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The Castle

Published by Aubrey Hicks on

Featuring Raphael Bostic, Nicole Esparza, and Lisa Schweitzer

In this edition of the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast, we discuss The Castle, by Franz Kafka. Three policy profs discussing the great modernist classic … [William Resh missed our taping due to a scheduling snafu] Can fiction inform policy? How does this novel, in particular, stand the test of time and does it represent governmental bureaucracy as it is today? Will K. ever get to the castle, and why should we care?

Let’s find out.

To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast discussion of The Castle, click the orange arrow in the Soundcloud player above, or you can download it and subscribe through Soundcloud or iTunes!

Next month . . .

We’re going nostalgic with a look at Joan Didion’s The White Album. We’ll talk about water in California, about feminism, about the carpool lane. We’ll take a look through the amazing Joan Didion’s eyes at California, Los Angeles of the late 60s and ask if we’re in a better place now.

Check out the book at join us for the discussion on December 22nd – we wanted to get one more in before our Winter Break!

Visit our Bedrosian Book Club Podcast page for the list of books that we’ve already discussed. You can always listen to the archives through Soundcloud or iTunes!

And please share your comments with us on Twitter or Facebook, we love to hear your suggestions and thoughts.

Links to some of the things we discussed and some additional things related to our conversation:

Chantel Mouffe
Ted Cruz
Federalism
Quote from The Castle which Lisa reads:

“You’re very severe,” Said the chairman, “but multiply your severity by a thousand and it will still be as nothing compared with the severity tht the authorities show toward themselves. Only a total stranger could ask such a question. Are there control agencies: There are only control agencies. Of course they aren’t meant to find errors, in the vulgar sense of that term, since no errors occur, and even if an error does occur, as in your case, who can finally saythat it is an error.”

page 64-65 The Castle

Neoliberalism

And here is an example of the never-ending bureaucracy that lives within our private sector today – the dreaded cancel Comcast customer service call.

This podcast was produced by Jonathan Schwartz and Aubrey Hicks.

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