In this episode, Kassia and Dylan discuss the Japanese novel Tun-huang written by Yasushi Inoue and translated by Jean Oda Moy. This work of historical fiction imagines how a trove of early Buddhist sutras came to be hidden in caves along the Silk Road for centuries. We talk about the book’s criticism of education, bureaucracy, and materialism, as well as the significance of freedom, preservation, and translation.
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Author Laila Lalami joins us to discuss Tayeb Salih's novel Season of Migration to the North translated from Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies. We talk...
Tolkien enthusiast Alex Cuellar joins us to discuss The Silmarillion. One of us has to test the limits of our edurance for the fantasy...
In this clip, Dylan and Kassia discuss the 1911 Italian silent film adaptation of Dante's Inferno, a text covered on the main show. To...