some of what has been happening and still happens when humans are involved, perhaps we can assay Robertson Davies' The Rebel Angels. Filth therapy is touched on, fascinatingly.
Respectfully, check the link at my comment about Twain.
"1601" has to be one of the funniest short stories of all time. Twain's use of the period language makes it mildly challenging at first -- that is, to "read at speed" -- but it's hilarious when recited.
My late father wrote a verse play about Odysseus and Iphigenia. It opens with a long monologue from Menelaus, which is then commented on with, "because no wind is passing, he sits there passing wind."
Your son is fortunate, as Matt's kids are and my sister and I were. Kudos!
Richer than I you cannot be; I had a father who read to me.
My mother made up stories and songs to tell and sing, the former well told, the latter ill sung, alas. She always said if she could have chosen one gift, it would have been to sing beautifully, but it was my father's family who were musical.
In my acting years, I had some Shakespeare classes; the TEACHER asked me to explain the line, from All's Well That Ends Well, "so holy writ in babes hath judgement shown, when judges have been babes." It took me a minute of self-collection not to tell him it could not be put clearer, and Dick-and-Jane it for him. My mother said, when I related the account, the exact words - "I don't see how it could be put any more clearly."
As I should introduce myself to future listeners, I would say that it is remarkable the extent to which Matt describes an intellectual journey quite similar to how I described my own starting my substack 4 years ago, though I don't believe he read this.
Really looking forward to doing this!
[I feel compelled to add, I was out of practice at writing when I wrote this, and also of course life takes you unexpected directions, I began to write quite different things than I expected, largely very long pieces about the history and current events of various countries.]
https://www.thewaywardrabbler.com/p/instead-of-an-introduction
Looking forward to your discussions with Matt! The books & short stories on ATW were a haven for those of us tossed about by the sea of outrage engulfing media & pop culture. Can't wait for the Aristophanes excursion. Any chance you will be interested in Ibsen plays? Or Apuleius' The Golden Ass? Let's go...
I've personally really been wanting to read The Golden Ass, which I have never read before.
I look forward to hearing your voice.
Welcome! Best of luck. Don't be too concerned about the writing, subjective reactions to books you've actually read will be very welcome, especially in a discussion format. Very best wishes and cheers to your success!
My writing is overall fantastic, I was just not in practice when I wrote this introduction as I hadn't been writing anything in long form regularly for years 😅
This is a recent book review I am very happy with:
https://nypost.com/2026/01/27/opinion/american-in-paris-janet-flanner-profiled-prewar-evil-from-hitler-to-a-guillotined-serial-killer/
Thanks for the link. Like I said, I wouldn't worry too much about the writing, and congrats on the new gig. I enjoyed your other piece in the NYP as well, https://nypost.com/2025/08/24/us-news/my-small-town-beer-buddy-vented-about-his-creepy-teaching-assistant-all-semester-it-turned-out-to-be-killer-bryan-kohberger/
I've always meant to read those and still never have! I am not great at reading and following epic poetry, but am always trying to get better at it. I am, at heart, a prose man. Also, I actually know a legit Dante specialist (who I just interviewed for a magazine feature about a largely unrelated matter.)
Would love to see Dante covered. One great thing about The Divine Comedy is that it is always relevant to the goings on.
The political schisms surrounding Dante that serve as the background for much of the work are echoed in politics today. Dante’s exile = cancel culture with no half measures…
Y'all need to be reading Herodotus to put this world in perspective.
Then go to Fadiman's Lifetime Reading Plan.
Cause you only have the one life...and to spend it on petty, silly stuff would be such a waste.
I love Herodotus. I also love the fact that Very Serious People were so skeptical of his work for so long only for it to be consistently proven accurate.
My copy's ready. Let's do it!!
Do you have a recommendation of where to start with Herodotus?
besidces just reading Herodotus? Robert Strassler's Landmark Editions are great, and are like a study Bible of ancient histories.
