Podcasts about Four Quartets

“Art is a form of prayer … a way to enter into relationship.”Artist and theologian Bruce Herman reflects on the sacred vocation of making, resisting consumerism, and the divine invitation to become co-creators. From Mark Rothko to Rainer Maria Rilke, to Andres Serrano's “Piss Christ” and T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, he comments on the holy risk of artmaking and the sacred fire of creative origination.Together with Evan Rosa, Bruce Herman explores the divine vocation of art making as resistance to consumer culture and passive living. In this deeply poetic and wide-ranging conversation—and drawing from his book *Makers by Nature—*he invites us into a vision of art not as individual genius or commodity, but as service, dialogue, and co-creation rooted in love, not fear. They touch on ancient questions of human identity and desire, the creative implications of being made in the image of God, Buber's I and Thou, the scandal of the cross, Eliot's divine fire, Rothko's melancholy ecstasy, and how even making a loaf of bread can be a form of holy protest. A profound reflection on what it means to be human, and how we might change our lives—through beauty, vulnerability, and relational making.Episode Highlights“We are made by a Maker to be makers.”“ I think hope is being stolen from us Surreptitiously moment by moment hour by hour day by day.”“There is no them. There is only us.”“The work itself has a life of its own.”“Art that serves a community.”“You must change your life.” —Rilke, recited by Bruce Herman in reflection on the transformative power of art.“When we're not making something, we're not whole. We're not healthy.”“Making art is a form of prayer. It's a form of entering into relationship.”“Art is not for the artist—any more than it's for anyone else. The work stands apart. It has its own voice.”“We're not merely consumers—we're made by a Maker to be makers.”“The ultimate act of art is hospitality.”Topics and ThemesHuman beings are born to create and make meaningArt as theological dialogue and spiritual resistanceCreative practice as a form of love and worshipChristian art and culture in dialogue with contemporary issuesPassive consumption vs. active creationHow to engage with provocative art faithfullyThe role of beauty, mystery, and risk in the creative processArt that changes you spiritually, emotionally, and intellectuallyThe sacred vocation of the artist in a consumerist worldHow poetry and painting open up divine encounter, particularly in Rainer Maria Rilke's “Archaic Torso of Apollo”Four Quartets and spiritual longing in modern poetryHospitality, submission, and service as aesthetic posturesModern culture's sickness and art as medicineEncountering the cross through contemporary artistic imagination“Archaic Torso of Apollo”Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 –1926We cannot know his legendary head with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso is still suffused with brilliance from inside, like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low, gleams in all its power. Otherwise the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could a smile run through the placid hips and thighs to that dark center where procreation flared. Otherwise this stone would seem defaced beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur: would not, from all the borders of itself, burst like a star: for here there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life.About Bruce HermanBruce Herman is a painter, writer, educator, and speaker. His art has been shown in more than 150 exhibitions—nationally in many US cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston—and internationally in England, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada, and Israel. His artwork is featured in many public and private art collections including the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art in Rome; The Cincinnati Museum of Fine Arts print collection; The Grunewald Print Collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; DeCordova Museum in Boston; the Cape Ann Museum; and in many colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada.Herman taught at Gordon College for nearly four decades, and is the founding chair of the Art Department there. He held the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts for more than fifteen years, and continues to curate exhibitions and manage the College art collection there. Herman completed both BFA and MFA degrees at Boston University College of Fine Arts under American artists Philip Guston, James Weeks, David Aronson, Reed Kay, and Arthur Polonsky. He was named Boston University College of Fine Arts Distinguished Alumnus of the Year 2006.Herman's art may be found in dozens of journals, popular magazines, newspapers, and online art features. He and co-author Walter Hansen wrote the book Through Your Eyes, 2013, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, a thirty-year retrospective of Herman's art as seen through the eyes of his most dedicated collector.To learn more, explore A Video Portrait of the Artist and My Process – An Essay by Bruce Herman.Books by Bruce Herman*Makers by Nature: Letters from a Master Painter on Faith, Hope, and Art* (2025) *Ordinary Saints (*2018) *Through Your Eyes: The Art of Bruce Herman (2013) *QU4RTETS with Makoto Fujimura, Bruce Herman, Christopher Theofanidis, Jeremy Begbie (2012) A Broken Beauty (2006)Show NotesBruce Herman on Human Identity as MakersWe are created in the image of God—the ultimate “I Am”—and thus made to create.“We are made by a Maker to be makers.”To deny our creative impulse is to risk a deep form of spiritual unhealth.Making is not just for the “artist”—everyone is born with the capacity to make.Theological Themes and Philosophical FrameworksInfluences include Martin Buber's “I and Thou,” René Girard's scapegoating theory, and the image of God in Genesis.“We don't really exist for ourselves. We exist in the space between us.”The divine invitation is relational, not autonomous.Desire, imitation, and submission form the core of our relational anthropology.Art as Resistance to Consumerism“We begin to enter into illness when we become mere consumers.”Art Versus PropagandaCulture is sickened by passive consumption, entertainment addiction, and aesthetic commodification.Making a loaf of bread, carving wood, or crafting a cocktail are acts of cultural resistance.Desire“Anything is resistance… Anything is a protest against passive consumption.”Art as Dialogue and Submission“Making art is a form of prayer. It's a form of entering into relationship.”Submission—though culturally maligned—is a necessary posture in love and art.Engaging with art requires openness to transformation.“If you want to really receive what a poem is communicating, you have to submit to it.”The Transformative Power of Encountering ArtQuoting Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo: “You must change your life.”True art sees the viewer and invites them to become something more.Herman's own transformative moment came unexpectedly in front of a Rothko painting.“The best part of my work is outside of my control.”Scandal, Offense, and the Cross in ArtAnalyzing Andres Serrano's Piss Christ as a sincere meditation on the commercialization of the cross.“Does the crucifixion still carry sacred weight—or has it been reduced to jewelry?”Art should provoke—but out of love, not self-aggrandizement or malice.“The cross is an offense. Paul says so. But it's the power of God for those being saved.”Beauty, Suffering, and Holy RiskEncounter with art can arise from personal or collective suffering.Bruce references Christian Wiman and Walker Percy as artists opened by pain.“Sometimes it takes catastrophe to open us up again.”Great art offers not escape, but transformation through vulnerability.The Fire and the Rose: T. S. Eliot's InfluenceFour Quartets shaped Herman's artistic and theological imagination.Eliot's poetry is contemplative, musical, liturgical, and steeped in paradox.“To be redeemed from fire by fire… when the fire and the rose are one.”The collaborative Quartets project with Makoto Fujimura and Chris Theofanidis honors Eliot's poetic vision.Living and Creating from Love, Not Fear“Make from love, not fear.”Fear-driven art (or politics) leads to manipulation and despair.Acts of love include cooking, serving, sharing, and creating for others.“The ultimate act of art is hospitality.”Media & Intellectual ReferencesMakers by Nature by Bruce HermanFour Quartets by T. S. EliotThe Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria RilkeWassily Kandinsky, “On the Spiritual in Art”Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil PostmanThings Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by René GirardThe Art of the Commonplace by Wendell BerryAndres Serrano's Piss ChristMakoto Fujimura's Art and Collaboration

