68. The Consolation of Philosophy.

The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books

“Now I know,” she said, “that other, more serious cause of your sickness: you have forgotten what you are. So I really understand why you are ill and how to cure you. For because you are wandering, forgetful of your true self, you grieve that you are an exile and stripped of your goods; since indeed you do not know the goal and end of all things, you think that evil and wicked men are fortunate and powerful; since indeed you have forgotten what sort of governance the world is guided by, you think these fluctuations of fortune uncontrolled. All these are quite enough to cause not merely sickness but even death. But I thank the author of all health that you have not yet wholly lost your true nature.”

The Consolation of Philosophy by the sixth-century Roman author Boethius has a little of everything: poetry and prose, autobiography and philosophy; bright and lively writing and… maybe some boring bits, especially in the last two sections. But it was written by a man who found himself thrown in jail and condemned to death; who can blame him for trying to use philosophy—or, a dialogue with the personification of Philosophy herself—to make sense of his life? Chris and Suzanne discuss how this complex poem intersects with a lot of other literary works, and argue about the uneasy marriage of philosophy and poetry.

SHOW NOTES.

Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy. [Bookshop.]

Our episodes on The Symposium, Augustine’s Confessions, The Book of the City of Ladies, Paradiso, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

The Wikipedia page for The Consolation of Philosophy has a nice medieval depiction of Fortune’s wheel.

Rainer Maria Rilke: Archaic Torso of Apollo. (The original German text. See also Mark Doty talking about this poem.)

Next: Isidore of Seville: The Etymologies. [Bookshop.]

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