Comparisons to Tolstoy, Joyce, Proust are entertained and mused upon at the narrator's invitation, and we readers and rereaders are entertained and bemused by this puzzling, playful later masterpiece from the author of Lolita, a book that has been back in the news lately due to certain famous people whose lives have been tawdry imitations of its controversial art.

Text and annotations: https://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/

Lolita in the news: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/02/jeffrey-epstein-nabokov-lolita/685320/

Readership and vice: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/reading-crisis-solution-literature-personal-passion/685461/

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The princess and the summoner village brought full circle; we meet our final party member; Kuja vs Brahne; and on to Disc 3.

More at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/

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With guest appearances by Dostoevsky and Ippolit: https://anunexpectedjournal.com/beauty-in-tragedy-the-idiot-dostoevsky-and-eucatastrophe/

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Discussing Alex's forthcoming entry in the Bibliotheca Dantesca. https://penn.manifoldapp.org/journals/bibliotheca-dantesca

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbigmQGjQaA

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Selections from Keats' Letters: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69384/selections-from-keatss-letters

Text of Endymion, with Preface and notes: https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_endymion_book_i.html

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We end up talking quite a bit about Hamlet and other plays, less about the poem, but it's the point of departure for what I hope is an interesting conversation nonetheless.

Babcock later turned up this article on the ways in which the fall of Troy appears across WS' work: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/1/38

For my part, I'm more interested in Shakespeare and Ovid. A book James and Caley of Chandler Prep suggest: https://archive.org/details/shakespeareovid0000bate

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Here we are in the plague years of 1592-3, seeing what the "upstart crow" was up to while the theaters were closed.

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What's the plural of hieros gamos? We celebrate the totally real and binding nuptials of hero and heroine, then living doll and aspiring gourmand, who are immediately blessed with a new child, the last of the Summoners who communes with the Moogles, before traversing the Iifa Tree, breaking the seal and dissipating the Mist.

More at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/

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Part IV and the Epilogue, Smerdyakov and Iago, Dostoevsky and Shakespeare.

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Escaping death in Fossil Roo to reach the Outer Continent, where we compare Conde Petie and the Black Mage Village; the unobstructed light of the sky and the blue light of memory; the search for origins and the acceptance of mortality. And we don't forget about Quina!

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Jace invited me to think through some of the ways in which memory and art are almost identicalThanks, Jace, and thank you for listening!

Contrasting the Queen and the Princess, their Summons, and the fall of Cleyra and Lindblum.

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Concealed in the pickle pack, Garnet crosses back to Alexandrian soil, has her pocket picked in Treno, and spots a creepy figure in the Auction House. Steiner trades in constellation coins for a Blood Sword. Dr Tot interrupts a half-hearted heist for the Supersoft with flashbacks about a young princess reading I Want to Be Your Canary while researching the Summoner Tribe. We ride a bug-borne trolley straight into a trap; we climb up to a sandy treehouse and consult the Rat King.

For more:

https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/

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On the death of the father and pursuit of delirium.

Discussing the Grand Inquisitor and other light topics.

Through Qu Marsh, Chocobo Forest, Gizamaluke Grotto, and on to Burmecia. Gameplay considerations galore.

For more:

https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/

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Cid the Oglop, Freya the Dragon Knight, and Grandma Pickle the peddler join our adventurers in Lindblum for the Great Hunt.

For more:

https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/

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Back from Marrakesh, Alex joins me to discuss Dali, both the 20th artist and the first village in our FF9 adventure. Characters transform and villains mirror one another. Airships go kaboom. Vivi suffers a crisis and enters Trance, whilst Zidane keeps trying to steal that rare loot.

https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/

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Dostoevsky's masterpiece, introduction and part 1.

Getting to know the characters and asking questions about sin.

More to come!

Professor Schmid and I direct ourselves in the middle of life's way out of the dark wood (RIP Blank?) of an Evil Forest and through the Ice Cavern. Rising above the Mist, we consider the name changes and character arcs thus far.

For more resources, see the course page: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/

Thanks for listening!