In the final episode of Political Poems, Mark and Seamus discuss ‘Little Gidding', the fourth poem of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Emerging out of Eliot's experiences of the Blitz, ‘Little Gidding' presents us with an apocalyptic vision of purifying fire. Suggesting that humanity can survive warfare only through renewed spiritual unity, Eliot finds a model in Little Gidding, a small village that for a time in the 17th century served as an Anglican commune before its closure under Puritan scrutiny. Mark and Seamus explore how Eliot's poetics heighten our sense of the liminal and mystical, and how, by ‘scrambling our brains', Eliot's brilliant rhetoric subsumes his bizarre politics.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4dbjbjGIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadings Further reading in the LRB:Frank Kermode: Disintegrationhttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n02/frank-kermode/disintegrationHelen Thaventhiran: Things Ill Done and Undonehttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n17/helen-thaventhiran/things-ill-done-and-undoneTobias Gregory: By All Possible Arthttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n24/tobias-gregory/by-all-possible-art Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Kirsten and Jim answer listener questions from Season 10, focusing on the teachings of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Resources: The transcript for this episode can be found here. Connect with us: This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

In this episode, Kirsten and Jim answer listener questions from Season 10, focusing on the teachings of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Resources: The transcript for this episode can be found here. Connect with us: This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

In this special episode, Jim and Kirsten review the season and offer a way for us to turn to T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets for guidance on our own spiritual path. Resource Section: A transcript for this episode can be found here. A transcript of the meditation within this episode is accessible here. An information sheet on Lectio practice can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be found here. A free version can be accessed online here. Connect with us: This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

