Over a discussion of Zadie Smith's essay "Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction" (New York Review of Books, 2019), Paul and Jay discuss diversity, multiculturalism, inclusion and representation in high school English. The movement to correct real and perceived oversights of inclusion has been disastrous for the reading and teaching of literature. But in her essay, Zadie Smith shines a light in the direction of hope and recovery.

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen illustrates four types of reading: 1. Reading as confirmation bias 2. Reading as performance art 3. Reading as escape 4. Reading as transformation Which sort of reader are you?

Join Paul and Jay for book 12, the half way mark in Homer's Odyssey. The episode looks closely at Odysseus' character in some of the strangest events and spectacles in the book. Jay opens with a poem titled "Scylla and Charybdis" by Megan Fernandez.

Paul and Jay chat multiculturalism-- briefly -- and find they want to spend more time on the topic in upcoming episodes.

Homer takes us into the depths of the underworld and gives a look around. Listen as Paul and Jay explain the landscape and comment on the scenery. Jay opens with two war poems, "The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke and Yusef Kulmenyakaa's "Grenade."

Paul and Jay take on Hamlet's key soliloquy, the "To Be" speech. Hamlet does know "seems", though he says otherwise, which doesn't help us to unfold Hamlet's consciousness -- his mind (Hamlet's only field of battle) as we read. Instead we end up with more questions than answers.

Mary Oliver is the poet this time, Jay reads his favorite of her poems, "University Hospital, Boston."

Every character is running some sort of scam in Hamlet, so it is tough to know exactly who is the real deal. Actors or people? This ambiguity is a nuclear weapon in Shakespeare's hand, making his inquiry into reality a deadly quest.

Paul and Jay walk through book 10 of The Odyssey, highlighting their favorite parts and the parts that mystify them too. Drugs, violence, seduction, death and a perilous jaunt to the underworld: book 10 has it all. Paul opens the episode with a poem that reflects insightfully on Circe herself, Hilda Doolittle's poem "Circe."