The David Grene translation of The History, by Univ. of Chicago Press, is amazingly read-able. By Herodotus's own words, his purpose in writing was: "to preserve from decay the remembrance of what men have done." So whether it's the wonders of the travelog he presents or the current relevance of the battle between the Greeks (Western World) vs. the Persians, you just keep marveling bout how nothing's really changed in lo, these last 2500 years or so. Which, to me, at least, brings a sense of calm and peace.
If Im remembering the person correctly he has a book called "Armada from Athens" I want to read and also translated a section of Diodorus I havent read.
Thank you for the recommendation Laura!
It all sounds very promising, Matt. I loved the short story and book segments of ATW, so I'm delighted to hear you're doing something similar with a new co-host.
BTW, just a suggestion for when Halloween gets here...how about discussing a little bit of H.P. Lovecraft? I just read a collection of his stories, and I really enjoyed them, especially "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."
Agree! This is free: Love of Knowledge Is a Kind of Madness
The Necronomicon at the Miskatonic University Library. https://kathleenmccook.substack.com/p/love-of-knowledge-is-a-kind-of-madness
I read a lot of Lovecraft as a teen. Later I introduced him to my son. We've shared many a nightmare over the years. I preferred Lovecraft over Stephen King for horror genre.
Having overactive imaginations required both of us to take a break!
My favorite Lovecraft story. Excellent suggestion.
May we have some lead time re. the book list? I’m old and need time to shuffle to the independent bookstore. Let alone Deep Read an honest to god book.
Welcome to your new co-host, and, welcome back.
Yes, this was the only problem with ATW. I’d have to save the episodes before the book part to give me time to read. Would love it if there was a longer heads up.
Us older readers have to look for larger print editions, or settle for an e-reader to increase the size. I'm a reader more than an Audible listener. Maybe I need to change that to keep up?
Anyway, a list ahead of time is much appreciated.
I find it challenging to get into most stories on Audible. I do consider oral storytelling to be the most authentic form, but I get lost in stories that are too intricate. Some though, when told by a quality voice actor, are great experiences.
Thankfully, I still have a wee bit of juice left in the eyes, after all that I tortured them, hiding under the covers reading with a flashlight as a kid up way past my bedtime. I try to read classics in the Everyman's Library editions when I can find them. Great experience as few make quality books anymore, but they still do.
If I can't find it there, I tend to just get them on my Kindle. And I do crank up the word size pretty high as it is much more relaxing.
I am hearing impaired and am not a great auditory learner in general. To be honest, I would never watch this podcast, preferring to just read the book myself.
A long time ago (1970-ish) public schools tried to replace ignorance with knowledge into children before they could influence society as adults. Now, knowledge is racist or something. It's a sick society.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Still miss Walter. Just saying.
I’m still hoping he puts together a show of his own with a literary segment. Having withdrawals. Happy to have Matt back in the saddle, though.
YES! The bookclub is back!!! And what a great new pick. I will read it in Greek of course. I have attended the play in Greece in the ancient theater of Epidaurus. Can't wait for the conversation.
That's incredible. I wish I was better at learning languages. I am really good at English and bad at learning foreign languages, partly I think because my natural aptitude for English stopped me from developing study skills. According to DuoLingo after a grueling almost three years I am almost a high B2 French speaker, according to them, but that isn't the reality
(I know French well enough to watch French shows with French subtitles and follow everything fine, so that is certainly some level of knowing French, at the very least.)
I am Greek so I had to learn English since I was 6 years old (we have a rarely spoken/learned languange), started French when I was 10. Learned some Spanish after that. All because only ~12 million people speak my language. So it is a curse and a blessing to speak English as native language for sure. Still, it is great that you tried to learn other languages. I am not sure if I would!
I did guess you were Greek from the name, nevertheless I meant to say I wish I knew Greek as a lover of classics but dont think I could learn it well enough for it to be of any use.
It’s still an Indo-European language, so there still is some commonality, in addition to the Greek words and roots deliberately imported to English.
Yes, that's true, I meant to say the odds of my getting good enough at Greek to read in Greek or to be able to look at the original of a sketchy translation passage is unlikely. I could, on the other hand, learn plenty about English from the study of Greek.
I tried to learn French to read L’entranger in the original language…. Flamed out, unfortunately.
