The Devil's Details: The Evolution of the Devil through Art and Literature

On this episode:
  • This show is become FAUST'S details!
  • YOU SHALL NOT SCRUB!
  • Now on sale! "No Capitalism" T-shirts
  • Special guest Jim Baucus
  • Inside Out 4: with Want, Debt, Distress and Care
  • ....and SURPRISE!
  • Faust is CONVENIENTLY having second thoughts
  • Lemures....or lemurs?
  • GRETCHEN!? What are YOU doing here?!
  • ...and more!

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What is The Devil's Details: The Evolution of the Devil through Art and Literature?

What started as an exploration of the devil in their show, The Exorcist Minute, has grown into something much greater. Find all the original episodes of the show and more right here in The Devil's Details with Lester Ryan Clark and Kynan Dias.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Coming up on the Devil's Details. Don't let the Pearly Gates hit you where the good lords split you. Goethe's Faust part two act five finale. Spoilers, he goes to heaven. Think you can already tell how I feel about that.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Right. This guy gets to go to heaven, but I gotta I gotta work for it, I guess, apparently.

Kynan Dias:

Jesus.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Good morning, Star, and welcome to another episode of the Devil's Details, a show where we dig up, decipher, dissect, and the many forms of the devil. One of my names is Lester Ryan Clark.

Kynan Dias:

And I sometimes go by Keenan Diaz.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And we're just two lost souls hitchhiking down the highway to hell. So last time, folks, you'll remember we had the emperor fighting the rebels.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Uh-huh.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right?

Kynan Dias:

He's like, I'll give you some manly men. Some manly men.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Manly men. And it was it was it was bully boy, grab quick, and hold tight. But it was it also basher, snatcher, grasper. Right? Batcher okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Basher, snatcher, and grasper Mhmm. Sound like either Mhmm. Santa's evil reindeer.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Maybe Chris said it. Maybe I have troubles at home.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Sure. Yeah. Right. Krampus's reindeer. Those are the

Kynan Dias:

ones that, you know,

Lester Ryan Clark:

Or they sound like Cruella Devil's henchmen.

Kynan Dias:

Yes. Snatcher. Snatcher. Crasp out. I don't care what you do with the little brutes.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I don't care what you do with Faust. Drown him. But yeah. And so and so now this is it, folks. This is the final act.

Lester Ryan Clark:

We this is this is you're gonna get the the answer to the question, will Faust be saved, or will he be dragged to hell? Yeah. Right? This is with the whole the like, how many weeks did you say before we started recording?

Kynan Dias:

Ten weeks, Lester. Ten weeks? Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And folks, we're not even talking we're not even talking about Marlow's Faust. Right?

Kynan Dias:

Or Marlow's doctor Faust. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

We did that first. Right? And now and that was like, what? You said five weeks?

Kynan Dias:

Five weeks of that. Five weeks of play.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Five weeks. Five weeks. And then and then so so five weeks of of Marlowe.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Five weeks of Goethe's Faust part one. Five weeks of Goethe's Faust part two. This is becoming Faust's details. There's there's more there's more Mephisopheles in here. Uh-huh.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Then there isn't this is like, you know, there are more bad episodes of the Simpsons now.

Kynan Dias:

That must be true at this point. Yeah. I guess so.

Lester Ryan Clark:

After season twenty. Right? Folks. Yeah. We're almost we're almost done.

Lester Ryan Clark:

We got the opera, which I've been watching. Yeah. Oh, cool. The, yeah, the Royal Ballet and Opera does a spectacular rendition of it, and I've been I've been captivated. This is like my like, I'm I'm I'm kind of also learning about opera.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? How how different it is from, even even musical theater, not just theater, but musical theater.

Kynan Dias:

It's it's

Lester Ryan Clark:

it's amazing. And, and I'm I'm, like, I'm I'm looking at my one of my favorite stories, The Phantom in a whole new light as well. Right? Cool. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So and we'll talk about that. And then after that, we are gonna

Kynan Dias:

take No. No. We're gonna about the FW Burnout movie.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, yes. Yes. I was gonna say,

Kynan Dias:

right, we're gonna take a little

Lester Ryan Clark:

break, right, at the end of the season, and we're gonna, you know, go and we're gonna talk about that at the end of the episode. But no. Also, yeah, Keenan very, very much wants to do a special episode for you guys and give it to you for free.

Kynan Dias:

You don't know what you're missing with this movie, Leslie.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Well yeah. But and and and and the and the people aren't gonna know what they're missing either because they're gonna get it for free. Keenan. But we love you guys, so we're gonna do it.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. But Faust, you know, is is, like, the most important German story, I guess, is it, you know, it says. That's, like, the biggest work of German literature.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. You could get a good chunk of Shakespeare's stuff done with that.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. But anyways, we did it. Let's pat ourselves in the back. Like, we have to we have to do it first.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Get. Yeah. We gotta we're at the homestretch. We're at Mount Doom.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. You know? And we're like but we're but we're not at the top. We're at the bottom. And we're like we're Frodo.

Lester Ryan Clark:

It's like, we did it, mister Frodo. And it's like, well, I think we gotta climb it. We gotta, you know Mhmm. We gotta get up there and throw the ring in. That's you know?

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. I think you could skip ahead in the movie when that happens when they're down

Kynan Dias:

there. Yeah. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I think I

Kynan Dias:

think so. Again, I've only seen it once. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I got like, it's not a

Kynan Dias:

fundamentally change

Lester Ryan Clark:

for It's not a question of, like, you know, like, scientifically, can press the, you know, the the fast forward button, and and it'll it will happen. It's not like it's not like, you know, like, Gandalf is

Kynan Dias:

gonna pop up. He's like, you shall not scrub.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? We are allowed to do that. Yeah. And listeners, you can also scrub through, you know, like, whatever it is we're doing right now instead of talking about Faust.

Kynan Dias:

I'm ready. I'm ready.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Let's do it. Alright. Let's do it. I'm not stalling. Let's go.

Kynan Dias:

Alright.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So, yes, this is this is act five. Mhmm. And our first scene is we open on a broad landscape. Mhmm. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

That's that's what the that's what the book says. So quite a bit of time has passed, and Faust has spent about half of his life on this project of pushing back the ocean. Half of his life. Mhmm. That was the the the the the first part was all Gretchen.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? That's right. And then the second part was was it's like, duh, Helen of Troy and wine, women, and song, Walpurgus knights, and and and classic Walpurgus knights. Uh-huh. And and there's the homunculus, bi homunculus, and and there's like

Kynan Dias:

The battle of the mighty men and the Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. And the emperor part one, the emperor part two. Right. Right? Somehow somehow the emperor has returned.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And all of that pales in comparison because now and and then the very, very last thing, Mephistopheles comes on with those seven lead boots, he's like, okay. So, you know, what's actually gonna make you happy? And he's like, I wanna I wanna push this this, sea back from this land and and create a whole, real estate thingy thing. And Mephistopheles says, that's easy. Let's do that.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And flash forward

Kynan Dias:

half of his life Whatever that is.

Lester Ryan Clark:

For this. Right?

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So he's he got the emperor to agree to the archbishop telling the emperor that Faust is gonna get the basically the whole North Shore of Germany. Right? Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Kynan Dias:

Which is its only shore. Yes. Yes. It's the north part

Lester Ryan Clark:

of it. If you know your geography, folks. Yeah. Which the the the archbishop slash chancellor whom whom we were convinced was was Mephistopheles with all his will and dealing.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But then we remembered no because he was a character before.

Kynan Dias:

So Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But but yeah. So now so now we're we're on this landscape. Right? And a traveler comes to this wide open landscape looking to visit some old friends who live in a cottage nearby. Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And he calls out and this elderly couple comes out. Baucus, I'm gonna say.

Kynan Dias:

It it it looks like Bacchus, but it's not. Yeah. It's Bacchus b a c I s. Uh-huh.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And her husband, Philemon, I'm gonna say. Right.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. I think that's right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And these are characters from classical mythology who were known for their hospitality and devotion to the gods.

Kynan Dias:

That makes sense. So they're from Ovid's Metamorphosis, and I couldn't beyond reading the Metamorphosis, I I couldn't figure out what the connection was. So thanks for that. That makes sense.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. So but like, once again, we have just like what Dante was doing before where it's like you have real people from from ancient Rome Right. And ancient Greece, and then you also have the Minotaur. Uh-huh. Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? So we have, like, we have we have met real people like the holy Roman emperor, etcetera. Right? Helen of Troy, etcetera. And but we're also gonna we're also seeing it's like, oh, yes.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And also Bacchus and Philemon are here.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. You know, that's so interesting because because obviously those are those are, like, fixed stories. Right?

Kynan Dias:

But I'm like Mhmm. You know, when I go back and watch, like, a lot of the old, like, roasts, the Comedy Central roasts, you know Uh-huh. Which I really I think I are very funny, a lot of them. But I was like, oh, jeez. Like, you know, Kim Kardashian has been made fun of in, like, every single one of those roasts for for twenty years, but she's changed.

Kynan Dias:

And so, like, the punch line at the beginning, like, it was if the punch line was Kim Kardashian, that meant something at the beginning, which was about sex tapes. Then Yeah. And then ten years later, Kim Kardashian did not mean that. Kim Kardashian was a punch line for reality TV. Right.

Kynan Dias:

You know? And so, like, how do you how do you, like, scrub through the entirety of, like, what did this joke mean now? Like, what is it gonna mean for 30 people in 3025 as they're just listening? Like

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Kim Kardashian. And then, Kim Kardashian sex tape? That joke doesn't make any sense. What are you talking about?

Lester Ryan Clark:

You mean you mean empress Kardashian

Kynan Dias:

of the That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's the

Lester Ryan Clark:

the Kardashian Islands. Yes.

