Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
Chris is joined by Michael Clune, a professor at the Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, and the author of the excellent new novel, Pan. They discuss some of the themes and ideas underlying Pan, as well as Michael’s vision of literary scholarship and its place in the modern university.
Show notes:
- Michael’s new novel, Pan
- Michael’s previous book, A Defense of Judgement
- “We Asked for It,” Michael’s 2024 essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education
- AEI’s recent event, “Literature in Limbo,” for which Michael served as a panelist
Time stamps:
1:12 Pan’s origin and its relation to Michael’s criticism
7:12 The challenges of portraying mental illness in literature
13:51 Ritual and cultural artifacts in the novel
27:33 Technology, shared experience, and the 90s
40:22 Understanding experience through narrative
50:30 The study of literature in higher education
Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.
Produced by Sean Doolan and S. Lillywhite.
Discussion (1)
CONTRIBUTOR
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
As a rule I avoid books in the genre "English Professor Examines his Neuroses" but this one does seem to have its points.
The best word I've heard on occultic thinking comes from Brandon Sanderson:
If you wanna examine Dad Rock for mystic symbolism, well, you'll find something.