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I had come to C.S. Lewis first by reading "Surprised by Joy" and then his Christian apologetic works. Later I learned about J RR Tolkien from his being in the Inklings and his Lord of the Rings. Charles Williams was the last Inkling I'd learned of. ( I know there were more of them than just Lewis, Tolkien and Williams). I was looking forward to William's work. I think I had read All Hallow's Eve. But it put me off reading anything else of his. He prose just gave me creepy feelings of bring in the presence of evil. Certainly the antisemitic flourishes contributed to that. But there was something else that repelled me that I could not put my finger on. It seemed to me that what Williams presented was not Christianity with some occultism in it, but rather an Occulticised Christianity. The thing to remember about Tolkien is that he gave Lewis the last thing he needed to know in order to convert from Theism to Christianity: the idea that all the pagan pre-Christian myths in many pagan religions came into actual historical reality with the advent of Christ. Tolkien felt he had a sort guardianship over Lewis' soul from that. And Lewis has been on record that one of his biggest temptations was occultism. Lewis had been a complete rationalist once he left Christianity in his youth. And as Robertson Davies is wont to say, a steady diet of rationalism is likely to give you the "rational rickets." So a think like a lust for occultism will be the consequence. So then Charles Williams shows up and Lewis is tempted again. I believe Lewis' "That Hideous Strength" was influenced by Williams. That is my least favorite Lewis book. It has a tincture of the ickiness I got while reading Williams. Tolkien, being a good Catholic, would never in million years have joined a occult society like Williams did. I think Tolkien was very afraid Williams influence on Lewis would become very pernicious.

The Hamlet lecture story is HILARIOUS given Tolkien's constant commentary and foiling of Shakespeare. Definitely using that as ammo for more Tolkien/Shakespeare commentary. Great video!!!

Love it. I think James Marsh's film affected me as much as Lesy's book. Both projects made me rethink the possibilities of what media can be used for, and the world is a more interesting place because of both of them (and now this!)

You had me at your mention of “Musk and Vivek” in the same sentence.

I just recently discovered your videos, and really enjoy them. I've felt some apprehension about going to see the remake of Nosferaru. Props used seem to indicate the Hollywoodization of the beloved Murnau classic, but I've only heard positive praise.

Must you? Must you use that orange felon’s rhetoric? I won’t even watch this even if it has nothing to do with the tangerine antichrist .

Great video, the story and history is clear now and I have a little more appreciation for the short tale after hearing some of your reading of it. I was iffy after my first screening of the new Nosferatu especially going in with lots of mixed RUclipsr reviews rattling in my head. After the second viewing my opinion is that it is an incredible movie, truly an experience. I look forward to the experience a third and possibly fourth time before it leaves theaters. So I would say to watch it a second time before gluing yourself to any conclusive opinion.

I was curious about Williams as the most of obscure of the famous Inklings( or the most famous of the obscure ones). I have read half of "All Hallow's Evr"- I remember mostly a wonderful evocation of, well, ghosts. I have also read his short story "Et In Sempiternum Pereant" which has a version of hell which has stuck with me.

The description of "strange fantasy novels" caught my eye. Also am a librarian and have encountered some misfit books myself.

I was curious about what a Lost Inkling was and how it related to Tolkien and Lewis. Very glad to have watched this video and now have a new author's works to explore. Thanks!

Haven't heard of Williams....i clicked to find out more on another Inkling and maybe my next book to read.

"darkside of zion" cleave a ahava

Definitely familiar with the Inklings-but drawn to more weird, occult subject matter. Intrigued by the connection with the Rosy Cross group. Recovering Catholic here, so less interested in Christian nattering.

3:05 The new Mina would have been cast as the maid in old Hollywood.

Left a like, and subscribed

I still like 'The Vampire.' It very much set the tone for what was to follow and has been anthologised to death over the decades, often for that reason. My favourite 19th century vampire tale though is easily 'Wake Not The Dead!' by Ernst Raupach. A real gem.

I also saw Nosferatu on New Years Eve .I thought it was the 💣💥💥💣💣

Wonderful video Loved it. Greetings from a portuguese oblomovite (sort of)

I saw Nosferatu in the movie theater last week. Everything about it was well done, albeit a little over the top Hollywood level. I like the version in Deutsche by Werner Herzog much better.

