Futility Closet

Confined in a Soviet prison camp in 1941, Polish painter Józef Czapski chose a unique way to cope: He lectured to the other prisoners on Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Czapski's ambitious project and the surprising importance of literature to the prisoners of oppressive regimes. We'll also race some lemons and puzzle over a woman's birthdays. Intro: A piano keyboard can be used as a calendar mnemonic. After the Civil War, thousands of Confederates settled in Brazil. Sources for our feature on Józef Czapski: Józef Czapski, Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp, 2018. Eric Karpeles, Almost Nothing: The 20th-Century Art and Life of Józef Czapski, 2018. Józef Czapski, The Inhuman Land, 1952. Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, 2012. György Faludy, My Happy Days in Hell, 1962. Jan Zielinski, "Milosz and Wat Read Brzozowski," Studies in East European Thought 63:4 (November 2011), 293-302. A