Kynan Dias:

That exactly. That's the joke. Now the the punchline is that she is the reasonable person in a relationship with Kanye West. Yeah. So the punchline of Kim Kardashian is like, look at her and her problems with her husband.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. Do you hear that folks? Mhmm. Do you hear like she has become the less crazy one.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Exactly. Okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Cool. But yeah.

Kynan Dias:

So Well, glad you found that because I was like, who are these people?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Why

Kynan Dias:

are they here?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

Why would you them later on?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Yeah. But to me, it's it's like, you know, you know, like like actual German history. And then, you know, out of this little cottage come Hansel and Gretel.

Kynan Dias:

It's like, Right. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Alright. So Filimon Philomon fills the traveler in on what's been happening. So so

Kynan Dias:

It's so stupid. That's really stupid? Okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Faust has actually succeeded in creating this paradise like new land along the coast. Mhmm. But it wasn't without a cost. There's this grand palace there that was built through human suffering and sacrifice.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm. Of course, because Faust.

Kynan Dias:

Or is it just because grand palace?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, well, yeah. You go. Yeah. Any any kind of, like, you know, yeah, large, like, real estate thing.

Kynan Dias:

Right? Yeah. Is it just like capitalism? Mhmm. Some capitalism is Pinkberry and some capitalism is Diamond Mines, but it's all capitalism.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And some capitalism is just T shirts with the word capitalism and one of those big, like, no smoking sign crosses

Kynan Dias:

on it. And people are like, I

Lester Ryan Clark:

I hate capitalism too. Let me buy it.

Kynan Dias:

We can make a killing off of those.

Lester Ryan Clark:

The factory factory destroys hundreds of miles of forest.

Kynan Dias:

Hey. Where'd all my truffle of trees go? Yeah. There used to be a whole forest of truffle of trees here.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Lorax is like, I'm not even trying anymore.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Oh, my voice is going. We're supposed to tell everyone I have Oh, yes. Walking pneumonia. Walking pneumonia.

Kynan Dias:

Wondering why I sound I don't know what I sound like to you all. I wish that when my when Lester gets sick, he he prefers his voice. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. It it actually it actually really sounds very good.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. I think Lester's voice always sounds good. Aw. I I don't care for the sound of my own voice. And I wish I wish that that I sounded like what I wish I sound like is Kathleen Turner when I'm sick.

Kynan Dias:

Jessica Rabbit. You know? Mhmm. Mhmm. But I don't think that's right.

Kynan Dias:

Right now in my voice, I sound like or in my head, I sound like Jeff Garland from Curb Your Enthusiasm. So I don't know what I sound like to you all. I can't imagine.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He did a great impression of Sai Jo Bob, like, right before we

Kynan Dias:

Right before we recorded. You wouldn't believe it. Yeah. It was amazing. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

But, yeah, I'm gonna go all in and out. I'm gonna be all over the place today. Sorry.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. So just just so you know, folks. And then and I am also nursing a little bit of a of a migraine. If I sound if I sound testy at any point

Kynan Dias:

With Goethe? With the Goethe. It's like, what

Lester Ryan Clark:

the fuck is happening here? No. Yeah. But yeah.

Kynan Dias:

But, anyways, we're still doing it. We're still doing a spouse for you.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Because we love you. And, also, because we have sold our souls, and this is our this is our punishment. No. Okay. But yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So so yeah. So so this traveler comes. Yeah. So is it yeah. Okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. We're talking about human suffering and sacrifice.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So so these guys, they all sit down to eat in this couple's garden.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And Baucus Baucus? Dang it. I how did we how did we say it just like ten seconds ago?

Kynan Dias:

Not Jim Baucus, No. Mr. Magoo.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I think

Kynan Dias:

we did I think we decided Baucus.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Baucus. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Hey.

Lester Ryan Clark:

What's this Devil Diary doing?

Kynan Dias:

Oh, I didn't know you had him, Mr. Magoo. Very good. Yeah. Anyway.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. That would really impress you with the children seventy years ago. We could figure out a way to make money off of children seventy years ago.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. Yes. They'll be like,

Kynan Dias:

oh, it's mister oh, I thought everyone had forgotten about mister McGoo. Yeah. Alright. They'll send in their pennies. Yes.

Kynan Dias:

They will. Tape to postcards to send a banana for scale. Mhmm. Mail@Gmail.com. Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Which is a physical place. It's a factory that makes T shirts that says no capitalism. Yeah. But yeah. Okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So they all sit down in this couple's garden, and Baucus mentions that Faust has his eye on their cottage. Right. Philomon adds that Faust even offered them an estate on his new land in exchange, but they will not take the deal. They're devoted to their faith and their simple way of life, and they're not about to trade that for Faust's, questionably acquired wealth.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I don't think I don't think the the issue is the the is the, like, how he got his wealth. I think it's so, they he wants to take their land.

Kynan Dias:

Yes.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And and and, like, bulldoze it and make a, you know, a shopping mall or whatever.

Kynan Dias:

He doesn't even care what he uses it for. He just wants the entire coast like he was promised.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Yeah. So remember folks, like, I told you, it's like, oh, it seems like, you know, Faust is learning and it feels like he's, you know, he's he's on the path of salvation. And I said, nope. There's gonna be one more thing that Faust does that you're gonna be like, well, fuck it.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Why doesn't this guy get dragged down to hell?

Kynan Dias:

Right? Right. But yeah. So so they he's offered them an upgrade. They can go and live like kings and queens, but they don't want that kind of a life.

Kynan Dias:

Right. And he at at this point in his life, doesn't understand that at all.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Yeah. Like, he cannot comprehend that.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Right. So this guy who comes in to visit, he's like he considers them like surrogate parents. Mhmm. And they're sitting down and they're having one last meal is what I was Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Trying not to say. But their one last meal is they're they're talking about, oh, it's crazy. That guy over there, our our neighbor, yeah, really has it out for us. Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. So now we find Faust at a 100 years old Mhmm. Pacing. He's still he's still young enough to pace around in this fancy garden outside of his palace.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? And he's totally fixed on this one thing. He still does not own Baucus and Philemon's cottage with its little grove of linden trees and its chapel. He cannot stand the idea that there's any shade that doesn't belong to him. And he's so bothered by it that he wishes he could just be somewhere else entirely.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. There's a little guy up in the tower who sort of watches over everything. Uh-huh. And he says this this crazy thing, which then they continue on. But he says that that rich people are always complaining about whatever they can't get, and they're not they're not happy for what they do get.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm. Mhmm. Nice. You said he says this crazy thing? That sounds pretty spot on, actually.

Kynan Dias:

I think it's crazy to say too the rich person's face.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. He's like, oh, he's like, it's 05:00 and all is well, and you're kind of a bitch about about how you don't get that piece of land. And Faust is like, oh, it's 05:00. Yeah. Because he because he hears that other part all the time.

Kynan Dias:

That's all he hears. Yeah. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But yeah. But but okay. You know, this then this impressive ship loaded with treasure shows up in the canal nearby. Mephistopheles and the three mighty men, they're back.

Kynan Dias:

Three mighty men? Yeah. Characters from the previous act, what are you doing here?

Lester Ryan Clark:

That is is this this the first time that that's happened? Usually, it's a one and done thing. Remember, folks. Right? Each each of these each of these acts is a play within itself.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And they and they start unloading all this card.

Kynan Dias:

They things for the plot? Yes. Two successive acts? Uh-huh. That's odd.

Kynan Dias:

What an odd thing to do.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And Nafisto's going on about like how the best way to get rich is through this trinity, I like what it does there, of war, trade and piracy. Right? Basically, you know, might makes right. But like also that's that's the perfect like Devil Trinity. It's like and it's also it's not even a Devil Trinity.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He's criticizing human beings.

Kynan Dias:

Right? Yeah. That's interesting.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. It's perfect. I love it.

Kynan Dias:

I wonder why that's why as I was reading this because I was thinking about a Devil trilogy between Satan, the devil, and Lucifer, which we've we've talked about before.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Well, that's that's kind of ours. That's like our show thing. Because, like, when we say the devil, it has I mean, in my mind, you know, there's there's three versions of the devil. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

There's there's, you know, the fallen angel Lucifer looks like David Bowie. Right? Then there's like Satan, you know, the giant monster Right. You know, with like, you know, flames all around him and he's he he looks like, you know, the the Dante version, you know Yeah. Down there.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? And then there's when we say the Devil, he looks like the character on Cuphead.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Right. Yeah. That version is something like the Holy Spirit as well that he's sort

Lester Ryan Clark:

of Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Everywhere. People are like, the Devil's gonna get Mhmm. Mhmm. Be careful of the devil. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And he pulls pranks and he's trickster you

Kynan Dias:

and he's Yeah. Exactly. And, oh, something went bad. It's not Lucifer or Satan doing that to you. It's the devil.

Lester Ryan Clark:

It's the devil. Right? And and and, like, every time something does happen, he's like every time you are met with a misfortune, like, he's like, he's just out of eyesight behind a tree, and he kinda goes, yes.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Exactly.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Right? And every time you do a good deed, you help an old lady across the street, right, he kinda slaps his knees like, ah, fiddlesticks. Right? He shakes his fist at you.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You know?

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So, you know, as we're wrapping up here with Goethe's version, like, he he says Mephistopheles says he is the devil. Mhmm. Mhmm. And he'll refer to Lucifer a little bit later on.

Kynan Dias:

So, yeah, I was thinking about that again. Like, you know, is it possible that our that the devil refers to himself by one of his name? Sure. That would do whatever he wants. But, yeah, I was like, oh, I wonder.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. I was trying to think and sum up, like, you know, how are Mephistopheles? Which version is he? Is

Lester Ryan Clark:

he Right.

