rla on March 30th, 2011


Dante and the Hypocrites

We are looking at Actors and Hypocrites – the same game, different rules: people playing parts, sometimes asking us to play along, sometimes desperately keeping us from perceiving that this is not their true self. We hear from the usual guests: Kinks, Dylan, RLS, and also old friends like Leonard Cohen and Randy Newman. And a lot of attention on what Dante’s myth can tell us about these false faces people put on. Thoreau comes into it too.

Everybody’s in Show-Biz (Kinks, “Celluloid Heroes”)

Land of Dreams (Randy Newman, “Masterman and Baby J”)

Abbey Road (Beatles, “Carry That Weight”)

Biograph (Dylan, “Positively 4th Street”)

The Future (Leonard Cohen, “Be for Real”)

Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (trans. Robin Kirkpatrick)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror (Penguin Classics)

Walden and Civil Disobedience: (American Library) (Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”)