Prompt: Select a work that is profoundly transportive, focusing on the human experience within a distinct, rich cultural setting; a story where the landscape, history, and mythology are as much a character as the people themselves.

This month, I am immersing myself in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). It has been on my shelf for ages and I have been told that it is the ultimate traveller’s notebook of the imagination. Through the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo, García Márquez invites us to experience the history, political trauma, and lush, unexplainable mythology of Colombia. It is a masterclass in Magical Realism, a genre that treats the impossible as a matter-of-fact part of the cultural landscape.

🖋️ Critical Inquiries: Mapping the Human Condition

As you settle into your chosen setting this month, use these four Renaissance-inspired inquiries to unpack the relationship between the traveler (the reader) and the place:

The Mappa Mundi of the Self

Renaissance cartographers created mappa mundi which were maps that depicted not just physical geography, but theological and moral truths. How does the setting of your book act as a map of the protagonist’s soul? Does the environment reflect their internal growth, or does it eventually swallow them whole?

The Exotic vs. The Essential

Travelogues often fell into the trap of exoticising the other. How does your author ground their setting? Do they capture the essentials of daily life; food, the labor, the gossip, the weather, or do they treat the culture as a mere backdrop for the plot?

Mythology as History

Renaissance humanists rediscovered the myths of the ancients to understand their own history. In your text, how is the mythology of the place interwoven with its reality?

The Pilgrimage

In the Renaissance, Pilgrimage was a journey taken for enlightenment. Is your protagonist a tourist, an exile, or a pilgrim? How does their movement through this specific culture change their fundamental map of the world?

Our Live Lectures

A quick reminder that our May Live Lecture/Discussion will be held here on Saturday 13 June at 6pm GMT.

Recordings will be made available to paid subscribers

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Prompt: Choose a literary work that explores a profound ethical dilemma or a deep question of morality and justice—specifically one that refuses to provide easy answers.

This month, I will be reading Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier (1915). It is often called the saddest story ever told, and it is a masterful study of two seemingly perfect couples whose lives are a tapestry of betrayal, adultery, and moral decay, all hidden behind the polished manners of the Edwardian elite. It asks: Can a person be ‘good’ if their life is built on a lie?

Critical Inquiries: The Weight of Choice

As you navigate the ethical landscape of your chosen text, use these four Renaissance-inspired inquiries to probe the morality of the narrative:

1. The Mask of Perfection

In your book, do the characters use social grace or etiquette to hide moral failings? At what point does the ‘mask’ become a vice in itself?

2. The Internal Inquisition

In the 16th century, the Inquisition sought to root out heresy. In a Humanist sense, we perform an internal inquisition. Does your protagonist justify their unethical actions through a private logic?

3. The Secular vs. The Sacred

Humanism shifted the focus from ‘Divine Justice’ to ‘Human Justice.’ In your text, is the moral consequence of the character’s actions delivered by a higher power (fate/God), or is the punishment simply the psychological weight of their own choices? Which is more devastating?

4. The Virtù of the Dilemma

Machiavelli argued that sometimes a leader must do evil to achieve a good end. Does your book present a situation where there is no clean choice? Analyse the ‘lesser of two evils’ dynamic—if every path leads to harm, how does one maintain their humanity?

Our Live Lectures

A quick reminder that our April Live Lecture/Discussion will be held here on Saturday 9 May at 6pm GMT.

Recordings will be made available to paid subscribers

But knowledge, as the ancients knew, is rarely a neutral force. It is a labyrinth. This month, we step into the ‘Dark’ side of our academic pursuit.

Before we dive into the shadows, I have some significant news regarding the architecture of this book club. In the spirit of the Republic of Letters—the Renaissance ideal of a universal, borderless community of scholars—I have decided to open The Humanist Readers to all subscribers.

Knowledge should not be behind a paywall. Moving forward:

• Monthly Discussions go LIVE: I will be hosting live video sessions on Substack.

