Sympathy for a Flawed Protagonist

Today we have a return guest: Jordan Castro. Jordan is a writer and the deputy director of the Cluny Project, a think tank of sorts for cultural entrepreneurs. The last time Jordan appeared on Wisdom of Crowds, we discussed his first novel, The Novelist. Now Jordan has a second book, Muscle Man, about a disgruntled middle-aged academic who tries to find an answer to his frustrations in weightlifting and strength training. It is a hilarious satire of our time, a novel that speaks to our political moment without being political per se.

Shadi Hamid and Santiago Ramos ask Jordan about the themes of his book; frustrated masculinity; how to get out of your head; whether weightlifting is a good spiritual practice; and whether novels can be political. Shadi wonders whether Santiago and Jordan are too negative about modern life. Santiago responds that Jordan’s novel is not about modern man as an abstraction, but about contemporary life, as a concrete challenge. Jordan starts a long disquisition about the works of Søren Kierkegaard.

In our bonus section for paid subscribers, you get the full Jordan Castro take on Kierkegaard; the three men talk about love; Jordan explains marriage; is Sabrina Carpenter wise about love? Santiago and Jordan talk about their respective wedding songs; Shadi wants to know why the Muscle Man main character doesn’t have a girlfriend; and more

Full video:

Required Reading and Viewing:

* Jordan Castro, Muscle Man (Amazon).

* Jordan Castro, The Novelist (Amazon).

* Cluny Journal, the Substack of the Cluny Project.

* Our previous episode with Jordan (WoC).

* Santiago’s review of Jordan’s first novel (Commonweal).

* Shadi’s interview with Jordan (Washington Post)

* On Nietzschean ideology, see: Mana Afsari, “Last Boys at the End of History” (The Point).

* The hockey stick graph (Marketplace.org).

* Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (Amazon).

* Søren Kierkegaard, The Present Age (Amazon).

* Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or (Amazon).

* Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (Amazon).

* Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (Amazon).

* Mikhail Bakhtin, “Epic and the Novel.”

* Knut Hamsun, Hunger (Amazon).

* King of Comedy (IMDb).

* Taxi Driver (IMDb).

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