Audio file 32-2

Ernest and Wonga discuss the Romantic period and the impact on the French Revolution

The Romantic period spanned late 18th into the 19th century, characterised by emotions and expressions particularly in reaction to the beauty of nature, considered to have been a response to the logic of the preceding Enlightenment period.

[tape stopped and restarts, they are joined by a visitor who is unidentified] Ernest speaks of humans risking extinction unless we find humanity; The visitor speaks of Ernest's and Sonja's coming from different backgrounds and finding each other as important

The visitor encourages Ernest not only to honour Sonja's work but also his own; he asks Ernest to speak of his work - the visitor asks about the small central figure with the small things surrounding it - Ernest calls the figure "the being"

Ernest responds that his work is "as a diary" where the diary is a human expression "with no pretensions". Ernest speaks of Dr Samuel Johnson who through his diaries came to create literary criticism; that he, Ernest, aspired to creating a dialogue

[tape stopped and restarts] Ernest expresses concern to the visitor that Wonga has not found himself but self-identifies through causes like the workers' causes (including to the extreme left during 1968)

[tape ends]