Kynan Dias:

Lucifer, Satan, the Devil? I don't know.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He started out he started out this play very Lucifer y. Oh, no. Actually, no. No. He started out this play as the lowercase Satan.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He's up there in the clouds with God Yeah. Being like, Lord. And and and Derek Jacoby was like, have you considered my servant Faust? Right? Instead of instead of Job.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And so so that that was like, you know, the Satan, the lowercase Satan. And but then as soon as he got down on earth, he was the medieval devil. Like, was just prancing around and with his with his little leotard and and having a good old time. Right. But yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But even with all this new wealth, Faust is still miserable. Of course, he

Kynan Dias:

is.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Because because he's now he's a miser. That's what that's what a miser is. Yeah. Uh-huh. You have all this stuff, but you're miserable.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? He's obsessing over the cottage, the grove, the chapel, because he wants to build this platform where where he can stand and look out over everything that he's created in one sweeping view. So he doesn't even want it as a house. He wants it as, like, a balcony as an extension

Kynan Dias:

Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

To his his place. Right?

Kynan Dias:

To play god, I think.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Right? He's tired

Kynan Dias:

of something over there. Like like, if if god were looking over creation in Genesis and being like, oh, everything except for that little piece Mhmm. Mhmm. Is my creation. And I don't know.

Kynan Dias:

God is powerful enough that he wouldn't have a mistake like that, I suppose. Right. And he's also merciful enough that he wouldn't care, I guess. Exactly.

Kynan Dias:

Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

But Faust is not that. Right. So yeah. So he's and he's tired of trying to be fair about it. So he just orders Mephisto and the three mighty men to get rid of Baucus and Philemon.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm. And Mephisto's like, okay. Sure. We'll just we'll just move them somewhere else. Give them a nice new place.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And then he mutters to the audience that this is just the same old story playing out again. Right. So what does he what does he mean by this? He means he means that this is how humanity treats each other or or he, like, he sees through Faust. He's like, yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Like, this is like, Faust hasn't learned a damn thing.

Kynan Dias:

I think that might be it. Yeah. There's nothing there's like, he thinks he's special, and he's not even with all this power. I And I guess Mephisopheles has seen this kind of thing before. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Even when it's like Eve having the power. You know, there's only two people, and she's the most powerful person all of a sudden. And and it gets to her head in his version of it. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Yeah. So this is this is like he's he's seen humans come

Kynan Dias:

and go.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Faust isn't Faust isn't the worst, and he's certainly not the best. Right? This is more of the same. Right? Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Okay. So now we got the next scene where where Faust's palace, and Faust is on this balcony. So it's a it's a different balcony. It's not the one that he that he wants made. But the palace watchman is up in his tower as night falls singing while he looks out over Faust's kingdom.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Suddenly, sees sparks and fire erupting through the Linden Grove. He's worried about Baucus and Philemon getting caught up in the smoke. The fire completely destroys the grove and the chapel, and the watchman's lamenting how something that used to be so beautiful is now

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Just gone forever.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So so, yeah. So so Faust says to Mephistopheles, like, you know, I want I want that piece of land. Make it happen. Right. You know?

Lester Ryan Clark:

And sudden and suddenly now it's it's burning.

Kynan Dias:

Right. He doesn't say, I want them dead. I want the family dead. I want the dog dead. Right?

Kynan Dias:

But that's how Mephistopheles has taken it.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Right. So Faust

Kynan Dias:

You comes know, like at at Target where I was a middle manager for twelve years right now as the department manager there.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

At a place like that where there's such turnover and, like, even really good people who work at Target, they, like, move to different stores and move up or whatever. Yeah. You know, the the like, whether you have a good time at work is so variable depending on who who your bosses are. Right? But I had a boss who would stop us and and stop us from saying things like like we would get in the habit of saying like, hey, this is really important.

Kynan Dias:

We have to do whatever it takes to get this done, you know? Uh-huh. Which seemed innocuous to us, and he would stop us and say, we can't use that language. You know, do whatever it takes to get things done because p like, even when you just mean, like, hey, work really hard.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh.

Kynan Dias:

Some people would be like, do whatever it takes to get things done. Okay. Like, my boss has told me to Slit some throats. Just slit some throats. Right.

Kynan Dias:

Exactly. To to, you know, not either to work off of the clock or something or, you know, or to not obey safety measures, you know, not wash my hands at the in the kitchen or whatever like that. Yeah. Or, yeah, slit some slit some customers' throats back there. That'll do it.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, oh, yeah.

Kynan Dias:

You're right. Absolutely. Because they're like, you you just take it for granted. Like, you have this intention of like, hey. We mean, we gotta work really hard and stay really focused and not be on our phones or whatever.

Kynan Dias:

But but someone who's afraid for their their their job.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Right.

Kynan Dias:

Be like, jeez. Well, I just got permission to file false reports and Yeah. And steal money or or whatever. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Listen. I don't care how you get

Kynan Dias:

it done.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I just want it done.

Kynan Dias:

I just want it done. I don't wanna hear about it. Right. Exactly.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But yeah. So so Faust comes out onto his balcony after hearing the Watchman's sad song. He's deeply disturbed. I don't think he's that I think I think I I think think we understand that he's deeply disturbed because he says, I am deeply disturbed. Oh, no.

Kynan Dias:

Oh, no. That bit of

Lester Ryan Clark:

land that I really, really, really, really want, but that is owned by other people is on fire.

Kynan Dias:

Oh, no. Terrible.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I'm deeply disturbed.

Kynan Dias:

He does say, like, oh, my watchman is sad. So maybe he's really upset about that. Yeah. This seems to have really upset people around me, and I have to hear about it.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. In the middle tragedy of me.

Kynan Dias:

Of the goddamn night. Yeah. Hearing hearing my watchman sing a sad song about burning linden trees. I gotta look up what that is even.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He's like he's like really inconsiderate screaming for your lives at 3AM. Some of us are trying to sleep. Yeah. Then Mephisto and the three mighty men show up, and Mephisto's all casual about it. He's like, oh, there was a bit of trouble saying Baucus and Philemon wouldn't respond to requests or threats.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He tries to downplay it saying, you know, they didn't suffer much. They just died of fright.

Kynan Dias:

Oh, and

Lester Ryan Clark:

by the way, there was the travelers staying with them

Kynan Dias:

who Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

They they knocked down and left to burn. So.

Kynan Dias:

Right. We killed him. You didn't say anything about him. You didn't know he was there.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You know, adopted son. Yes. Yes. So we we we did what you said.

Kynan Dias:

No more, no less. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. We got rid of him.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm. Faust is furious again. I don't think so. I think I think, you know, he's furious in front of anyone. He's like, how like, he's, you know, he's like, oh, okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And then he sees the, you know, the watchman looking at him, and he's like, Mephistopheles, how dare you? Right? This is and he calls it savage and senseless. He's very, very bad, Mephisto. Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But Mephisto

Kynan Dias:

Devil's slave who does exactly what I say. Yes. Doesn't do anything without my my consent.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. To whom I live my soul. Bad. Right? And but, yeah, Mephisto and the mighty men, they shrug it off, basically saying, you know, when force commands, people should just obey gracefully.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. So again, some more human commentary on on Mephisto's part right there. And then they leave. Faust is left alone on the balcony watching the fire die down, and he notices these strange strange shadows drifting towards him. Yes.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And that's the next scene. Right? We're at we're inside the palace, and it's midnight, and four gray women appear in Faust's palace courtyard.

Kynan Dias:

These aren't a grouping from some other place, are they? Like this isn't the reference to something that I'm missing, is it?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Don't think so. No. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I think because like my first thought was like, okay, so their names are want, distress, and care. Right? And I first thought of like, you know, the two, you know, ignorance and want from Christmas Carol.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Me too.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But no, think they are just the personifications of those things.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. It's not what I would what I would, you know, I don't think I don't think you could if you went into the street and said, I'll give you a thousand dollars to to name this group of of, personified emotions that anyone would ever come up with want, debt, distress, and care.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Inside Out four.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Well, you know, I I I did some research and that we did a presentation with the psychology department at school. They they showed Inside Out two, and they were they were thinking they they had dozens of emotions that they wanted to do or that they could have done, you know, when they're when they're doing it originally. So some of the new ones were ones that they almost put into the first one.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, okay.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. But the so there's five emotions. Right? Yeah. But the the most emotionologists or whatever they call them.

Kynan Dias:

I think that's right. Emotional emotionologists. Sure. Yeah. Sure.

Kynan Dias:

They they there's six of them. There's six that they recognize in across cultures.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So Oh, okay.

Kynan Dias:

Joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, and the fifth one would be the sixth one would be surprise.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, okay.

Kynan Dias:

But Pete Dock Wait. The sixth

Lester Ryan Clark:

one would be

Kynan Dias:

what? Surprise? Oh.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, jeez. Okay.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. They thought that surprise Uh-huh. Oh, jeez. Would get really really played out.

Kynan Dias:

Probably. Really. Like, every single scene. Yeah. She's just, oh, oh god.

Kynan Dias:

Here, god. Every single time. So Yeah. So, yeah, surprise is not made into the movie. Okay.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I can imagine. Yeah. I mean, I can woah. Okay.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Want debt Distressing care.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

I never never I don't think anyone has thought of the because I thought, oh, it could be like faith, hope, and charity or something like that, or, like, maybe there's somewhere in the bible where these things are grouped together, but I I don't think they are.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. That's oh, that's a movie. Right? Go inside the mind of Lester Ryan Clark.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, yeah. There you go. Mhmm. Mhmm. There's so much monster energy drink in here.

Kynan Dias:

I'm I'm drowning in it.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Monster energy drink and podcast. It's it's just that's that's it. Yeah. Protein shakes.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. But, yeah. Okay. So so the first three want, debt, distress. They can't get in because Faust is rich.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? Okay. Like Mhmm. Yeah. Sure.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? Because want want didn't mean want. It meant like

Kynan Dias:

Poverty.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Poverty. Right? It means like like need.