I think you mean "currently paused" - at least I hope so, Mark!
I started with his short stories and bought the CD of the novel. The more I understood, the more I hated the book, and Camus. The Little Prince is a much mellower read and twas my alternate for years. I still have all three.
Heart of Darkness in French is one of my regular listens, must have been through dozens of time, I get a bit more each time. Can't say enough good about Audible. And for free?
http://www.litteratureaudio.org/mp3/George_Sand_-_Valentine_01.mp3
We can find the pdf easily.
I dont understand why The Little Prince is such a common book for French language learners (and inf act it is translated into other languages and used for the same purpose.) It is too abstract and unpredictable to be particularly useful for that purpose. I am currently reading some TinTin now and again which is good. Part of me wants to hold off on Les Miserables again until I feel competent to read it in French, but I don't think I actually want to deprive myself of Les Miserables for that long (I only first read it 3 years ago and am obsessed, will probably do a third read this year) and I don't think I will ever find joy in struggling through a novel in the original language when there is an English translation I am happy with.
I just don't like learning foreign languages. I intend to vacation to Quebec City which I'm told is the best city in the world for French learners (in terms of having a more classical vocabulary etc as well as a population really determined to speak French instead of speaking English if you're struggling) so we will see if that helps. I also want to go to Dakar.
I don't generally like travelling but must admit that approaching my 40s living in my small home town I am growing somewhat bored.
Almost a shock to see that word "bored". You hear it so little in these days of doomscrolling.
Although I dedicated my life to travel when I vagabonded rough through Great Britain at 18, I'd found that the more I learned about the history of the place, the more fulfilling it was.
You've got a great foundation for that.
I thought I'd be baking travel into my life once I'd married my wife in Bosnia. Unfortunately, she's been bedbound with Long Covid, and so I've learned to appreciate suburbia.
My advice is to travel when you can, if you at all feel the urge, as I wish my wife and I had done more.
I shouldn't describe my life as boring, particularly because my almost 2 year old son is a maniac and keeps things interesting all the time, but nevertheless, I used to be addicted to marijuana and then kind of quit all at once for no clear reason and it turned out it was causing all of the problems in my life I thought it was mediating, so suddenly I can travel and only have normal amounts of anxiety and not disordered amount of anxiety. I learned this when my wife's mom took us to Hawaii to get legally married to her long-time partner. I only had normal person anxiety about leaving at 4AM to get my 3 year old daughter on a long flight, not like, anxiety that anyone else would't have because that is objectively stressful.
Nevertheless, I can travel without it being bad now, though I will always prefer travel writing to actually traveling. I love travel writing. I am an obsessive consumer of travelogues of various kinds.
I may have pushed it harder, if my passions hadn't shifted to Florence (having studied there for a year and fallen in love with the city), Dante and the Italian language -- which I found to contain most of everything I loved about French, with much easier pronunciation. Never could get my nasals right.
I pursued Italian, in part, to have a better foundation for The Divine Comedy. I'm not fluent, but I can get by in slow conversation and have better tools to dig into the original text.
Speaking of Camus and Dante, The Fall is quite a read alongside The Inferno. I still love The Stranger, but I haven't reread it since I was in my 20's, and so I don't know what it would say to me today.
I should give French another crack. At the time, I'd thought I was from the Blairs of Scotland, but since learned I yield from the Bel Aires of France, via French Canada. Had I known that, I might have mustered up a bit more oomph to get over the hump.
And, as a longtime wannabe Italian, I've learned I have a smidgen of Sardigna to at least anchor me closer to my spiritual home. As I love sardines, it makes some sense.
my man, look for the forthcoming issue of The American Conservative, where I have a profile of a woman who moved to Florence to learn to read Dante in his native tongue. That isn't what the story is about, it is just her background, but nevertheless.
Nevertheless - it's you? Good to know!
Sounds intriguing! I followed you on X, and will look out for it.
Good for you. I've a modest foundation in Latin, and did a bit of Attic Greek. The inflected grammars and cases are sufficiently similar to reduce the challenge significantly. I've Orlando Furioso, La Gerusalemme Liberata, and the Inferno in audible. Wonderful long listens - the first two far more lyrical and melodic than the third. Recognize about 1 word in 20, or so. Like you, I'm sure assume I'm very pleased that Matt and Brad will be resuming the book discussions. Plenty for us all to learn and share.