On the second half of our special bonus episode, James Finley and Kirsten Oates continue their conversation with Malcolm Guite. The group briefly discusses the third of of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, The Dry Salvages, before diving into the grand finale, Little Gidding. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile here. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be found here. A free version can be accessed online here.   Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: podcasts@cac.org Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail   We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7th, 2024. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

Ralston College presents a talk by Christopher Snook, Lecturer in the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University, on the influence of Dante's Purgatorio on two of T.S. Eliot's most important works: The Waste Land and Four Quartets. Mr Snook attends, in particular, to how Eliot's treatment of fragments represents at once both a departure from and a return to medieval understandings of the whole. This medieval understanding is evidenced in the “manifold articulation” of particulars within the architecture of the Gothic cathedral, the literary shape of the Divine Comedy, and the logical structure of the Summa Theologicae. Mr Snook's lecture was given in the final term of the 2023-24 year of Ralston College's MA in Humanities program, which focused on the concept of the Whole.    Applications are now open for the upcoming year of the MA in the Humanities program, which will focus on the theme of Fellowship. Apply now.    Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode:    Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologicae René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life”  T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot Dante, The Divine Comedy  T. S. Eliot, The Family Reunion Ezra Pound William Shakespeare, Macbeth John Donne, “No Man is an Island”  Charles Baudelaire, “À une passante” William Shakespeare, The Tempest  George Herbert  Nicene Creed  Augustine, Confessions  Charles Williams Filippo Tommaso Marinetti  Franz Kafka, “Before the Law” (from The Trial)  Freidrich Schlegel  Pascal, Pensées  Michel de Montaigne  Plato, Republic   

On this special bonus episode, James Finley and Kirsten Oates interview Malcolm Guite about the nature of poetry to speak to directly to the heart, putting words to the ineffable. They also discuss the first two of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, providing additional depth and insight into Eliot's use of pattern, exploration of time and place, as well as his references to the mystics. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile here. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be found here. A free version can be accessed online here.   Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: podcasts@cac.org Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail   We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7th, 2024. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

This is the fourth session that focuses on the poet T.S. Eliot and his work, Four Quartets. In the tenor of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, James Finley begins with passages from Four Quartets, reflects on the qualitative essence of the spirit of this text, and finishes with a meditative practice. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile here. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be found here. A free version can be accessed online here. Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: podcasts@cac.org Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7th, 2024. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

A conversation between Dr Jay Parini, a prolific author and the D.E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, the founding president of Ralston College, recorded on the occasion of the release of a Ralston College short course, “Robert Frost: The American Voice,” taught by Dr Parini. Dr Parini discusses the film adaptation of his most recent book Borges and Me (2020), shares stories of his friendships with literary figures including Jorge Luis Borges, W. H. Auden, and Iris Murdoch, explains why poetry matters, and shares the fruits of a life “lived in literature.” Applications are now open for next year's MA program. Full scholarships are available. https://www.ralston.ac/apply Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Jay Parini, Borges and Me Alan Cumming Jorge Luis BorgesBeowulf Robert Burns Isaiah Berlin Homer Aeschylus Dante Michel de Montaigne William Wordsworth W. B. Yeats Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Iris Murdoch, The Bell W.H. Auden Boethius Jay Parini, Robert Frost: A Life Robert Frost, “Fire and Ice” Jay Parini, Robert Frost: 16 Poems to Learn by Heart Robert Frost, “The Road Less Traveled” Robert Frost, “After Apple-Picking” Robert Frost, “Birches” Robert Frost, “Directive” Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” Gerard Manley Hopkins Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

This is the third session that focuses on the poet T.S. Eliot and his work, Four Quartets. In the tenor of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, James Finley begins with passages from Four Quartets, reflects on the qualitative essence of the spirit of this text, and finishes with a meditative practice. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile here. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be found here. A free version can be accessed online here. Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: podcasts@cac.org Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7th, 2024. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

This is the second session that focuses on the poet T.S. Eliot and his work, Four Quartets. In the tenor of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, James Finley begins with passages from Four Quartets, reflects on the qualitative essence of the spirit of this text, and finishes with a meditative practice. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile here. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be found here. A free version can be accessed online here. Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: podcasts@cac.org Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7th, 2024. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

This is the first session that focuses on the T.S. Eliot and his work, Four Quartets. In the tenor of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, James Finley begins with passages from Four Quartets, reflects on the qualitative essence of the spirit of this text, and finishes with a meditative practice. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile here. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be found here. A free version can be accessed online here. Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: podcasts@cac.org Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7th, 2024. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/ Thank you!

