The Podcast for Social Research, Episode 3

This is the third episode of our podcast series, “The Podcast for Social Research.” This week we talk a bit about our first class, a bit more about Kamila Shamsie’s essay “The Storytellers of Empire,” and quite a lot about Evgeny Morozov’s essay “The Death of the Cyberflaneur,” Walter Benjamin, the Internet, subjectivity and a heck of a lot in between. As with last time, please see our Notations section after the jump for some references, time stamps and topics. Enjoy!

(You can download here by right-clicking and “save as” or look us up on iTunes)

The Podcast for Social Research, Episode 3

Notations

Part I: 00:00:00 – (Music: “Stillwell Ave.” by El Diablo Robotico)

00:00:27 – Introductions and Discussion of Our First Classes, Cocktail Hours, etc.

‘Scales falling from eyes’ 

00:02:45 – A Short Reflection on Normativity (and Anonymity) 

00:03:45 – On Abortion, Ensoulment, and Empiricism 

00:04:45 – On Our Course Schedule

“Dreams and Hysteria: An Introduction to Freud”
“Bad Mothers”

00:06:55 – On Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Teen Drama

Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter
Henry James
George Eliot.
 Adam Bede
Easy A (2010) dir. Will Gluck
Degrassi Junior High (1987-1989) prod. Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler
Heathers (1988) dir. Michael Lehmann

00:10:30 – On Geography, Literature,Morality, War

Kamila Shamsie. “The Storytellers of Empire”
John Hersey. Hiroshima
John Hersey. A Bell for Adano
Muhammad Zia ul-Haq
Junot Diaz. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Joseph O’Neill. Netherland
John Updike. Terrorist
Johnathan Franzen. The Twenty-Seventh City
Kamila Shamsie. Kartography

00:23:15 – On Consciousness, Identity, Ontology, Representation

Edward Said. Orientalism
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 68, Issue 4 “Who Speaks for Hinduism?” (Ed. Note: Sadly, pay-walled.)
Mary Daly 

00:30:55 – Break! (Music “Better off alone” by Sunny Ali and the Kid)

00:31:45 – Part II: On “The Death of the Cyberflaneur”, Benjamin, the Internet, the Arcades and Subjectivity 

Evgeny Morozov. “The Death of the Cyberflaneur”
Walter Benjamin. The Arcades Project (Trans. Eiland and Mclaughlin, Ed. Tiedemann)
“Apps” and the “Walled-Garden”
Geocities, Angelfire, Usenet, Prodigy, Lykos
L. Ron. Hubbard. Dianetics
Walter Benjamin. Selected Writings

00:38:10 – On Benjamin, The Arcades, The Flaneur

Charles Baudelaire. Les Fleurs du Mal
Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon)
On the origin of the name of the band “The Arcade Fire” [Ed. Note: No relation to the Arcades Project] Karl Marx. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Walter Benjamin. “Theses on the Philosophy of History” (also in different versions and translations in Illuminations andSelected Writings)
Walter Benjamin. One Way Street
Sandwich Board Man

00:48:40 – On the Desirability of the Flaneur, ‘Cyber-wandering’, the Internet

Susan Buck-Morss. “The Flaneur, the Sandwichman, and the Whore: The Politics of Loitering”
Walter Benjamin. “The Storyteller”
Walter Benjamin. The Arcades Project, Convolute E: “Haussmanization, Barricade Fighting” [Ed. Note: I can’t believe I didn’t bring the direct reference up after this was mentioned.]

01:02:45 – Everyone Agrees!

01:02:57 – On the Dark Side of the Internet, Authoritarianism, Resistance

01:05:15 – On Social Media, Individuality, Art, Crowdsourcing, Subscription, Stultification, Stasis, Nostalgia

Patton Oswald. “Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die”
Satantango (1994) dir. Bela Tarr
War Horse (2011) dir. Steven Spielberg 
Jenny Disky. “Short Cuts”
Tim Shafer
Crowdsourcing
Subscription

01:19:05 – On Benjamin, Methodology, Technology

Walter Benjamin. The Origins of German Tragic Drama
Volksgemeinschaft 

01:21:30 – On the Death of the Cyberflaneur, Resistance, Subjectivity

Evgeny Morozov. The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom
Net Neutrality 
Malcolm Gladwell. “Small Change”
Malcolm Gladwell. “Does Egypt Need Twitter?”
“You can’t stop the signal” / “You can’t stop the signal” / “You can’t stop the signal”  [Ed. Note: a bit of creative juxtaposition] Martin Heidegger. The Question Concerning Technology
LOLCats and Cats on the Internet

01:29:10 – On Public Intellectual Discourse, Subjectivity, Time

“The Stone”
Derrida had a cat named “Logos”
“The Sandwichman is the last incarnation of the Flaneur.” Benjamin. The Arcades Project, Convolute M. [Ed. Note: Benjamindoes write this line but it should be read dialectically with the critique of the flaneur. This line is part of the critique of the idea that the flaneur was ever really as he was depicted.] kottke.org  
metafilter
3quarksdaily
Arts and Letters Daily
Andrew Sullivan
Walter Benjamin. “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire”

Technical Details: Recorded on a Samson CO1U into an msi PC running the beta version of the freeware program Audacity 1.3.13 while consuming enjoyable, yet moderate, amounts of Buffalo Trace bourbon, Full Sail Session Lager, Coke Zero, and good old-fashioned New York City tap water.

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