This is the first Vampire story in English, but I wonder if there are other published works in other languages, like German or French, that might be earlier. As to the 2024 Nosferatu? I liked it, but I feel parts of it were told rather than shown, specifically in the case of Ellen Hutter. Her being told the final solution by DeFoe's character rather than her discovering it herself takes a bit of her own agency away, I think. Like it's something he almost guilt-saddled her with. The cinematography was good. It had the odd angles and shadows of German Expressionism (could have used more, I think) but there were also parts that reminded me a lot of old Hammer films, specifically the bloody scenes. There were also bits that looked like Coppola's Dracula, but then, that borrowed a lot from the Murnau original, so it's a bit cyclical.

Don't have to be a vampire to admire that neck.

I saw Nosferatu New Year's Eve not as impressive as I thought it was going to be.

Damn. Now I have to look up all the principals, but laudanum as well. Kids in Europe, playing.

3/6

(before I get censored!) The Cure? ANSWER - one or two hours with a Romanian Gypsy girl. (For the benefit of Americans, and Romanian Gypsies, This is a joke)

Great video 😃

Fun fact: This book inspired Static X's album by the same name. From Wiki: When interviewed about the source of the title, Wayne Static explained, "[It's] actually a book title that we stole. It's been out of print for about 20 years. It's a historical book about life in this small town in Wisconsin from 1890 to 1900. And it's about everything that happened, but it focuses on people dying and how they died. And there are pictures of dead people as well as stuff about natural disasters and fires and stuff like that."

I love this. There are so many books and so little time. Instant subscriber and looking forward to more.

Oblomonove is fantastic a modern semi equivalent is the confederacy of dunces both brilliant. In both books both parents were semi responsable for lives lived in both books . PS what was the other book you showed please?

Love the idea of your channel here sir! I love books and interesting stories about them … just terrific! Don’t know why the algorithm would send a Marxist-Leninist like our nascent channel B&G to yours … but very glad it did. Keep it up. I’ll watch them all. I’ll have comments no doubt about all things economic ruling class … but them books can’t be blamed for the people that owned them. Or even wrote them … in the case of William Beckford.

But dude!!! We’re the serfs. We are not Oblomov; 14:50 Oblomov is a member of the aristocratic ruling class of middle 19th century Russia; a lower member of this class for sure. But he is one nevertheless. Russia during Oblomov’s time was not yet industrialized or even significantly capitalist. It was a highly static rigid economically hierarchical society with a social class structure that firmly separated the peasant 95% that did all the work from the rich and powerful. Kind of like today; but without our pantomime of capitalist moderated democracy. Oblomov is a member of the landed aristocracy; the Russian economic ruling class. Most readers of the book today under U.S. lead neoliberal capitalism aren’t members of the economic ruling class at all. We’re the working class serfs … the 95% that own little or nothing; we just live in a ruling class bourgeois culture. We don’t own land or other property; most of us don’t even have enough saved to last two weeks without a job. If we’re alienated like Oblomov it’s because of the nature of the soul destroying capitalist work we do which we toil away at but achieve little or nothing of lasting value from doing. It’s not because of the fact we don’t need to work at all, like Oblomov. He doesn’t need to do anything even to feed himself; his land produces his income and his serfs and servants tend to him. It’s possible to become alienated from existence in this life one can see from Oblomov; but it’s not the same at all as what we today experience as working class people who own nothing, have not savings, and certainly have no serfs or servants. Come on. Get a grip. We are not Oblomov. We can relate to some of his emotions; but we are not privileged like he is by any means. It’s irresponsible to say we are. Unless of course you’re part of the economic ruling class today … people of the top 5% of wealth holders … people whose worth can be measured on the multiples of millions of dollars or more. That is who Oblomov is. Not working people; no matter how alienated we might feel. We’re more like the serfs which we never hear from in Oblomov. Please don’t equate us with him or say Elon Musk has a point about people who want to lay on their couches are lazy. The f****r. There’s tens of thousands of rich Oblomovs to be found … the feckless sons and daughters of rich men lazing about on yachts and in exclusive resort towns around the world sending out the occasional Instagram photos of themselves in expensive clothes you run across … and wonder who they are or what they do. That’s today’s Oblomov. Not a working class person with no girlfriend who hates his job.

