Show Notes
In the fourth episode of The Lit Path, Jack Aldane sits down with journalist and author James Bloodworth to discuss George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936).
This novel is less about poverty (Orwell's focus in so many of his later works) than it is about what poverty does to the soul of a man convinced he's better than his circumstances.
Set in the shadow of pre-WW2 Britain, the novel follows Gordon Comstock, a would-be poet who declares war on what he calls "The Money God", the quiet tyranny of respectability, security, and the middle-class values he's convinced are killing art and integrity alike.
Jack and James examine how Orwell uses Comstock's shabby rebellion to expose the anxieties of a generation caught between fading Edwardian propriety and the hard economics of capitalism closing in on every side.
They also delve into what poor old Comstock shares in common with frustrated young men in 2026, and how Comstock’s idealism hides his cowardly ignorance towards and suspicions about women.
About The Lit Path
The Lit Path's mission is to engage with the crisis of masculinity head-on by looking to the transformative power of the novel for wisdom. Each episode will feature a guest — they could be an athlete, a musician, a writer, broadcaster, comedian, entrepreneur or public servant - reflecting on the novel that has resolutely altered their perspective and made them wiser as a result. Whether an episode involves a man telling his story, or someone telling that of someone they know, love or admire, the show will uncover how fiction not self-help manuals, not productivity guides, not scientific explanations of phenomena) can change the depth and texture of a man's inner and outer world.
Against the broader backdrop of men's mental health challenges, The Lit Path addresses two main concerns:
That male literacy, including pleasure in reading, lags significantly behind that of women and girls, and That many male readers demonstrate a marked bias toward non-fiction titles that trade on facts, systems thinking, and broadly rational solutions to life's myriad challenges.
While such books have their value, The Lit Path asks instead: What happens when men turn away from the quantifiable world and towards the psychological, moral, and emotional vistas opened up by great works of fiction?
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More from The Lit Path
What’s the one book that cracks a reader open (and up), and never quite lets them go?
Boys do not generally grow up believing that men are forged under the reading lamp, but that’s how the journey unfolded for Ioan Marc Jones.The reading lamp, and the rugby pitch. His father (his biggest influence) was Welsh, after all.
On this first episode of The Lit Path, TV Writer, Producer and Author John Yorke sits down with the podcast’s host and producer Jack Aldane to explain why Gulliver's Travels redefined the point of reading for him, after he initially rejecting classical literature at a young age.