• The Lecture Format: Each session will feature a deep-dive lecture where I deconstruct the text through the lens of key Renaissance concepts and my own research.

• To my Paid Subscribers: Your support has been my lifeblood (truly, as a PhD student, I don’t make money any other way, haha!). However, since the primary discussion is now open to all, please feel free to cancel your paid tier. I want you here for the ideas, not out of obligation. For those who choose to keep their subscription active to support my writing—thank you. You are the modern ‘Patrons of the Arts that make this scholarly work possible.

🕯️ April Theme: The Scriptorium Secret

Prompt: A book set in a school, university, library, or archive, where knowledge, forbidden books, or a historical document is central to the plot.

This is our Dark Academia month. We are exploring the obsession, the isolation, and the potential lethality of the pursuit of truth.

Some April Reading Options (feel free to chose your own):

1. The Contemporary Choice: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. (A Shakespearean tragedy set within an elite conservatory). This is what I will be reading

2. The Scholarly Mystery: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. (A brilliant, dense murder mystery set in a 14th-century monastic library).

3. The Foundational Text: Hamlet by William Shakespeare. (The original wrestle with ghosts, grief, and the weight of education).

🖋️ Critical Inquiries: Shadows in the Archive

As you wander through the cloisters of your chosen text, keep these three Renaissance-inspired questions in your commonplace book:

1. The Idolatry of the Book

In the Renaissance, scholars like Petrarch almost worshipped ancient manuscripts. In your text, is the book (or the document) treated as a holy object or a dangerous idol? Does the character’s love for the text begin to replace their love for people?

2. The Studiolo as a Fortress

Renaissance princes had “Studiolos”—private, highly decorated rooms for solitary study. Is the academic setting in your book a place of protection or a place of entrapment? Does the ‘ivory tower’ provide clarity, or does it distort the character’s moral compass by isolating them?

3. The Scholar’s Hubris (Libido Sciendi)

The 'Lust for Knowledge’ (Libido Sciendi) was often warned against by theologians. When does the pursuit of knowledge cross the line from academic curiosity to a Faustian bargain?

📖 The Bookshelf Challenge

I challenge you to find the darkest corner of your library. Which book on your shelf feels like it holds a secret? Which one have you been afraid to start because of its reputation for complexity or intensity? Pull it down…

I’ll see you all in the Live Substack session for our April Lecture!

During our Humanist Readers study, we often look at how the Renaissance championed the recovery of classical logic. Thinkers like Erasmus and Thomas More used the Syllogism, a formal argument consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion, to reach the truth.

However, in Catch-22, Joseph Heller performs a brilliant, postmodern subversion. He takes the very tools of Renaissance scholarship (logic, rhetoric, and structured debate) and turns them into a weapon of unreliability. The narrator isn’t just lying to us; the narrator is trapped in a world where logic itself is broken.

1. The Corrupted Syllogism

In a standard Renaissance syllogism, if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true. For example:

Major Premise: All men are mortal.

Minor Premise: Socrates is a man.

Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

Heller creates the Catch-22 as a corrupted version of this scholarly tool. It looks like logic, it sounds like logic, but it leads to a dead end—what philosophers call an Aporia.

Consider the ‘Catch’ itself:

Premise A: You are crazy if you keep flying combat missions.

Premise B: You must ask to be grounded for being crazy.

The ‘Catch’: The act of asking to be grounded proves you are sane (because a sane person would want to stop), therefore you cannot be grounded.

By using the structure of a formal academic argument to justify an insane conclusion, Heller makes the entire narrative environment unreliable. We cannot trust the rules of the world, so we cannot trust the narrator’s reporting of them.

2. Erasmus and the ‘Praise of Folly’

Heller’s use of absurdity finds its grandfather in the Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus. In his 1511 work, Moriae Encomium (The Praise of Folly), Erasmus used a ‘Folly’ narrator to critique the corruption of the Church and State.