I share your affection for Italian literature and art. Here's my lastest - https://gericault.substack.com/p/gericault-social-criticism-in-quttrocento
Thanks, Paul! Last year you introduced me to your work regarding Gericault back when we had that Candide discussion last year, and I'd been meaning to dig more into your work, but you know how there never seems to be enough time to get to all the tabs in your browser... and then the whole damned thing crashes. Will read this! Masaccio was one of my favorites over there.
I love my own language (English) so much that I can’t seem to learn another. I HAVE tried—Spanish, Greek, Latin, German… I was excited when Duolingo appeared, and wowzer—was I going to succeed at last? Nope. Four year streak and I STILL can’t speak Italian.
We're actually hard wired to understand languages. Production is a function of social interaction, so please don't let the challenges of trying produce L2 (second language) without real social exchanges cloud the real progress you've made from 4 years of "failure".
One of strongest and most infuential L2 teachers won't let his students attempt production without a two-year solid base of listening. L2 should be easy and fun, like a doing a jig-saw puzzle with our ears. Pick a story you like in English with a grammar text in a language you kind of understand and enjoy and search out the audio.
Here's David Nunan from 1997. He's right. https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2203-listening-language-learning: "Listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning. All too often, it has been overlooked by its elder sister: speaking. For most people, being able to claim knowledge of a second language means being able to speak and write in that language. Listening and reading are therefore secondary skills -- means to other ends, rather than ends in themselves."
I only know one person in the real world who's satisfied with the results of Duolingo. Lots of others who place listening and reading first (input) arrive at output able to understand what we hear and read. You're not at fault! Jump back in and enjoy the journey. The older we get the bigger the ROI.
I mean, man, I can watch French films with French subtitles and understand what is going on in a way that it doesn't even really tax me to do so, so I have gained "receptive literacy", as my friend who is a Spanish teacher calls it.
I know a ton more French than I would if I hadn't done all this DuoLingo. I have to spend time where everyone actually speaks French to get better at it though, for sure. Perhaps with my fancy new job co-hosting a podcast with Matt Taibbi, I can make that a reality. I don't think anyone would begrudge me doing an episode from a hotel room in Dakar or Papeete
Some people like language courses. Great. But as you note, without the opportunity to speak, which is what lots of unhappy customers want, even satisfied users like you are going to have adopt different speaking and writing strategies. I entered these search terms in Google: "Duolingo will improve your speaking skills!" Three guesses what turned up. Understanding what others are saying and writing is far, far, far more important to me than mouthing off in another language. Once immersed, the basic necessary communication skills come quick.
Not being confident in one's ability to follow a native conversation is by far the biggest impediment to L2 social exchanges.
I taught English presentation skills to L2 learners who read and wrote English fairly well, but couldn't understand sh-t with their ears.
Berlitz runs effective ads featuring business types acing a presentation - and then sh-tting bricks the moment a native English speaker raises his/her hand with "I have a question." Check one out - embarrassment all can appreciate. The Japanese you hear is "Yes!! Nailed it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypIrCwiEmFs
My guess is that if didn't have confidence in your listening skills you wouldn't be planning a trip to say - Haiti? Closer, cheaper, and you'd get a very different educational experience. I have family who studied in Senegal. Loved it. Enjoy the ride. Isn't a test or a competition. (Never worked for Berlitz, btw, the rest of the ad is pure buy our products bs. Works!)
tbf I live in Washington, Quebec City is a much closer and easier trip than Haiti, and also based on Canada's new insanely expansive citizenship laws everyone in my house but me are Canadian citizens already.
I want to go to Dakar because I am obsessed with Africa generally and it is the only place in Francophone West Africa you can safely take your family without feeling like an asshole, I keep joking to my wife I want to go to Timbuktu and try to avoid the Jihadists, but I am friends with an amazing journalist in Senegal who has a son the same age as my son and she said we could stay at her house, so, you know, that is a bit different than throwing it into the unknown, and it is also a direct flight from US airports.
