Robinson Crusoe: Bibliotheca Webinar

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Dr. Michael Sugrue earned his BA at the University of Chicago and PhD at Columbia University.

[username]

The GOAT! Prof. Sugrue. Can't express how grateful I am for the content you've made available for everyone. Ty !

[dilly]

The return of the king. I could listen all day.

[mercster]

I have been listening to your lectures on philosophy and they are a delight. You are a learned, engaging speaker who I am very glad to be able to listen to. Thank you Dr.

[blueeye]

It is both an honor and a privilege to be able to listen to Dr. Sugrue ruminate on virtually anything, let alone a timeless classic like Robinson Crusoe.

I recall learning that you are a father yourself, so it seems appropriate to say happy Father's Day!

[jasoncherry]

I’m grateful for the opportunity to hear from Prof. Sugrue under any pretext. He’s an extremely articulate and intelligent individual who is a well spring of wisdom. He challenges you to see ideas from different perspectives that we may have never considered before. I’ve always been a fan of the adventure texts from the past and it’s interesting to see how he finds the kernels of knowledge and wisdom in these stories and makes you see the text in a completely different light. You can apply the ideas that this story conveys in everyday life because there are so many facets to explore. Thank you Professor for your lecture.

[cheri]

Thank you, Dr.Sugre.
I was fortunate enough to have a had a brother who loved books as I did as much as I did as a small child. Subsequently, he was 10 years older than me. Plus, my papa who had a flourishing library with every book imaginiable to read.
Thankfully, the imagery of this book was discussed thoroughly in our home. I was about 8 years old and was devastated. Unfortunately, I was because I was having problems in school as I would stand up for my black friends who, at that point, had not been allowed to enter our elementary school. These were the early sixties in the south. It was a heartbreaking experience for me.

I did not appreciate Robinson Caruso's novel too much early in my life as I understood much as to what you just pointed out so eloquently. The older I got, the more I appreciated the merits of his work.
Thank you for this discussion. ❤

[dubthedirector]

These recent lectures have been great, can’t wait to hear the next one! Thanks 😊

[thattimestampguy]

2:10 He has dedicated years of thought to this.

3:55
Child: It’s An Adventure Story
Scholar: It Captures The Age of Reason in 1 Novel
Published 1719
An Allegory
A symbolic microcosm of Human History
5:41 The Enlightenment view of World History
Father: Live The Middle Way
Robinson: Go on An Adventure
7:08 Portuguese Ship to Brazil 🇧🇷
Sells his runaway friend to The Boat Captain
Calculation, Diary, Quantity make up his way of life

8:35 Locke’s Natural Obligations

10:32 Hubris, Herbs, Alcohol _Temperance_
13:39 5 Years Carving a Canoe
15:28 Teaches Parrot To Talk 🦜
16:10 Cannibals
Take a life to Save a life?
17:31 Crusoe’s Servant named Friday
18:50 Pirates 🏴‍☠️
Labor Theory of Value
20:06 Returns To London 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Friday Suddenly Dies
No Mourning
Charles Dickens disappointed!! 😢
22:25 Shows how THE WEST understood itself. Age of Reason in a Literary Form. The Novel.

*Question and Answer*
24:18 Animals in Robinson Crusoe
Internal Religious Belief - Job
The Ship - Western Intellectual Tools
27:52 Savagery
Crusoe and Defoe are ok with Slavery
28:57 Plenty of prior generations were brought up on it, they didn’t have the thoughts (current standard thinking) does
31:23 Don’t Stray, Prodigal Son
36:46 Religious Belief is Pre-Rational

38:09 Scientific Revolution
39:21 His name is Friday. Why?
42:45 Parse Yourself
Reader, Your World
Author, Their World
Don’t lose Perspective
45:27 Lacks Emotion

Stories can have beneficial side-effects

[MarthaCalbimonte]

He cries when Rex dies! Thank you for this great presentation.

[michaelthomas]

Great lecture as always. Hope this channel keeps growing

[logosrising]

Great lecture! Looking forward to the course this may :)

[harrison_williams]

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Thomas Pynchon. Any book, especially the more difficult ones.

[TheTheshreyasraj]

It would be great to hear Dr. Sugrue's critique of The picture of dorian gray

[gspurlock]

I have not figured out how to participate in the live meetings. Please let me know how to do so.

[BboyKeny]

I like the Dr. Stone anime. Seems like a similar genre.

[jmwSeattle]

Crusoe experienced two years of miserable slavery, He was concerned about the fate of the slave boy but heartened by the captain who pledged to give the boy his freedom after 10 years. Crusoe recognizes that he was blessed, my word, by two noble, honest captains. Sugrue glosses over the first great chapter’s great advice about the cruel world. Sugrue is not such a deep thinker.

[existentialexplorations]

It really does get beyond tiresome to be constantly hearing the self righteous criticism about traditional literary texts. It unhelpfully distracts from time that could be better spent gleaning out the genuinely literary aspects of the text. It's a loss to everyone involved. If someone is so concerned about slavery and the role of women in society then perhaps they would do better to write their own book about those things rather than try and destroy a valid literary process. The idea of banning books and reading everything through the lense of race and gender is simplistic, shallow and - self righteous. It is also incredibly dangerous.