Like Heller, Erasmus realised that in a world that has gone mad, the only reliable person is the one who admits to the madness. When Yossarian acts ‘insane’ by trying to survive, he is actually the most rational person in the book. This is a classic Renaissance Paradox: the Fool is the Sage, and the Generals (the ‘Sages’) are the Fools. This is evident throughout the novel, as those in charge are often giving orders that are illogical and circular.

3. Circular Reasoning as Narrative Structure

Heller uses Circular Reasoning to create a dark, distorted version of this symmetry.

Events in Catch-22 do not happen in a straight line; they loop back on themselves. A character dies, then appears alive two chapters later, then is mentioned as dead again. This non-linear ‘rebirth’ and ‘re-death creates a sense of temporal unreliability. As readers, we lose that vantage point of truth. We are no longer observing a story from the outside; we are trapped inside the circular logic of the text.

4. The ‘Scholastic’ Bureaucracy

In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ‘Scholasticism’ often involved endless debates over minute details (for example, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?). Heller transposes this into military bureaucracy.

The colonels and majors in the novel are obsessed with forms, signatures, and technicalities over the reality of human life. This is the ultimate unreliable act: prioritising the text (the paperwork) over the fact (the soldier’s life). For Heller, the most dangerous narrator is the one who believes the bureaucracy is more real than the blood. This is starkly evident towards the end of the book when the ‘logic’ leaves the base and extends into ordinary humans’ lives.

Final Scholarly Thought: by applying the rigorous logic of the Renaissance to the chaotic carnage of WWII, Heller exposes the Postmodern Absurdity of modern systems. He teaches us that when logic is used to justify cruelty, the only Humanist response is to point at the paradox and laugh—or scream.

As the seasons shift, our scholarly focus moves towards the concept of works that possessed aeternitas—an enduring quality that would allow a text to stand as a pillar of culture for centuries to come.

This month, we are looking for the Contemporary Classic. We aren’t just looking for good books or favourite books; we are searching for works of such flawless craft and thematic depth that they will be studied by scholars 50, 100, or even 500 years from now.

I will be reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (1989). Though written in the late 20th century, it is a quintessential humanist text. It is a study of dignity, service, and the tragic realisation of a life lived in the shadows of ‘great men’. Its prose is as disciplined and proportional as a Palladian villa, hiding a profound emotional ruin beneath its surface.

🖋️ Critical Inquiries: The Anatomy of a Classic

As you read your chosen future classic, think about these four Renaissance inspired inquiries to determine if the work truly possesses enduring value:

1. The Architecture of Repression

Renaissance architecture relied on symmetry and order to create a sense of divine stability. How might this be reflected in your chosen text?

2. The Virtù of the Individual

The Humanists debated the concept of Virtù—the ability of an individual to exert their will and achieve excellence. Is there a character that displays this and how? Is this a true Humanist pursuit of excellence, or is it a tragic denial of the self? At what point does loyalty cease to be a virtue and become a moral failure?

3. The Scholar’s Memento Mori

A common theme in Renaissance art was the Memento Mori—a reminder that death and time eventually claim all things. How does the narrative treat the passage of time?

4. The Canon Test: Universal vs. Particular

A ‘classic’ is often defined by its ability to speak to people across different eras. What elements of the text you have chosen do you believe will remain relevant to a reader 50 years from now? Is it the historical setting, or the specific ‘humanist’ core of the character’s soul?

📖 The Bookshelf Challenge

Since we are focused on Life-Long Learning, I encourage you to resist the urge to buy a new book. Instead, look at your TBR pile with fresh eyes. I challenge you to look for that future classic in your own collection. Feel free to rely on platforms like StoryGraph for some help there.

I would love to hear your initial thoughts on the book you have chosen. Ask yourself: If this were the only book found by a researcher in 2125, what would it tell them about the human condition in our time?