Kynan Dias:

Like Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You know, the needy. And

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So want debt distress. Right? They can't they can't get in because Faust is rich. Right? Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I mean, physically, what about his what about his soul? Like, he's he's in spiritual debt, I think. Yeah?

Kynan Dias:

Yes. I think he's literally in spiritual debt. Like, he has signed the contract. People.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Right? But but I guess they're only talking about the physical. Mhmm. But care slips in through the keyhole.

Lester Ryan Clark:

The other sisters watch as clouds gather and the stars vanish saying their brother death is approaching. Mhmm. Okay. So so this is the family. We got want, debt, distress, care, and then big brother d, big brother Devil.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? Or little brother Devil.

Kynan Dias:

We don't know. Yeah. I don't know.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And then inside, Faust is talking to himself. He saw four figures, but only three left, and he heard death's name mentioned. He's feeling trapped, wishing he could get rid of magic from his life. Oh, yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Now now you are. Faust? When when it's when it's when it's collection time.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Well, that that brings up a good point. That's different from from Marlow's version. Right? And that there is not a ticking clock in this version.

Kynan Dias:

There's not. By the end of your fiftieth year, that's it. Right? So so the end of the play has to come from from Faust, essentially. Faust has to recognize, like, this is it.

Kynan Dias:

This is this is as long as we've taken it. So that that's where he is here. He's like, oh, gosh. This this needs to end. There's little spirits who can come inside my house and

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

She she she's nice. You know, Carrie's super nice. Sure. Sure. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. But she plays little, you know, spirit tricks in him and stuff, and he's like, this is what I've been doing to everybody else for the past hundred years or whatever, but

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

I cannot do have this happen

Lester Ryan Clark:

to Yeah. Yeah. I can I can dish it out? But Right.

Kynan Dias:

Man Exactly.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Don't ask me to to to to to to voice my own Pattard. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. That's everybody's favorite. Star Trek captain.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yep. Captain Batard. Captain Batard. Yeah. Foist the engines.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Make it so but, no, he starts philosophizing about how humans can't see beyond death and shouldn't try to be like gods. We should just accept life on Earth with its pains and its joys. You're getting in so philosophical and reflective house right when, you know, the the the the the judging is about to happen. Uh-huh. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Like I I think I already said it, folks. I don't know if you can tell. I'm well, yeah. It this ending, we'll get to it. But Alright.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So Care tells him that once she gets hold of someone, their heart fills with darkness and they can't even enjoy their wealth anymore. So it's okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Because I I didn't I'm I'm still trying to put to it together. I know want means poverty. Mhmm. Did care mean, like, worry?

Kynan Dias:

I thought care was kind. That's why I thought it was like charity or something, kindness or

Lester Ryan Clark:

something I think I think it's something different. I think I think we're I that's how I read it at first too. Yeah. But care, I think is because that's the only thing that like can touch a rich person is paranoia and worry.

Kynan Dias:

Okay. Uh-huh. Yeah. You're worried that your empire isn't going to last or that you need, know, then you get to expand it all the time.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Right.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. There's like, you know, like billionaires are richer than they've ever been. At this rate, we will see a trillionaire in our lifetime Jesus Christ. Where that has been a joke before. Like, in Watchmen, the joke is that she's a Hong Chao is a trillionaire.

Kynan Dias:

Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right.

Kynan Dias:

Right. But it's like, why do you why do you need that much? And and, yeah, they think there is a fear of falling behind or dropping off of a list, right? Kind of have to want you have to want to, to fall less than a billion dollars. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Right? You have to work at it. Yeah. So I think I think there is that that the fear of not being the top thousand richest people in the world or whatever Faust is.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And that's the end of all the that that's every, you know, like mobster movie that I've ever seen is, like, the rise to you know power is like you know seductive and it's and it's like you know intoxicating and and you become you know this this you know this named person and everything like that. And then always, always, always, maybe maybe it's just, you know, Scorsese films or whatever. Like, the second half of the movie are these these same people who were kind of like, you know, swept up in this fairy tale, you know, dream are now like looking out the windows. And Yeah. You know, it's like like because now I'm at the top, so everybody wants to kill me.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Everybody wants my money. Everyone you know, the cops want me. The other the other mobsters want me. Everybody wants a piece of me.

Kynan Dias:

You know? Yeah. I I think I think that is movies. You know, there's an argument that some people make that all all literature, but especially mass literature, like, so mat like, mass movies and that kind of TV and that kind of thing

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

Does tend to feed people a bullshit line that that money is bad, that that, like, you would not be happy with money. Mhmm. Mhmm. So, you know, I it's your favorite book, but the Christmas Carol is like that. Like, Carol the the the idea that rich people are sad.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm. I don't think that's borne out by surveys. No. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I think in see, but that's that's that's why I I escape to, you know, Goodfellas and Christmas Carol and and the godfather and all that stuff because I'm like, see? Like, the world does make sense and people, you know, get their just desserts and, you know, and people learn and I

Kynan Dias:

think Jeff Bezos is pretty happy, and Zuckerberg seems happy, and must you know, they all seem happy. Yeah. But but also, like, the downfall thing, I guess that's that's that's there's some truth to that. Right? Because, like, you when you get it from when you get it through violence, you know, then then people could take it from violence.

Kynan Dias:

Right? There's there's some truth to that. Mhmm. But, you you know, there are, you know, multigenerational, you know, gang like like the Kennedys. You know?

Kynan Dias:

Like, Joe Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger, and he wasn't a necessarily violent bootlegger. But, like, now within within a generation after Joe Kennedy, his son was the president. And, you know, that no one asked where the money come from anymore, you know? Yeah. But he was a bootlegger.

Kynan Dias:

He was he was a a gangster.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. I'm just thinking right now. Mhmm. I don't know if, you know, in this current day and age, this is gonna is gonna bring some attention onto us or or whatever.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And I actually I honestly don't know how true this is.

Kynan Dias:

You're just gonna say whatever it is anyways.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. I'm just gonna spread. Hey, I'm just gonna, you know, I'm just gonna just gonna put it out there. But I recently Mhmm. Saw a tweet Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

By this is supposed to be one of Elon Musk's children Uh-huh. On X Mhmm. Saying, dad, you're the best dad, and I'm so lucky to have you as a dad. Uh-huh. And it was revealed that the person who actually wrote that tweet Uh-huh.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Was Elon Musk.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he he might be sad. But Bezos Bezos is not sad.

Kynan Dias:

He is happy as a pig in shit. Is as a pig in shit. Right. Right. Right.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. No. But Musk Musk is a very sad person. I think I think that's that's the truth.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Don't feel sorry for him, folks. We're not

Kynan Dias:

saying Elon

Kynan Dias:

Musk? Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

No. Who's saying to feel sorry for Elon Musk?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Know. I I know. I don't know. Anyway anyway, let's talk about something happier like this guy selling his soul to the devil.

Kynan Dias:

But, hey. No. No. You're you had a really good point that maybe the one thing that that he would worry that we he would have one of these ghosts who comes in, the Grey Ladies, is, like, paranoia or fear about

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes.

Kynan Dias:

How to manage his empire.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. I think I think that's the one that's able to get in. Mhmm. Because There's yeah. Just like just like, you know, its opposite, guess, be like hope is like hope you can like hope is very, very hard to kill.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You can take away everything from a person, everything physically, and they can still hold on to hope. And I think going the other direction, right, you can give somebody like every assurance in the world. You can you can, you know, put them in this fantastic mansion and you can, you know, give them every possible good thing, and they will still fear that it will be taken away from them somehow.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. That's really interesting. I mean, you know, even like, you know, kings and queens, even in the times when it was divine right and God says this is the queen or this is the king Right. People would get murdered. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

You know?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Then the Poison cups and yeah. All that.

Kynan Dias:

And then even within our story, right, the only reason that the anti emperor doesn't take over the holy Roman empire is because of of the mighty men, because of war, because of battle. So, you know, that that that makes a lot of sense that, yeah, it can be taken away from him even if he has the devil as his slave. Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. Right. So I think I think that's why Care is in here. Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And, yeah, so Care tells him that once she gets a hold of someone, their heart fills with darkness. They can't even enjoy their wealth anymore. Faust tries to dismiss her, refusing to acknowledge her power, but care breathes on him, blinding him

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And then vanishes. So even though he's physically blind now, Faust says he can feel this bright light inside him. He is determined to complete his plans, so he calls for his workers to get up and make his vision real.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Alright. So now we're in the next scene. This is Faust's palace again. Right? The large outer courtyard.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? So his palace is so big that even even in these new scenes, we have, like, you know, the the setting, and it's just it's another part of his

Kynan Dias:

palace. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. So now we're in the courtyard. It's lit by torches as Mephistopheles arrives with the this can't be lemurs. I think I think they're lemurs. Are they not lemurs?

Lester Ryan Clark:

It says these are restless spirits of the dead from Roman mythology.

Kynan Dias:

No. I don't like that.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Lee knows. Yeah. In ancient Roman belief, the restless spirits of the dead with which were considered frightening and troublesome.

Kynan Dias:

Okay. Well, how

Lester Ryan Clark:

come the how

Kynan Dias:

come the cliff notes? The cliff notes allows me to think that they're monkeys. So I'm gonna thank Cliff

Lester Ryan Clark:

Okay.

Kynan Dias:

And and say that they are not limores, some kind of Roman ghosts. Mures. Or something. They're lemurs. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

You know, this this Wikipedia article, lemures, not to be confused with lemurs. Uh-huh. Well, fuck you. I'll confuse lemur lemures with lemurs all I want.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You know what? Interpretation is nine tenths of of enjoying art. So we're gonna say that they are lemurs. Right? They are restless spirits of the dead.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh. Right? So they are restless spirits of dead lemurs.

