The Burning Archive

When faced with cultural decay and ruined institutions, what is a podcaster to do? In this episode, Jeff Rich turns for hope to the traditions of the Eastern European dissidents of 1960-90 Eastern Europe. Two great Czech dissidents - Vaclav Benda and Vaclav Havel - spoke of the Parallel Polis (Benda), as an alternative culture to build in the face of grey uniformity, and living in truth as the Power of the Powerless (Havel). In these very diverse traditions of samizdat and living authentically - that celebrate everything from Tolkien to the Plastic People of the Universe - the Burning Archive finds hope of a cultural renewal amidst our own time of troubles. Credits: * The wonderful Kimiko Ishizaka and the Open Goldberg project, for the public domain recording of the Aria from J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations https://opengoldbergvariations.org/ * Ezra Pound reading from Canto 81 * the Plastic People of the Universe from Slavná Nemesis * readings from Vaclav Havel, "Six Asides about Culture" and "A Sense of the Transcendent" You can read my essay on Havel - "Six Asides about Vaclav Havel" at the Burning Archive blog (originally posted September 2016). Read more of my writing at www.theburningarchive.com or buy my new book - Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020 in print and e-book editions at major online retailers. Check out me reading poems from the book at The Burning Archive Youtube channel

Cultural decay can breakdown and lead to cultural revolution. Some might celebrate cultural revolution, but in this episode Jeff Rich speaks of his own forebodings while watching the cultural ferment of today that we may be reliving a prequel to the Chinese Cultural Revolution. This episode tells the story of that ferment, chaos and frenzy of cultural destruction and loss. With stories of the Summer Palace in Beijing and the great film, Farewell My Concubine, this episode asks: are the Red Guards coming for us again? Credits: * The wonderful Kimiko Ishizaka and the Open Goldberg project, for the public domain recording of the Aria from J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations https://opengoldbergvariations.org/ * brief audio clip from Chain Kaige (Dir), Farewell my Concubine (1993) * BBC news clips of the Cultural Revolution (1967) * Stephen Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West and the epic story of the Taiping Civil War (2012) * Frank Dikotter, Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962-1976 (2017) Read more of my writing at www.theburningarchive.com or buy my new book - Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020 in print and e-book editions at major online retailers. Check out me reading poems from the book at The Burning Archive Youtube channel

A historian makes the case that the past stays alive and shapes how we live today. He teases themes like imperial rivalry, cultural decline, political breakdown and social fracture. There is talk of personal background, public service constraints and reclaiming a historian's voice. Future shows will start by unpacking great-power shifts and what they mean locally.