More over, there seems to be mirror held up to my own sense of self. Since leaving my corporate job, and probably even before then, I have been working towards a sense of self. Like Siddhartha, I am chronicling a transition from a more medieval state, bound by inherited ritual and dogma, to a more renaissance state of individual inquiry and experiential truth.

In the earlier chapters, Siddhartha rejects the teaching of the Brahmins. He comes to reject the prescribed path of his father and leads to him leaving his home in search for enlightenment. He joins the Samanas and encounters the Buddha. I found his discussion with the Buddha fascinating. There is a distinct respect that Siddhartha owns for his own ego. In many ways, Siddhartha adopts Plato’s philosophy that the ego was something to restrain, but not eliminate, dichotomous from the Eastern philosophy of the Buddha. Siddhartha discovers in this that his own spiritual self cannot be taught to him, even by the Buddha. As he says to the Buddha:

This stood out to me, particularly because this is something we embody in our Researchers programme at Accepted - the idea that thoughts and research can only come through you based on your experiences. And because of your experiences alone, it makes you the best person to conduct your research. In this way, Siddhartha’s rebirth proves that the human soul is not a static object but a work of art to be constantly sculpted by the self.

This constant change is embodied by the river which to Siddhartha returns. The river is present in the beginning with the ablutions, the washing away of sins, and it provides a means for Siddhartha to cross over and explore the world of the ego with Kamala and the merchant. He indulges in his desires here and becomes rules by them. He is imbalanced. This examination felt poignant in today’s world. We are surrounded, through social media, by people who indulged in their own self worth. Socrates says that while you can care about yourself, do so only to become better for the world you live in, not to be more absorbed by yourself.

Ultimately, however, Siddhartha returns to the river. This is his most significant rebirth. He moves from a dualistic worldview, where the physical world is a vile illusion, to a monistic worldview, to the roots of knowledge to find the truth for himself.

The river is the ultimate place of pivot in this story. It is always changing, yet, always the same. It is the beginning, the middle, and the end simultaneously and Sidhhartha’s story is complete when he stops trying to cross the river, but instead starts listening to it.

Comment on your January read and how it has influenced your own self examination.

Based on some cursory research however, I chose this books because it centres around the absurdity of ‘truth’ and the idea that ‘truth’ is dependent on who is telling the story, and what they have to gain from it.

🖋️ Decoding the Distortion

No matter what text you chose for this month’s read, I would like you to focus on these three Renaissance-inspired inquiries to challenge your reading of the narrative:

1. The Vanishing Point

In linear perspective, all lines converge at a single point. In your text, is there a ‘vanishing point’, like a central truth or event that the narrator is desperately trying to lead you towards (or away from)? Or does the perspective shift?

2. Skeptic’s Question

Michel de Montaigne famously asked Que sais-je? Or, what do I know? His studies of human nature revealed that humans are volatile and varied. As such, is your narrator’s unreliability a result of deliberate malice or human limitation (trauma, ego, or experience). Are they lying to us, or themselves?

3. Anamorphosis and Hidden Truths

In Renaissance art, anamorphosis (like the distorted skull in Holbein’s The Ambassadors) requires the viewer to stand at a specific, odd angle to the see the ‘real’ image. Take a look, therefore, at the edges of your narrator’s story and see if different story emerges when you look at it from a different angle.

📖 The Bookshelf Challenge

Since we are focused on Life-Long Learning, I encourage you to resist the urge to buy a new book. Instead, look at your TBR pile with fresh eyes. I challenge you to look for the unreliable gaps in your own collection. Is there a book you’ve read before where you took the narrator at their word? Re-open it. Read the first three chapters again through the lens of a skeptic.

I would love to hear your initial thoughts on the book you have chosen. What is the first moment where you realised the logic of the narrative was starting to ‘fold’ in on itself?

Don’t shy away from incorporating your own experiences into your reading. While it is important to read a text critically, we are all informed by our own circumstances and experience. This makes each of our readings unique and is what will make the discussion fascinating.