(I am something of an Africa specialist- at the very least obsessed with the continent and have written a ton about it- if you want to dive into the most difficult piece I have ever written, feel free, https://www.thewaywardrabbler.com/p/the-uaes-neo-venetian-empire)
Wow, what a great idea! Can't wait to check it out.
*hulk hogan voice* hell yeah brother
Can’t wait! I loved the book club segments with Walter.
Thank god. I've missed the podcast immensely. Can't wait. And about books and literature and the meaning of life... the last podcast I listened to was RFK J (I'm a fan) with some guy about microplastics, and he said that the negative impact of microplastics on fetal growth can be measured in adulthood in terms of "anogenital distance." I didn't know that was a thing, and now I'm permanently scarred and walking around with a ruler thinking everyone's eating Glad Bags. I can't wait to get back to books, like "Train Dreams". I was so innocent when we read that.
Ok. I'm back. This sounds great and I will do my best not to compare it to ATW. I couldn't agree more re: education and the classics. When I entered graduate school at Harvard in 1991, my lesbian advisor suggested I might not really want to take that class in which the professor "only taught dead white males." It was the beginning of that excision of the classics you're describing. I took the class anyway, and he turned out to be my favorite and most engaging professor. I look forward to the conversations.
Gotta love it .. you prove the urban legend … a article on bringing back the book club yields a reply that … third sentence in.. “ when I entered graduate school AT HARVARD…”
How do you know someone went to Harvard? Just wait they will tell you …
🤣. Just kidding.. couldn’t resist.
Yay! I look forward this weekend to renewing my acquaintance with Aristophanes. And
later with other great authors. And, too, to making the acquaintance of Brad Pearce, though I can't promise not to miss Walter Kirn, who was about my age.
Yes, Matt, if you didn't realize raunchy humor and enlightenment have existed through most of mankind's history, you didn't get as well educated as I did, despite your Ivy League college and my GED+extensive reading from pre-1900.
In my first novel, one character is utterly dissatisfied with his college education, and sets himself to read great works, fiction and non-, to get to a worldview he can live with.
For an interesting exploration of some of what has been happening and still happens when humans are involved, perhaps we can assay Robertson Davies' The Rebel Angels. Filth therapy is touched on, fascinatingly.
When I was taught Aristophanes in college the Classics professor said one thing it proves is that fart jokes have always been funny
Cave men were telling those jokes to each other, no doubt…
Respectfully, check the link at my comment about Twain.
"1601" has to be one of the funniest short stories of all time. Twain's use of the period language makes it mildly challenging at first -- that is, to "read at speed" -- but it's hilarious when recited.
My late father wrote a verse play about Odysseus and Iphigenia. It opens with a long monologue from Menelaus, which is then commented on with, "because no wind is passing, he sits there passing wind."
My friend's 12-yo daughter is reading Romeo & Juliet in school. Her comment:
"Dad, it's just a bunch of dick jokes"
O, flesh, flesh, how thou are fishified!
It isn't JUST a bunch of dick jokes, but it certainly HAS lots of dick jokes; Shakespeare is full of them.
For whose dear love I fall and rise?
My dad was reading me Shakespeare when I was not yet born, and read me Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Russian mythology as well.
I was reading The Complete Shakespeare when my son was born and read all of Macbeth to him in the hospital in the first 48 hours of his life lol
Your son is fortunate, as Matt's kids are and my sister and I were. Kudos!
Richer than I you cannot be; I had a father who read to me.
My mother made up stories and songs to tell and sing, the former well told, the latter ill sung, alas. She always said if she could have chosen one gift, it would have been to sing beautifully, but it was my father's family who were musical.
In my acting years, I had some Shakespeare classes; the TEACHER asked me to explain the line, from All's Well That Ends Well, "so holy writ in babes hath judgement shown, when judges have been babes." It took me a minute of self-collection not to tell him it could not be put clearer, and Dick-and-Jane it for him. My mother said, when I related the account, the exact words - "I don't see how it could be put any more clearly."
Sounds fun. I can use fun.