{"id":4401,"date":"2018-04-08T21:23:09","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T02:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=4401"},"modified":"2018-04-09T06:44:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T11:44:22","slug":"christian-humanist-profiles-podcast-features-updike-scholar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2018\/04\/08\/christian-humanist-profiles-podcast-features-updike-scholar\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Humanist Profiles podcast features Updike scholar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We\u2019re just learning about it now, but the podcast series Christian Humanist Profiles interviewed Michael Farmer<\/strong> last year about his book, Imagination and Idealism in John Updike\u2019s Fiction<\/strong>. <\/em> Nathan P. Gilmour asked the questions for the podcast \u201cChristian Humanist Profiles 115,\u201d which he introduced by talking about the philosophy of religion:<\/p>\n

“Immanuel Kant famously distinguished between things, existing as they are, impervious to our mental probings, and objects, those pieces of our world that only come to us as organized and mediated by senses and understanding and concepts. \u00a0Later on, philosophers who would come to be called existentialists\u2013whether they liked it or not\u2013came to regard the imagination, our mental power of organizing and even shaping our world, as one of the core realities of human existence. \u00a0Michial Farmer, in his recent book\u00a0<\/span>Imagination and Idealism in John Updike\u2019s Fiction<\/a><\/span><\/i>, follows the course of imagination as a weapon, an escape, and sometimes even as a mode of redemption in John Updike\u2019s novels and stories and poems, and today he\u2019s joining us on Christian Humanist Profiles not as interviewer but as author” (<\/span>In “Christian Humanist Profiles 195: The Watchmen”<\/a> Farmer interviewed Gilmour and David Grubbs about Alan Jacobs’ essay by that title).<\/p>\n

Echoing Updike himself, Farmer says that \u201cthe work of art is an act of seeing\u201d that \u201ccreates a new world.\u201d He says that Updike\u2019s writing depicts a world where \u201chumanity wrestles with the material world and ritual longings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmer describes the \u201cmechanized universe\u201d as both attractive and repelling. \u201cUpdike is fascinated by science, and he\u2019s terrified by it,\u201d Farmer says. \u201cHe sees a universe that is meaningless, but he can\u2019t accept that, and something deep within him revolts against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Farmer suggests that Updike\u2019s philosophy aligns, to some degree, with atheist existentialism. \u201cUpdike conceives of faith as an act of the imagination where you\u2019re imprinting meaning on an apparently meaningless universe,\u201d Farmer says. \u201cWhatever meaning you\u2019re going to find in the universe, you\u2019re going to put into the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theory of \u201cparents forming a mythology for their children\u201d also comes up. Farmer wonders whether Updike\u2019s mother served as a \u201cmythological figure\u201d in both life and fiction as she \u201cdominated his early life and central trauma of his childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmer emphasizes the dependence of the mind in forming the fundamental meaning for life. He concludes, \u201cthe only solution to the loss of faith in the modern world is to increase the imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the podcast here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re just learning about it now, but the podcast series Christian Humanist Profiles interviewed Michael Farmer last year about his book, Imagination and Idealism in John Updike\u2019s Fiction. Nathan P. Gilmour asked the questions for the podcast \u201cChristian Humanist Profiles … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcasts","category-interviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4406,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions\/4406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}