🖋️ Critical Inquiries: Thinking Like a Humanist

As you read your chosen text this month, I invite you to keep a commonplace book (or a simple journal) and reflect on these four scholarly questions. These are designed to help you deconstruct the narrative through a critical, Renaissance-inspired lens:

1. Agency vs. Providence: In the Renaissance, scholars debated the tension between Fate and Free Will. In your text, is the ‘New Beginning’ a result of the character’s deliberate choice (Humanist agency), or is it forced upon them by external circumstances?

2. The Cost of ‘Ad Fontes’: The Humanist motto Ad Fontes (back to the sources) meant returning to the roots of knowledge to find truth. Does your character have to return to their ‘roots’ or confront their past in order to start anew? What is the emotional or social cost of seeking this truth?

3. The Shift in Worldview: A ‘New Beginning’ often requires the death of an old way of thinking. Can you identify the specific moment your protagonist’s internal ‘map of the world’ changes? Is this shift depicted as an enlightenment or a loss of innocence?

4. The Architecture of the Pivot: Analyse the structure of the story. Does the author use specific symbols (e.g., libraries, letters, thresholds, changes in season) to signal the transition? How does the prose itself change as the character enters their ‘new’ life?

📖 The Bookshelf Challenge

Since we are focused on Life-Long Learning, I encourage you to resist the urge to buy a new book. Instead, look at your TBR pile with fresh eyes. Which story has been waiting for its own rebirth? Which text has been sitting on your shelf, perhaps intimidating you, that represents a new beginning for your own reading journey?

I would love to know: Which book have you pulled from your shelf for January? Share your title and why it represents a ‘New Beginning’ to you in the comments below.

That is precisely why we’re going to embark on this journey together (prompted from the numerous requests from you all in the community).

I am thrilled to announce our year-long read-along of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, will be starting in January! This isn’t just about reading a poem (for a poem it is); it’s about exploring a foundational text, understanding its profound influence, and perhaps most importantly, discovering the sheer joy of Spenser’s storytelling and poetic genius in good company.

Why The Faerie Queene?

Beyond its historical significance as an Elizabethan epic, The Faerie Queene is a treasure trove of:

• Adventure: Knights, dragons, sorcerers, and damsels in distress – it has all the classic elements of high fantasy.

• Beauty: Spenser’s “Spenserian Stanza” is a unique and masterful poetic form, weaving sounds and meanings in hypnotic ways.

• Wisdom: At its heart, the poem is a profound exploration of human virtues – Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy – through the trials and triumphs of its heroes.

• Discovery: Each canto is rich with layers of meaning, from the personal to the political, the theological to the philosophical. It’s a poem that grows with you.

Our Journey Through Faerie Land: The Schedule

We’ll be taking this grand adventure at a comfortable, deliberate pace. My goal is for this to be an enriching experience, not a race. For those worried about it, we’ll aim for roughly 1.5 cantos per week, giving us plenty of time to digest, reflect, and discuss each section.

Here’s our general roadmap for the year:

January & February: Book I: The Legend of Holiness (The Redcrosse Knight)

March & April: Book II: The Legend of Temperance (Sir Guyon)

May & June: Book III: The Legend of Chastity (Britomart, the female knight!)

July: Book IV: The Legend of Friendship (Cambel & Telamond)

August & September: Book V: The Legend of Justice (Sir Artegall)

October & November: Book VI: The Legend of Courtesy (Sir Calidore)

December: The Mutabilitie Cantos (A fascinating, unfinished fragment of a seventh book!)

Each month, I’ll send out a post detailing our specific canto assignments for the weeks ahead, along with some guiding questions, historical context, or literary insights to spark our discussions.

There will also be a dedicated chat thread for The Faerie Queene long read.

📖 Recommended Supplementary Reading (Optional but Recommended!)

Before starting, or alongside the first month, these resources will help your community decode Spenser’s “delightful” but complex world:

1. “A Letter of the Authors” (Spenser): Usually included in the preface of most editions. It is Spenser’s own “cheat sheet” explaining his intent to “fashion a gentleman” in virtuous discipline.

