BONUS | The Novels Every Stoic Should Read
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What are the key Stoic virtues introduced in this episode?
Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. So we were talking other Stoic-themed novels, and you only knew about Man in Full. Yes. There are many more. Okay. One of which I told Oprah about, because she loves your book. So obviously, one of the most famous probably stoic novel is Hamill's A Man in Full, which is very Epictetus-themed. But have you read Walker Percy's The Moviegoer?
Oh, wait, no, but I've been meaning to, and I had no idea that it had a stoic theme.
No, so his character, Aunt Emily, is very stoic. Let me find it, if I can find this. He has this amazing passage.
That's like everybody's favorite book, and I haven't read it yet.
Yeah, no, no, it's incredible. So his uncle introduces him to stoic philosophy. His parents both commit suicide or die in accidents, and he's adopted by his uncle, three boys. And he's this sort of poet in Mississippi, and he introduces him to stoicism. She sends him this note. I wish I could find it. Okay. But anyway, she's very stoic, so that's one. This is the other famous one. You haven't read Memoirs of Hadrian? This is a beautiful novel. This is the one I told Oprah about.
Oh, Shirley Hazard. That's Adora Hazard.
Which Stoic-themed novel is considered a classic in the discussion?
I used the last name from Shirley Hazard. Oh, wow.
It's fictional, but it feels real.
It's one of those things where you... Oh, see, that's why I think I haven't read it, because it's like a docudrama.
But it's Hadrian as if he's writing down his memoirs for the benefit of Marcus Aurelius.
Okay, that's amazing.
Okay, I don't know this book. You'll love it. Okay, great.
What insights are shared about Walker Percy's 'The Moviegoer'?
Amazing. Okay, so we could do... Have you ever read Ambrose Bierce? He has the greatest short story of all time, An Occurrence at Owl Creek. Oh, right.
I know that one.
I know that one. So this is the Ambrose Bierce thing. Ambrose Bierce's father is named Lucius Verus Bierce. okay and his uncle is named marcus aurelius pierce whoa they were committed yeah and so he's very stoked there's a there's this great um there's this great story in here it's one of my favorites uh it's called parker adderson philosopher okay it's this guy he's about you can take this okay is this mine so he's about to be executed um and he's like sort of being very stoic which one
A philosopher?
A Parker-Aderson philosopher. So you're going to be captured, you're going to be put to death. And he's being very stoic about it. He's telling him death doesn't matter. He's not afraid. He's willing to die for his country, blah, blah, blah. And then sort of towards the end, he goes, and of course we'll be hanging you as a spy. And he freaks out and he's like, and it turns out it's all, the message of the story is that it's very easy to pose as the philosopher until it gets real. And then it gets real, until you start poking fun at it. But it's a great story.
It's like you become a Christian in the trenches.
Yes, exactly. John Williams, who wrote Stoner, this is about Augustus. I own this, but I love Stoner. It's not extremely Stoic, but he does talk about Athena Doris, who was the Stoic teacher who's his advisor. So there's a little smidge of Stoicism. Let's see if we have Julius Caesar, just as I mentioned it.
The play?
The play.
I read the play recently, and I don't remember that.
So Portia Cato and Cato are the two Stoic themes in that one.
You know, Julius Caesar, I always thought was like the beginner's play. It's so good, though.
It's incredible.
I read it maybe two years ago after reading it in high school and thinking it was just like a Romeo. I mean, Romeo and Juliet is great also, but they're all great. But I just rediscovered it.
But you kind of skip over, like, oh, wait, there's a female stoic character in Portia Cato. Right. because Brutus gets all the attention because he does the deed, but it's like Brutus is actually wavering, and in real life it's Portia who's like, no, no, no, you've got to do this. So there's this kind of, and she's Cato, the Stoic philosopher's daughter.
Do you ever listen to Philosophize This?
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