Rowing through literature

The story in Juha Hurme's book Nyljetyt ajatukset (Skinned Ideas) is simple: two guys row a boat up the Gulf of Bothnia shore line, and talk about art. The topics cover well-known and obscure authors, playwrights, musicians and journalists. I'd be surprised if there are readers who have heard of everyone discussed there. For instance Kaarlo Uskela, an anarchist revolutionary poet from Tampere; wrote well, died young. Another surprising person was Tapio Rautavaara who apparently succeeded in many things he tried. He won the gold metal in javelin in London olympics 1948, later the world championship in archery, was a film star, singer, composer and guitar player.

Here are some extracts from Hurme's book. Here the rowers have adopted the identities of Bertolt Brecht (B) and his disciple Erwin Strittmatter (S) and talk about epic theatre.

S: In Aristotelian plays (dramatic theatre) the story or fate takes the hero to situations where his inner self is revealed. This is not the case in epic theatre.
B: Indeed it isn't. In epic theatre we scrutinize that "fate" and reveal that it is human action. Modern men do not know the powers that dictate their lives, be these powers internal or external to them. In this scrutiny our tool is called "gestus".

..
S: A spectator in a dramatic theatre would say:
B: "Yes, that's how I feel. too", "that's who I am", "that's natural", "that's how it is and always will be", "the fate of that person is moving because he cannot avoid it", "it's great art, it's self-evident", "I cried with those who cried; I laughed with those who laughed".
S: Whereas a spectator in an epic theatre would say:
B: "I never though of that", "One should not do that", "That's exceptional, can it be true?", "The fate of that person is moving because he would have the means to avoid it", "it's great art, nothing is self-evident", "I cried at those who laughed; I laughed at those who cried".