Phi Fic: A Fiction Podcast

One of Nietzsche’s favorite novels, Le Rouge et le Noir contains some of the most profound psychological analysis in all of fiction.  The novel tells the story about a young man from a modest background who seeks a glorious career, but ends up in enormous trouble as a result of his love affairs.  The novel is divided into halves, with the first half being about a job where he ended up having affair with his boss’s wife, and the second half being about another job where he has a passionate romance with his boss’s daughter (all hell breaks loose at the end).  The setting is France in 1830 right as the restoration monarchy is losing its grip on power to the rising bourgeoisie, and the writing seethes with pent-up energy.  Fabrice, Nina, Rob, and myself, Daniel, investigate what this novel has to say to us today with a focus on how Stendhal’s ethical beliefs are similar to and yet quite different from Nietzsche’s.  Though written before Nietzsche’s works, in some ways the novel seems to present a sort of deconstr