Kynan Dias:

There's gotta be some so the cliff's note says Uh-huh. A gang of lemuras, a species of monkey, but also a name for a type of ghost.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But, no, it's spelled differently.

Kynan Dias:

It's spelled differently from lemurs for sure. Like, there's an e in there, lemuras. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

But and the lemurs aren't monkeys.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right.

Kynan Dias:

Okay. That maybe that's

Lester Ryan Clark:

And they're not apes either. We're always dodging that bullet.

Kynan Dias:

The name lemur is derived from the Latin term lemures, which refers to specters or ghosts that were exercised during the Lemuria Festival of ancient Rome.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, Lemuria. Oh, that of course, that's where that from.

Kynan Dias:

Uh-huh. So Linnaeus, right, who went and created taxonomy and or at least popularized taxonomy by nomenclature and all that. Yeah. Yeah. He was familiar with the works of Virgil and Ovid, and they talked about these ghosts.

Kynan Dias:

And so he named lemurs that because they looked like what he read when he read Ovid. And

Lester Ryan Clark:

and, yeah, there you go. Alright. Yeah. They do look kinda ghosty.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. They're the big old eyes in the darkness.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

Sounds pretty cool.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Alright. Well, there we go. So so yeah. So so Mephistopheles arrives with Mhmm. The lemurs.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. With king Julian. Yeah. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

And Mort.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And

Lester Ryan Clark:

these are yeah. And he's like, okay. You gotta move it. Move it.

Kynan Dias:

You gotta move it. Move it.

Kynan Dias:

No. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He has the team digging Faust's grave. Uh-huh.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Though Faust, now blind, thinks they're working on his canal project.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. We're working on your canal for you, boss. Yeah. Don't you worry about it.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

Go back to bed. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

With you look dead tired.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. We'll see you in the morning. Yeah. Why do you say it

Lester Ryan Clark:

like that? Spelled m o u. One of the lemur's elbows, it's like, stop. That's you're going you're going too far.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Stop with the spelling. Yeah. He's got three

Lester Ryan Clark:

p Little lemurs. Yeah. But yeah. So so then Faust is describing his final dream. He wants to drain the contaminated marsh

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So that millions can live and work on this new land. Right? Not safely exactly, but freely. Mhmm. He says that he wishes he could see all these people living independently on this unbound soil.

Kynan Dias:

So do you think this is all bullshit after his guilt of killing Bacchus and and Philemon? Or, like, was or was there part was this somewhere for real? Was he thinking like, oh, I can't do my big project and make basically Eden on the coast of the North Sea in Germany because this old couple is fucking everything up with my my plans.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm. And then he kills them and he feels guilty about it. And so now he's like, no, I want this to be a free land for everybody.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Do you think he really meant that? Or it's like afterwards, it's like, no, no, no. I only killed them, you know, to

Lester Ryan Clark:

No. No. No. I think I think he really I think he did have a change of heart.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But in my opinion, too late. Alright. It's still too late. I like like because, yeah, the the radio play with, you know, with Toby Jones. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Our guy who plays Faust does a really good job sounding like he has had a change of heart at this point. And he's like, want I want everybody to just live, you know, freely and independently on this land. And I and, I was gonna make it my own little project, but I wanna give it all to them. And I believe this guy when he says it, I still don't like Faust.

Kynan Dias:

That's alright.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. So then he says that if this vision ever came true, he'd tell that moment to stay because it's so beautiful. And these are the exact words from his contract Yeah. With Mephisto Yeah. That would forfeit his soul.

Lester Ryan Clark:

As he imagines this perfect happiness, he he experiences his highest moment and falls dead.

Kynan Dias:

You happy, Lester?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. Actually.

Kynan Dias:

Faust is dead. Good. Are you happy? You really happy?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Folks, let me let me just let me just reiterate what what just happened. Okay? So he says to himself

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I I I don't want this land for myself anymore. I want to give this to the people for free and they can this this land can be theirs.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And and this would truly be this would truly make me happy. Right. Right? And and then and then he dies. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

He dies from the thought of that happening.

Kynan Dias:

Uh-huh, right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

It's like me when I pass that guy on the street who says, Hey, you know, could I get some spare change? And I don't do that. But I think about doing that.

Kynan Dias:

Like I could, I could spare I really could do that.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And then I walk away thinking I'm a good person. That's exactly what happened. He thought about it. It didn't it didn't get done. I don't think.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But yeah, so then and then he finally has no

Kynan Dias:

he has no heirs. There's probably a civil war. Yeah. Right after that and everybody gets killed.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. But but yeah, the lemurs catch his body and they lay it down. The the lemurs. Right? And Mephisto's there and he's commenting on how like nothing ever satisfied Faust.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. And how he was always chasing after, you know, like like changing shapes and stuff like that. Right? Like all these like these the new pleasure of the, you know, the flavor of the month. Right?

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Like grasping its shadows.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. Right. But now time has won out and Faust is dead. Mephisto says he'd actually prefer eternal emptiness to creation. So So this is kinda like Mephaust Mephaust.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mephisto is kinda like playing his hand here. Now he is the Devil. Like, yes. Like like, you know, nonexistence. Yes.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Know, oblivion. You know? And and he's coming out. And as the Lemurs start burying Faust, Mephisto's ready with the blood sign contract in case Faust's soul tries to escape. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Then he though he complains about how many ways there are to to cheat the devil these days. Right?

Kynan Dias:

Uh-huh.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. And he summons some other devils. Right? The lowercase d devils. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

And has them bring hell's mouth, which opens up showing the flaming city. Right? Yeah. So he is he this has been how many? A hundred years he has been waiting for this for this deal.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And he has your honor, I I I would like to point out that Mephisto has done all of the things Mhmm. That he was he was supposed to do. Mhmm. Right? According to this contract, I'm just gonna say.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? But then heaven's host appears. Right? It's like like millions and millions of angels. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

And they're singing about forgiveness.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And Mephisto hates and also kind of is attracted to their androgynous singing. Right? Since it's it's it's cost him so many souls. Right? The angels start start scattering roses Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And making the Devil's flinch.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. I don't know. In the John Williams version, it's not really their androgyny. He likes their their boyness. Actually yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. In this, yeah, in this translation that I have, it it's very much like I think it I think it very much like he's the gate devil and that's the joke.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. I I tried so hard for this to be like like the Grinch's heart melting. You know? Like, I thought I thought it was like like it's like, I'm I'm the embodiment.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I'm the personification of evil, but then these angels come down and they're singing about love and forgiveness. And he's like, no. This is Skeletor being like, no. I'm not a nice guy. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And and and his heart melting in him, you know, like, you know, giving up the ghost. And and that's what I that's what I at first thought this was. Mhmm. But then Mephisto just keeps on going on.

Kynan Dias:

He's like, woah. But they're but they ass. Yeah. Those those shapely legs. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

He's like, gosh. They they look better turned around, he says, of the angels because they got those boy asses. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Boy, when I when I fell from heaven, I I I hated to to to see that place leave, but I love to watch it walk away.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So so I think you're I think you're right because the angels don't have gender, I think, but then he's genderizing them. But,

Lester Ryan Clark:

yeah, he's he's boys. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yes. I don't know if that I don't know how much of that's Williams doing that or, like, they are such lovely lads. It's quite alarming. But he's I don't know who you know, he's, like, protesting that they that he's never felt this way about Yeah. About men before.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Kynan Dias:

Who who are you trying to convince, Mesophiles? The pizza. But

Lester Ryan Clark:

this okay. I have a question about this. Uh-huh. Have you have you ever are you familiar with either the poem or the story or the, I guess, it's turned into a song, the earl king?

Kynan Dias:

The earl king? You mean duke duke of earl?

Lester Ryan Clark:

No. No. No. No.

Kynan Dias:

No. No. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

The the the in in German, it's the earlkoneig. Right? But it's the earl king. Right? Or the elder king or whatever.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh. And it's that it's that song. It it starts kinda like a like Ian describes it. It starts like a snidely whiplash thing. It's like, And it's and it's basically this this father Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And he's he's got his his child that's dying in this this horse and carriage, and they're racing. They're racing home. They're racing through the woods of the earl king. And the earl king is

Kynan Dias:

this,

Lester Ryan Clark:

you know, spirit who starts appearing to the boy and saying, come with me. Come with me. And it's like, you know, he's basically he's he's death trying to to get Okay. The the boy. And the boy keeps on saying, like, like like, oh father, father, I see the earl king.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He has a crown and he has a cape and and I see his daughters are there too. And every time he see, you know, he says father, father, it's it's like a new verse of the song. He's like, I see I see the earl king king. I see his his crown or I see his his cape or whatever. And the father has to keep saying, no.

Lester Ryan Clark:

No. No. No. That's just mist on the ground. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

No. No. No. That's just the trees, branches. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

No. No. No. That's just the moon shining through the clouds. You know?

Lester Ryan Clark:

And every time, you know, it gets worse and worse because the Earl King keeps on persisting and saying, you know, no, boy, come with me. Come on. And it's scary all by itself.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But but then, like, you read it and the the words that the Earl King is using are like, you're such a lovely little boy. You're so, like, sweet and tender and, like, come with me. And, you know, it's like, oh, I've never seen such a such a lad as as beautiful as you. Like he's talking about, like, physically beautiful.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And but, like and but then he's also like, come. You can marry one of my daughters. You can be the next Earl King and all this stuff. Uh-huh. And so my question is, like, was this was this a more common thing?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Like, at this time, was, like like and I've seen this also, like, in in, like, regular old fairy tales. It's like Uh-huh. And, you know, and and specifically about about boys, it's like, you know and and Hansel was just, you know, like, the the the sweetest, goodest, most innocent boy and his his freaking shoulders. Am I right? You know?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Or something like that. It's it's I I can't I can't find, like, a specific example now, but I always remember reading these old stories, and they paid so much attention to Mhmm. Like, the specifically the little boys as if that was like a normal thing.

