Episode 101: ‘What Thrums Below,’ or Herman Melville’s Billy Budd

About this episode

The episode discusses Herman Melville's novella 'Billy Budd, Sailor' and its themes of existential dread and morality.

Herman Melville's Novella Billy Budd, Sailor was not published until 1924, thirty-three years after his death. The literary world was in the midst of the Melville revival, suggesting that his themes of existential dread, guilt and innocence, right and wrong, and the conflict between what is good verses what is allowed had become salient to readers in the 1920s. The lads find it to be an absolute masterpiece: delightful in it's language, haunting in its human insight. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server!https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU Join us!

People in this episode

Host: Upper Middlebrow

Topics covered

• Herman Melville
• Billy Budd
• existential dread
• guilt and innocence
• literary analysis

Keywords

• Herman Melville
• Billy Budd
• existential themes
• literary revival
• 1920s literature

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Billy Budd, Sailor

More episodes of Upper Middlebrow

• Episode 100: “Dutiful Dreams,” or Project Hail Mary 2026 Film · May 4, 2026 · 54 min
• Project Hail Mary Part I (REPOST) · March 12, 2026 · 1h 14m
• Episode 99: More Robot Friends!: Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Visions’ Part 1 with Justin Reich. · December 1, 2025 · 54 min
• Episode 98: ‘Minor League Stew,’ or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name, Part II · November 17, 2025 · 52 min
• Episode 97: “Baseball’s Ballast,” or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in The Minor Leagues of Baseball · November 4, 2025 · 59 min
• Episode 96: “The Clustercus,” or David Halberstam’s The Amateurs, Part II · October 23, 2025 · 1h 22m