2. Elizabeth Heale, The Faerie Queene: A Reader’s Guide: An accessible canto-by-canto guide that helps unravel the allegory.

3. C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (or Spenser’s Images of Life): Lewis was a passionate advocate for Spenser, and his insights make the poem’s allegorical logic feel exciting and intuitive.

🔗 Free Online Editions

Since the text is in the public domain, there are several high-quality free versions:

• Standard Ebooks: This is the best version for digital reading. It is beautifully formatted for Kindle, EPUB, and web, with modern typography and a clean layout.

• Luminarium (Renascence Editions): An excellent scholarly resource. It preserves the original Elizabethan spelling (good for those who want the “authentic” feel).

• Project Gutenberg: Reliable, though the formatting can be a bit plain. Good for a quick search of specific terms.

Prince Arthur and the Faerie Queen by Henry Fuseli, c. 1788 (reference)

1. You do NOT have to read the same book as me. I would encourage you all to spend some time searching your own bookshelves and TBRs to find books that suit the prompts (don’t forget to make use of your local libraries too).

   This might seem intimidating, trying to find a book to suit the prompt but the slow exploration of the books you want to read and seeing how they fit into the prompts is all a part of the process. Light a candle, put on some music, and take your time exploring what you want to read.

2. I will host a discussion on each prompt on the last Thursday of each month!1

3. I will also create monthly discussion threads on Substack to chat about our books and a ‘guided reading’ post will be made available each month to help you think about the book you are reading with a Renaissance mindset.

I can’t wait to read and learn together!

January:
The New Beginning - Humanist/Reflection

Chose a novel that focuses on a character’s major life-altering decision, a dramatic moral pivot, or the start of a new intellectual pursuit.

February:
The Unreliable Narrator - Academic/Critical Theory

Chose a book where the narrative perspective is questionable, forcing you to perform their own critical analysis and fact-checking.

March:
The Contemporary Classic - Renaissance/Timeless

A recently published novel that you believe is so well-crafted it will be read 50 years from now—a book of “enduring value.”

April:
The Scriptorium Secret - Dark Academia/Mystery

A book set in a school, university, library, or archive, where knowledge, books, or a historical document is central to the plot.

Cait will be reading If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (2017): A gripping story of seven young Shakespearean actors at an elite college where the boundary between the stage and reality blurs into murder.

May:
The Moral Philosopher - Humanist/Ethics

A literary work that primarily explores an ethical dilemma or a deep question of morality and justice, without providing easy answers.

June:
The Traveller’s Notebook - Renaissance/Exploration

A book that is transportive, focusing on the human experience in a distinct, rich cultural setting (whether historical or modern).

July:
The Author’s Canon - Academic/Deep Dive

A book by an author you’ve previously read, but one of their lesser-known works or a novel that highlights a different aspect of their style.

Cait will be reading Oroonoko by Aphra Behn: A tragic novella about an enslaved African prince. It is a foundational text for discussing colonialism, the “noble savage” trope, and the transition from Restoration drama to the novel.

August:
The Scholar’s Inquiry (Non-Fiction on Language, History, or Art)

A non-fiction read that relates to language, literature, history, or the process of learning itself.

September:
The Scholastic Ghost - Dark Academia/Gothic

A novel that has a heavy atmosphere, explores themes of history haunting the present, or is explicitly Gothic/historical literary fiction.

October:
The Allegorical Read - Academic/Interpretation

A novel that works on a surface level but clearly contains a deeper, symbolic meaning or allegory to be decoded.

November:
The Renaissance of a City - Humanist/Setting

A novel where the city or environment is a major character, documenting its rise, decline, or rebirth (e.g., London, Rome, Paris, Dublin).

December:
The Enduring Theme - Literary/Synthesis

A book that ties into an ancient or mythological theme (e.g., fate, love, hubris) but in a modern or innovative way.