Kynan Dias:

Well, you know who wrote the Errol Koenig? Who? Goethe. Oh, for fuck's sake. Why did

Lester Ryan Clark:

I remember that?

Kynan Dias:

So that's fun.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I think I'm I think

Kynan Dias:

we we figured it out, folks. No. I'm looking it up here. I I'd never heard of this, so that's really cool.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

You know, I don't know I don't know if it's also particularly German. There's Thomas Mann has a novel that is Death in Venice. Do you know that one? No. No.

Kynan Dias:

So Death in Venice is about a guy. He goes to Venice.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But this Oh, and it's like, I I I was supposed to see you in Samara, says Death.

Kynan Dias:

Pardon me. No. Not quite. Not quite. No.

Kynan Dias:

Oh, okay. Okay. And then, yeah, Maundra also wrote a Faustus that I guess we're gonna skip because we're gonna be done with Faustus. But anyways no. No.

Kynan Dias:

But Death in Venice is it's this guy, he's in his middle age. He's really concerned about dying. Mhmm. And so he goes I guess a lot of Germans would go to Venice because it's nearby. It's like the closest warm ocean you can go to.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. And there he sees a yeah. Like a teenage boy, but like an early teen boy, like a 13 year old or, you know, 12 year or something like that. And he's like, is the most beautiful person I've ever seen.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. And then and then the the novel is not really about him being attracted to the boy, but he does become obsessed with the boy and starts, like, following him around and, like, spying on him, which it's obviously at a certain point. Like, today, we'd be like, well, it doesn't matter if you're attracted to him. Yeah. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. But, like, the it's using that as, like, this, like, this metaphor of, like, he sees his his lost youth. Like, the boy is, you know, what he wants of himself because he's a friend dying. So the so, like, like, that age of boy is, like, at least in in Thomas Mann and then I, you know, I think for what you're saying of of Goethe, right, is, like, an idealized vision of youth. And so youth idealizes not a girl because that would be sexual.

Kynan Dias:

So so a boy would be nonsexual. So we end up seeing that what we see as sexualizing this boy, I think.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Yeah. But, I mean, like, it's it's just like it's always like with the physical

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You know, like like skin as white as and I'm like

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Kynan Dias:

Well, this is the Devil who is a Randy Devil Uh-huh. And makes jokes and things. I think he is like turning to the audience and protesting that he is not attracted to the boy angels. Uh-huh. I think it's supposed to be funny.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. I think I think so. The way the way that it was done with the in the radio play. And it's like like, the songs are, like, giving him and the other devils, like, like, boils and hives and stuff like that Yes. Which I I I'm now allergic to something, folks.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And I and I've I've never known what that feels like before, but now I know. And I'm like, oh, so that's what that's what hymns feel like to devils. It's like, yeah. It doesn't feel good.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. That's why it's one of the the plagues in the Bible is boils. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. But but yeah. I think so it is it is this band of angels or you say, like, maybe all the angels coming down to save to save Faust's soul, which is really interesting. And then Mephistopheles is, like, protesting the angels and being like, but my contract but my contract and these angels are so damn sexy. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

But the contract, come back here. That that's that's that's very funny to me. He's like, but I'm not attracted to them. They're boys. But here, come back to the contract.

Kynan Dias:

Like like, that that's pretty hysterical. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And and yeah. So it love wins out, I guess.

Kynan Dias:

You know? Oh, because they they bring Faust and he wins? Yeah. Sure. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Love.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. The the yeah. It's hey.

Lester Ryan Clark:

The devils are losing their strength and their courage. They end up doing cartwheels and diving back into hell. Just in just in case you were confused about the tone of this of this part, they don't they don't, like, fall back into hell. They do cartwheels back into

Kynan Dias:

hell. Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? Yeah. And it looks like team Devil's blasting off again. Right? Then then something then I like how in my notes.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Then something weird happened.

Kynan Dias:

Well, hold on. Before we do that, like

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

This is interesting because you can go the entire the entire nine previous acts and wonder if Mephistopheles has been saying he's the devil, but he's lying.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm. But here, this is this is right. This is the first time that we see him controlling and ordering the armies of hell. Yes. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

And, like so and, like, saying, like, hey. Now let the mouth of hell open. And it's unmistakably the mouth of hell as opposed to, like, a pentagram, you know, and him sneaking through. So, like, he has for a hundred years or whatever this has been out he's been out of hell Yeah. Even though he's the king of hell or whatever, the prince.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

And he's been doing this one case by himself. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes.

Kynan Dias:

So so yeah. Now I believe him. Right? I mean Mhmm. So now this is irrefutable.

Kynan Dias:

He is the devil.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes.

Kynan Dias:

He's not like Captain Howdy or Pizzuzu in The Exorcist saying he's the devil and then and then you call him out on that. He is the devil.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. Right. The actual devil.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But, yeah, he gets he gets thwarted by the beauty of these angels is the nicest way I can say it. And Mephisto finally snaps out of it. He's covered in boils, but glad to be back to his devilish self, but he has lost his prize. Faust's noble soul, noble Mephistopheles. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

He calls himself a fool who wasted all his work because he got distracted by lust. The ultimate irony, the Devil himself got defeated by pure foolishness.

Kynan Dias:

I saw a different reading of it, which I'm not sure. So I don't I don't see that here in the text. So and and you don't have it in your your notes either. But but I've I I see that some people saying that would really loses the bet for Mephistopheles is that his contract is null and void because he loses the first bet to God.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Okay. The first bet to God Uh-huh. Was I can show you that Faust is irredeemable.

Kynan Dias:

Right. And God redeemed him.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But my question is why?

Kynan Dias:

Right, right, But so then there's a sub so what Faust and Mephistopheles are engaged in turns out to be a subcontract to the main contract Right. About about I can prove to you that you could be happy or or not. Right? Right. And so then he makes Faust happy.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

And in making Faust happy, that proves that he's redeemable to God when God controls who he redeems. So so God cheats. Mephistopheles loses.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I just I just think I I like, I I personally don't even think this is their bet was Uh-huh. That Faust will become a good person.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He did not become a good person.

Kynan Dias:

God made him a good person. He doesn't let bad people into heaven.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He's a good yeah. No. That's it. It's like it's like it's like, my lord, how do how do you prove that he's a good person? Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And god's like, well, he's up here now.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Exactly. I made him a good person.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But no. But, like, listeners,

Kynan Dias:

please please back me up on this.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He he thought about doing a good deed, and then he died. He never actually did the good deed.

Kynan Dias:

He doesn't need to do a good deed. They're not Catholic Lester. He needs to have it in his heart. Doesn't actually have to do it. Can God make an irredeemable asshole so irredeemable that not even he could redeem him?

Lester Ryan Clark:

We got the problem of evil. We got the problem of Mephistopheles. Alright. Well, okay. We still we still got more.

Lester Ryan Clark:

We said we get we got another scene here.

Kynan Dias:

But we're done with Faust. He's he's up in heaven.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He's up in heaven.

Kynan Dias:

So you're really mad at him. So

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. I don't think he deserved it.

Kynan Dias:

Deserves got nothing to do with it. As they say,

Lester Ryan Clark:

I guess not.

Kynan Dias:

In unforgiven.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

But where does he yeah. So he seems pretty happy. He doesn't have any, like, parting lines to Mephistopheles. Like, Mephistopheles is pretty pissed.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh.

Kynan Dias:

But he he seems to be okay because he got to look at all those angel asses. Yeah. Like, there isn't really, like, a final thought from either Faust nor nor Mephistopheles, and they don't get a scene together where they explain the last hundred years of their lives to each other.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Right. Yeah. This is this is, you know, kind of like those old Disney cartoons Mhmm. Where Prince John isn't dead.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He's just in a stereotypical prisoners, you know, get up Mhmm. Breaking rocks, and he's just he's just kinda like it's like, oh, phooey, right, while everybody's celebrating. And that's what what we got Mephisopheles doing here. It's like, he lost and he's kind of just like, you know, he's got his hands in his pockets and he's like, oh, shucks. While everybody else parties it up.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So yeah. So we're yeah. So we're in these mountain gorges with with forests and rocks where religious hermits live. These are the these are the fathers of the church. They're singing about purified love and how divine love shapes and maintains everything in nature.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And a group of innocent children who died at birth float through as happy spirits. And one of the fathers, Pater, is it Pater or Potter?

Kynan Dias:

I guess Pater.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Pater. Pater Seraphicus. Pater Seraphicus tells them to fly higher.

Kynan Dias:

Again, very not Catholic. Yeah. These babies who died before they could do their sacraments go Yeah. Up into Yep.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And then up in the sky angels are carrying Faust's immortal soul. They're celebrating how they saved him from hell with their roses. But the more perfect angels aren't too happy about carrying his soul in its current state. It's still too mixed up with earthly elements. I I would say it's it's pretty much that's all it is, boys.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Just drop it. Just drop it on the ground.

Kynan Dias:

But notice they're they're shepherding him up to heaven, but they're also not allowing him to speak. Yeah. He didn't ruin it. Like, don't say anything. Shut up.

Kynan Dias:

Just shut belong in heaven.

Lester Ryan Clark:

We're we're we're gonna get you in if you keep your mouth your your goddamn mouth shut. Right? But they say only eternal love can separate these two natures.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So then high up in a mountain cell, there is this saint called Doctor Marianas who sees the Virgin Mary surrounded by women seeking mercy. Three former sinners who have been redeemed, Mary Magdalene, woman of Samaria, and Maria What's

Kynan Dias:

she doing there? Isn't she supposed to be over in Samaria?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah, I know. Death is over there like, woah, where's

Kynan Dias:

the appointment? Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And and then Maria Aegyptica?