It’s a document of the dark side of American capitalism during one of the bleakest periods of US history; the height of the Gilded Age and its negative effects, pre-any kind of economic social safety net, on the working people of US society and the intersection of so-called “mental health” issues, lawlessness, and vicious class conflict that is U.S. capitalism. The Great Depression produced a kind of lawlessness and misery documented by photographers and newspaper reporters too. Our own experiences since 2008 have produced a similar kind of misery and sorrow that we self-document on social media. Thanks for the video about this excellent book! New sub.

7:00 There were even custom headrests that photographers made / purchased that could be firmly clamped to the back of chairs to keep the subjects’ heads very very still to allow for sharp clear focus and exposure of the paying customer’s and his family members’ or associates’ faces while the photographer was focusing on his ground glass under the dark curtain, then swapping out the focusing screen ground glass for the photographic plate holder, removing its dark slide, and then opening the lens shutter for what could be long multi-second exposures. It was an elaborate multi-step process, and from the time the subject sat and “struck” the pose and facial expression desired until the shutter was opened and closed again could be up to a minute. To be sure the subjects’ faces didn’t move out of the depth of field of field once the photographer had focused the lens using the ground glass focusing screen such a head rest device was very helpful indeed! Studio photographers had special chairs where these headrests were permanent components! This was particularly important for kids who were apt to move unbidden from lack of discipline, and for the weak and for old subjects’ heads and allowed a measure of extra comfort and stillness especially for those who really needed it. The photographer couldn’t afford to lose the focus and have to explain to a paying client why one or more faces were out of focus. As cameras became quicker to set up and use and as emulsions and bacame faster and more light sensitive these headrests became less and less important.

Yeah, the best static-x song/album, get up on this Wisconsin death trip, get on it!

Cool video, would have never found thid book if it wasn’t for this

Всем привет! С вами славный друже Обломов!

I remember seeing this book at bookstores in the 70s. It was reprinted a few years ago. Nearly everyone raised in the US has had a pretty sanitized view of life in the country in the past.

I haven't read the novel and I'm unlikely to because my attention span and focus has been decimated by my compulsive use of the internet for novel information. However, Oblimov's point about all this frantic striving and achieving being for the purpose of some day relaxing resonates with me. I'm not sure if the novel refutes this, or his friend does in that conversation, but it seems to me to be a pretty valid point. My life is not entirely unlike Obli's, through a bit of fate and some work (but not too much) I have just enough to get by without doing much. When I think about what I believe about the universe I don't see much point in doing anything I'm not inspired to do from within or forced to do by circumstance. I do have motivation to do some things and I have an internal motivation that makes me want to finish things I start- but sometimes even that doesn't work out. In 50,0000 years how much will anything I do matter to any other living being? In fact my actions now may have effects that ripple out that long, but chaos and the rule of unintended consequences says that I cannot predict what the consequences would be. So in the end, why do anything that doesn't make you happy? I do think maybe he should have told his girlfriend that "we'll try this till you get sick of me and then I will set you free". That seems like a better approach to me.

It's easy to never leave a project unfinished. You can successfully not start one, if you lounge around in pajamas all the time. Two line items that cancel out. If you ignore the other ones, they also won't matter. No problems, therefore no worries.

My love of 19th century Russian literature and the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m dating Oblomov; I now understand why the algorithm brought me here. And I think in our new techno-feudalist state, we will be able to appreciate the concepts of serfdom illustrated in this novel. Thank you for the recommendation!

Oblomov sounds like oubliér the French word for "to forget".

The Midwest always been creepy with its serial killers and all

Makes me wonder if Mr E Musk ever came upon this book. He seems a belief in faeries kind of guy, and would have had (I presume) a rich and extensive education. Regardless, another book to try and find. Thank you, the clear commentary is appreciated

A good find, many thanks. Will stop by again. This tied in nicely with my current reading of Invented Reality (a nice companion piece to Chomsky's Manufactured Consent). The only complaint I have with Oblomov is the position of privilege he was able to utilise to assume his 'position' of rest. His needs all met, he had the time to contemplate and consider. I get the message nevertheless and will find a copy and read it. Again, thank you this, a real post-christmas treat

my serfs respect me just fine

Oblomov sounds depressed to me. Intriguing video, will definitely read this!

great video

Wisconsin has ed gein and Jeffrey Dahmer and god knows who else to show this state is wacky

I first heard about this book from a video put out by Ethel Cain of all people.