The Unbearable Lightness, The Search for Gravity

A podcast recommendation, an audio excerpt from my Notre Dame lecture, and the launch of the Things Hidden book club Nov. 29

Last week, my friend Artur Rosman at the University of Notre Dame casually told me about this episode of Entitled Opinions by Robert Harrison titled “Lightness and Heaviness in Art.” I listened on my flight back to DC and was enraptured. It is one of the best literary podcasts I have ever heard.

Harrison gives a beautiful monologue inspired by the Italian writer Italo Calvino’s memos on the things that will allow literature to endure into the 21st century, and beyond. These things include lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, multiplicity, and consistency.

I wonder if his commentary applies to more than literature, though. Once more people have listened to the episode, it’s something I’d like to have a conversation about.

Harrison, in his podcast, focuses on Calvino’s first memo, which is on lightness—and then adds his own commentary on the importance of heaviness. Regular readers of this newsletter will see the connection to thick desires.

(Harrison, by the way, also recorded …