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. Maria Mary of Egypt.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Ah, there we go. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. I think the woman of Samaria is the woman who who bathed Jesus' feet during his crucifixion or leading up to the crucifixion.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Ah, okay. There we go. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

You know, that that that version, like, one of the last people that Jesus chooses to be with is a sinner. Right. Right. Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. And they're all they're all around the Virgin Mary, and they're asking Mary to forgive another penitent. Mhmm. Gretchen.

Kynan Dias:

What are you doing here? It's

Lester Ryan Clark:

it's Gretchen, guys. Gretchen is here.

Kynan Dias:

I got Gretchen here. I got Gretchen here. See? Nobody cares.

Kynan Dias:

Okay. So, yeah,

Lester Ryan Clark:

Gretchen from part one, remember.

Kynan Dias:

This is this is Margaret. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh. Is clean to Mary Uh-huh. Asking her to look kindly on Faust. No. What are you doing?

Kynan Dias:

Girl, you could do better, girl. No. She just go ahead. Died because of him. Right.

Kynan Dias:

But she forgives because she's a good And

Lester Ryan Clark:

your whole family. Your mom. You're your

Kynan Dias:

kid. Your brother.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Jesus. And your brother, I forgot about her.

Kynan Dias:

Right. But she forgives. She turns the other cheek. She's being Christian.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. So so she's asking the Virgin Mary, right Mhmm. To look kindly on Faust who who was her young love. No.

Lester Ryan Clark:

No. No.

Kynan Dias:

He wasn't. He gaslit you, girl. Griffin. He was poisoning your mind. Use use magic to trick you.

Lester Ryan Clark:

She watches she watches as Faust soul breaks free from its its earthly bonds becoming young again. Uh-huh. And Mary, the Virgin Mary tells Gretchen to rise higher saying Faust will follow when he senses her presence.

Kynan Dias:

Alright. This is maybe too serious of a question. Okay. I think it's a good dinner party question to get to know people, you know, with good friends.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

But in in heaven, you could be whatever age you want, apparently. Right? Uh-huh. So we've talked about that, like personal views of heaven or the Mormon idea of heaven. Right?

Kynan Dias:

And, like, Lester would be in my heaven, but it would it would be my vision of Lester. Right? The Lester I want in my heaven, and I would be in my own heaven.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Not this not this, like, wheezy, crusty, broken old thing you see before you now.

Kynan Dias:

Right. Yeah. When when would how old would you be? Which Leicester would be in heaven?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh. Yeah. I would say I would say, like, 30 to 35.

Kynan Dias:

Oh, really? That's recent. Yeah. That's like that's like right now. Aw.

Kynan Dias:

You're 41. Right?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, pushaw.

Kynan Dias:

Yes. So you're talking about two years ago? Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

One or yeah. Like like like early thirties, I would say.

Kynan Dias:

Okay. I think I think I would go think I would go way back to 16. Yeah, think I would give you like that was I think my physical prime. And I didn't I didn't know it then, course, I thought it was a skinny little shit. And I hated that.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So in theory, you get to be as as old as you are emotionally.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Mhmm.

Kynan Dias:

And with that wisdom. Right? But you get to choose your your body, which is the least important part of you.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yes. Yes. Right.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So apparently Faust, if it is Faust's choice

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Has chosen to be like, the the the version of Faust with Gretchen from the first one. Yeah. Right? When he was at his prime doing his most gas lady Yeah. Most criminal when he was the best sex criminal that he could be.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Exactly. And let's not forget, folks, that Faust that was a fake physical Faust anyway because Mephistopheles did that to him. Faust was an old man at the beginning of this play when Gretchen was young.

Kynan Dias:

Right. You're right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And and and and Mephistopheles was like, here, drink this witch's brew, and you'll and you'll become younger. Right. You'll look younger. So, like, if if if he's asking, he's like, lord, make me as young as I was Mhmm. When I met Gretchen.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Like, I mean, if it were up to me, I'd be like, okay. And then nothing would happen. Because, like, you you fucking cheated. Right. But no.

Lester Ryan Clark:

He's he gets to be he gets to be, like, for real that young. Yeah. And

Kynan Dias:

Forever and ever, amen.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Right? And yeah. Yeah. So the play ends with this mystical chorus singing about how everything temporary is just a symbol and how what's impossible on earth becomes possible in heaven, like Faust being a good person, I guess.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Things we can't even describe here become real up there. They finish by saying that the the eternal woman shows us the way upward. Mhmm. And that's how Goethe's Faust ends.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So when we go through a a play like this, I try to search all of the the key things I could find. And often, you know, because I can't understand what's going on in some of these in the first blush, I have to go into Wikias and Course Heroes and Cliff Notes, etcetera. So these last this last sentence Uh-huh. Or half a sentence because there's a semicolon.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm. Eternal womanhood draws us all on. The Wikipedia page for the phrase eternal womanhood is longer than the Wikipedia page for for Faust part two. So yeah. So so, like, apparently, that term, everyone was like, oh, wow.

Kynan Dias:

And and it's it's Goethe's phrase specifically. Oh. So I've done as much reading as I could go as I could do reasonably. Mhmm. But apparently apparently, this this idea of the eternal feminine hood, the the eternal woman, and that being this redemptive force was such a, like a flashpoint for tons and tons of philosophers and people have come afterwards.

Kynan Dias:

So

Lester Ryan Clark:

Are they just talking about, like, the pagan, the goddess, but, like, not wanting to to call it that and trying to make it their own thing?

Kynan Dias:

Not that I've seen. No. Not that I've seen. It is this this new German thing that Goethe is the first person to to to coin. And it is about a specifically, yeah, like, Christian version.

Kynan Dias:

So so I didn't see anything relating it to the goddess. I didn't see anything relating it to even, like, Jung's ideas of the anima and animus. Like, the anima is the feminine within the male, and the animus is the male within the feminine. Mhmm. This is something different, apparently.

Kynan Dias:

So I've done as much reading as I can, but I don't think I understand it. But, like, that is a huge, like like, fight, you know, the discussions about, like, what this means, like, like, a Christian version of redemption that is feminine. So, you know, obviously, like, in Christianity, we talk about the the three masculines, the trinity is masculine.

Lester Ryan Clark:

It's very patriarchal. Yes.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So where do we put that? And then usually within Protestantism, one like, one of the things that certain Protestant denominations critique about Catholicism is how much attention they play towards the Virgin Mary. Right? And they're like, where is that in the in the Bible?

Kynan Dias:

Right? Like like like, no. It's it's Jesus and not the mother. Like, that's you know? And so this is, like, reconstituting that.

Kynan Dias:

So, yeah, like, the Virgin Mary has a place here as well as Mary Magdalene and then this, like, this feminine spirit. So, yeah, Goethe coin again, just one sentence at the end apparently is is you could do your whole life in criticism, you know, your whole study. So let me just look here. Nietzsche talks about it. Wow.

Kynan Dias:

Nietzsche. Sorry. Freud, young, Zora Neale Hurston in with, like, American black eternal motherhood. Yeah. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Just just everyone everywhere. So yeah. So it's something different. And then in Germany, like, when Germany had its second wave feminism, like, we had ours in, like, the sixties and seventies. They had theirs apparently in the eighties, if I'm understanding this correctly.

Kynan Dias:

Like, that they were talking about Goethe's idea of the eternal feminine, and that was their, like, rallying cry around it. And, yeah, it's just, like, one last sentence about that. And then so Helen of Troy and Gretchen, who yeah. We've kinda talked about that, like like, Faust seeing all women is the same. Right?

Kynan Dias:

And not not it doesn't seem to matter whether whether it's Gretchen or whether it's Helen.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. So in some readings, it might be like a way of Goethe to to bridge that gap and be like, no. I'm saying that is a positive thing. Like, I'm saying that, like like, Goethe I'm sorry. Like, Gretchen and Helen of Troy are both of these positive visions of femininity that Faust, you know, doesn't isn't worthy of.

Kynan Dias:

And then by the end of it, is worthy of.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I see. So at first, he sees, you know, he's he's he's creeping on Gretchen. Right. And then because, like, she she's kind of, like, the closest thing to Helen of Troy. Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And then he gets Helen of Troy, he's creeping on her. Because he's

Kynan Dias:

the closest he can get to Gretchen. Right. Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And then, like, it at the end of it all, we're saying that he was worthy of neither of them. Mhmm. And that the the the the feminine spirit is even though he is unworthy, is is kind of like being a mother to him and kind of like Yes. Lifting him up.

Kynan Dias:

Right. That's my understanding of it. Again, like, apparently, there's there's books and books and books about this one sentence in Faust. So, like so I don't know if I'm fully understanding it. And then apparently, people disagree with each other and and write all of that, you know, you know, back and forth, but that is my understanding exactly.

Kynan Dias:

Interesting. And then, know, some people are like, well, there's that stereotypical, To be like, all femininity can be boiled down to one thing,

Lester Ryan Clark:

but It's like a monolith, yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah, even if it's a positive, right? Right. Yeah, but

Lester Ryan Clark:

Positive generalizations are still generalizations.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So Faust was saved by basically the mercy that that it's more likely that Gretchen slash Helena Troy would have true Christian mercy on Faust than Faust would have on others.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Because of their feminine purity.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right. So they're they are better than Faust, and therefore, they they they save Faust. So so Faust wasn't saved because he's good. Right. He's he's he was saved because mom loves her son.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And and so don't know.

Kynan Dias:

Maybe maybe that's why that's why Mephistopheles can't lust after the girl angels. Yeah. Has to lust after the boy angels. What do what do Mephistopheles boy angels look like? Mario Lopez, you think?

Kynan Dias:

Like, what's his he seems so shocked to see them. He's like, I've never seen anything like this before.

Lester Ryan Clark:

I'm just remembering Walpurgis night and he was dancing with because we we had Right. No.

Kynan Dias:

No. No. Right. Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

We had we had before that, we had the double date with so Faust was with Gretchen.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And he was with, I think her name was Martha. Right? Gretchen's neighbor. Yeah. Right?

Kynan Dias:

He delighted in killing her husband so that he could be there, but he wasn't really

Lester Ryan Clark:

into Right? Right. And but but but I think also he he kinda was. Like, he he liked these, like, older, more mature worldly women. And and then like we have, you know, Warburgis Knight and he's Faust is dancing with this like young witch.

Kynan Dias:

Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And he's dancing with this older kind of like bigger, older witch. And and they're both having like these tree metaphors. He's like Faust is calling her, like, this, like, you know, this this apple tree, like, from the Garden of Eden. Mhmm. And and then we cut to Mephistopheles, and he's like, I remember I dreamed that I you know, I saw this tree with this great big crack.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And, you know, and and and the witch is loving that. And, like, so I thought he, you know, he was like in, you know, he's like these randy I think he's just he he he's he he loves, you know, the randy worldly, you know, creatures of the earth. And then but he but he loves it in a different way than he is like he is he is beholden to Mhmm. These angels in a way that like like he can enjoy time with, you know, these witches and with Martha and everything like that. But, like, he's under the angel's spell.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. He and he's he's he's shocked about that to himself. Yeah. He can't he cannot fathom it.

Kynan Dias:

It it like, you know, Victor Victoria where Julie Andrews goes, and she can't get a job as a as a woman singer. Do you know this movie?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, no. No.

Kynan Dias:

So it's the Germany in the in the thirties or Austria in the thirties. And she the twenties, and she she can't get a job as a soprano, but she becomes a drag queen. So she says, my name is Victor. I'm I'm presenting myself as Victoria, who is my drag name. So she's presenting to be a female impersonator.

Kynan Dias:

Uh-huh. And then she gets the job. She becomes famous. And then James Gardner is falling in love with her, and then he's like, what does this what does this mean? Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Like, I like, what like, he's he's like this gangster. He's like, this guy this this isn't right. This isn't right. And Memphis off lease is like, no. No.

Kynan Dias:

No. No. No. No. They they look like Idris Elba or something up there.

Kynan Dias:

He's like, this I've never seen anything like this. No. No. No. Whoever who is People Magazine's most sexy

Lester Ryan Clark:

Like like Keanu at the end

Kynan Dias:

of Devil's Advocate. Yeah. Oh, I remem do you know who Sexiest Man Alive is this year? Oh, who? You haven't heard?

Kynan Dias:

No. John Krasinski. So he's the Sexiest Man Alive this year.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Hang How do you spell that?

Kynan Dias:

Krasinski from The Office.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Wait a minute. Wait. John.

Kynan Dias:

K r a s I n s k I.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Am I thinking they're the same wait.

Kynan Dias:

Like, yeah, from The Office. Okay. So that's that's who Mephistopheles sees up there. Guess. Like a a 100 Krasinski's.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And all those memes with the with the little thing, you know. Yeah. He's he's the he's the meme that that, like, writes on the whiteboard. It's like the

Kynan Dias:

That's right. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Whiteboard. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

It's him. Right? Yeah. So so so that's what he sees. He he sees John Krasinski.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And on the whiteboard, on this meme, says, you thought you were into into to worldly women, but you're really into the heavenly host.

Kynan Dias:

Jeez. That's that's very fun.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Alright. Yeah. Well, folks, this is we we hope you enjoyed the ride. It was crazy. It was topsy-turvy.

Lester Ryan Clark:

This was good. It's Faust. Mhmm. We did it. I feel like I've I've, you know, gotten to the top of of, you you know, a really tall mountain.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And I'm just I'm catching my breath here. I can't believe that that, you know, it's it's it's all done. But actually, it's not all done because we have we

Kynan Dias:

have Okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

We have we have two more things that we're gonna do before we close out the Faust season and take a little break before before coming back with with our new season. But we gotta we gotta finish our Faust with we gotta we gotta finish this this trinity of of Marlowe, Goethe, and the next one is, Gunod, the the opera. So we're gonna be looking at the Faust opera.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And I am specifically going to be watching the one from the Royal Ballet and Opera. That one I did have to kind of like like register on their their website and watch it, you know, to watch it streaming there. You don't have to do that because there's there's a bunch of versions on YouTube as well that you can watch for free. I'm specifically watching it because the costumes. I really like the the how this production looks.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And this Mephistopheles looks really cool.

Kynan Dias:

Very cool.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. So I'm gonna be watching that. But like they're all gonna be, know, the same just with like different costumes, It's the same song, same you know story and everything like that. But yeah, but we'll be watching that next and talking about it. I imagine it's not going be as long as these other ones because you know it's the story, we know the story.

Lester Ryan Clark:

We're just going to be talking I think a little bit more about like like the opera side of it, the opera itself and and and what they decide to keep in and and, you know, I guess how Mephisto and Faust are different in in this version. Is I think like it's safe to say this is the the opera is kind of like the end result of the Faust story, would you say? Like, this is where it comes to a head. Right? Before before, you know, kind of like inspiring other, you know, stories where they don't call him Faust and Mephistopheles.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You know what I mean?

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Well, I don't know the opera very well at all. Mhmm. So I don't know why I haven't been paying attention to all of the versions of Phantom of the Opera that I have seen that that that they're actually doing Faust. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. Yeah. But I also saw I rewatched Martin Scorsese, who we're talking about earlier. I watched his movie, The Age of Innocence, and that starts with all the characters at Faust, opera. Okay.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. There is a I remember watching this when I was very young. There's like a four hour version of the Phantom of the Opera Mhmm. Which and I think it's like the maybe the only version that I well, yeah, the only version that I know of Mhmm. That has the Faust opera in it.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh. Yes. And they actually they actually do pieces of it. And there's there's like they they actually and and it's set in the Paris Opera House. So it's so it's the Paris Opera House putting on a a production of of the opera that's in Phantom of the Opera, which is Faust.

Kynan Dias:

Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

And I'll I'll link that in the the the group, so you can see. Because I think somebody has, like, compiled just all the Faust bits from there. Cool. And you can watch it. It's not the whole play again, but, like, you can kinda see, like, you know, a a version of it.

Lester Ryan Clark:

But but yeah. So I'll be I'll be posting links to, you know, like, free versions that you can that you can find. Great. And yeah.

Kynan Dias:

And then after that, I'll be showing Lester a movie version of Faust. And I know that there are a bunch of movies about the Faust story, but this one is called Faust. And it is from the German expressionist period, and this is from 1926 by f w Murnau Yes. Who is one of the most important directors. And if you know him, you probably know him from Nosferatu, which was recently remade.

Kynan Dias:

So this has some really striking imagery that I want Lester to take a look at. And, yeah, there are some changes obviously to the Goethe one, but it's pretty close to Goethe's act one. But, yeah, some of the images in there, I think, are really key to how we think about the Devil.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Uh-huh. Okay. And you would say that this one this one, obviously, it's called Faust. It's not called doctor Faust. So Right.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Pulling more from Goethe than Marlowe.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. It's Gretchen and Martha and all of that, but it ends at act at the end of act one. Uh-huh. And it well, you'll see. We'll see what happens.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. But it is it is Faust, a German folktale, and it is based specifically on the Goethe one.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Okay. Great. Yeah. So we got that coming up, folks. And then after that, we're gonna take a brief pause while we gather up our notes and we get ready to do our next season, which is going to be I don't know if we have a title for it yet, but it's gonna be all of those The Devil and blank stories.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Right? So we got the Devil and Tom Walker, the Devil and Daniel Webster. Right?

Kynan Dias:

The Devil and Robert Johnson.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yep. Yep. Yep. There's a there's a cartoon called the Devil and Daniel Mouse, which we're gonna be reviewing. Yeah.

Lester Ryan Clark:

So it's gonna be all of that stuff. The Devil and whoever. Right?

Kynan Dias:

You can do the porno?

Lester Ryan Clark:

What's that?

Kynan Dias:

The porno.

Lester Ryan Clark:

There's a porno?

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. What am I talking about?

Lester Ryan Clark:

Lister, of course, there is.

Kynan Dias:

The Devil and Miss Jones.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Really? Okay. That's a pun.

Kynan Dias:

Yeah. The Devil and Miss in Miss Jones.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Oh, the Devil and Miss Jones. Yeah.

Kynan Dias:

It's a pun on that exact story.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Okay. Well, maybe maybe that's a bonus. No. I don't know if anybody wanna pay for to hear us talking about that. But So it's gonna be the Devil and, you know, whomever Mhmm.

Lester Ryan Clark:

For our next season, and I'm excited about that. Great. But yeah. Folks, this has been another episode of The Devil's Details. I've been Lester Ryan Clark.

Lester Ryan Clark:

You can summon me on all the socials as Lester Ryan Clark.

Kynan Dias:

And I've been Keenan Diaz. You can invoke me on Instagram and Letterbox as Howdy Keenan.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Yeah. Find more of our shows and other really cool podcasts at truestory.fm or drop us a message at banana for scale mail. That's mail@gmail.com. We got our Facebook listener group, banana for scale. That's a community for all of our shows, including this one.

Lester Ryan Clark:

It's a private group, but just request to join, we'll let you in. If you want more, consider joining us at truestory.fm/join, and look for banana for scale. That's us. You get bonus episodes of all of our shows, access to our Discord, and you get your episodes a week early. Pretty cool.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Just $5. What's thou like to live deliciously? We're not even asking for your souls. Just give us a five Pentagram rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to our show. That and sharing the show by word-of-mouth or on social media helps our little podcast grow and find more cool people like you.

Lester Ryan Clark:

Alright, folks. It has been a ride. It has been a ride with Mephistopheles and Faust on a on a on a windy Walpurgis night. Until next time, love and hisses.