Algis Valiunas, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and contributing editor at The New Atlantis, joins Spencer to discuss the great modernist and Anglican convert T.S. Eliot. In the spirit of the season, Valiunas explores how a mixture of tragedy, heartache, and providence led Eliot gradually from the sorrow and discontent expressed in his jarring masterpiece, The Waste Land, on through to conversion and the searing brilliance of Christian poems like Four Quartets.  

Bonus recording! I know this isn't my normal schtick.... but my Well Read Mom book club is reading this for December and will discuss at the beginning of January. I find I understand poetry better when I read it out loud.  And so I figured I would record and share here.   Such a great poetry selection for Advent!  I also think Lent would be an amazing time to re-read or listen to this. Mea Culpa- I shared it at a poorer quality so that I wouldn't suck up too much of my memory on this hosting site- I think it should still come across as adequate.  

Pam Tanowitz is now an in-demand choreographer – but her career has followed a unique trajectory. For years, she and her company had an under-the-radar following in New York, but only recently did she win wider attention. A work set to TS Eliot's 4 Quartets led to international tours and commissions for the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet. Before that happened she worked and worked: at dance, but also unglamorous admin jobs. When we met at the Barbican for the London premiere of her Song of Songs, she talked about giving hope to all the late bloomers. Pam Tanowitz has delineated her own dance language through decades of research and creation. Now, the world's most respected companies – Martha Graham Dance Company, Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet and more – are integrating her poetic universe into their repertories. In 2000 she founded Pam Tanowitz Dance to explore dance-making with a consistent community of dancers. She has been commissioned by Fisher Center at Bard, Joyce Theater, Jacob's Pillow and others. Four Quartets (2018) was called ‘the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century' by the New York Times. Find out more about the work of the RADFollow the RAD on social media and join the conversation with host David Jays:Instagram @royalacademyofdanceFacebook @RoyalAcademyofDanceTwitter @RADheadquartersYouTube / royalacademydanceDavid Jays @mrdavidjaysSign up to our mailing list to keep in touch!RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign or making a donation.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New Classical Tracks - Awadagin Pratt by Awadagin Pratt/A Far Cry/Roomful of Teeth – Stillpoint (Art of the Piano)“When I'm talking to a non-musician, they often say, ‘Oh, you've played in Carnegie Hall, sure, that's great.' But the only time they say, ‘Oh, well, you must be something!' is when they find out I've been on Sesame Street,” says pianist Awadagin Pratt. “It was fun. I did a skit with Big Bird about sharing the piano. He was pecking away at the instrument, and then I entered the room and he said, ‘Do you play the piano?' And I said, ‘Sure, I do.' And he said, ‘Well, why don't you play a little something?' The lesson was about sharing and turn-giving, so we took turns playing.”In the world of classical music, Awadagin Pratt has shared the stage as a pianist, a conductor and, on occasion, as a violinist. He grew up in Pittsburgh, lives in Cincinnati, and now commutes to San Francisco in his new role as a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory.Recently, he also shared the studio with two incredible ensembles, including the string orchestra A Far Cry and the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Together, they bring to life six newly commissioned works which appear on his latest release, Stillpoint.“I was thinking two things. One, we have to have African-American composers. The second thing, in terms of the unifying element was the poem The Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, which I love. So I decided to fight. I decided we would look at The Four Quartets and see if the composers could take inspiration from some of the lines as a unifying element.“The five lines that I chose are the lines that I love, and they seem to be the right ones:At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.” — T.S. EliotTime Past Time Future is the piece that Alvin Singleton wrote for you. He's an American composer who always hoped that one day he would hear you play his music. What was that experience like for both of you when you were playing his music?“It was great. I had met Alvin decades before and he has such a lovely personality, but he was also so generous. He liked what we were doing. The sound, it was demanding because of the dynamic range of four or five keys to the extreme of four or five fortes. It's challenging because of the stillness, but he loved it, which was really nice. It's always great when a composer is smiling when you finish playing, like, okay, that's pretty good!”The piece that Pēteris Vasks wrote for you is a solo piano work titled Castillo Interior, and it focuses on the past and future gathered. Can you explain what that means and how we hear that in the music?He wrote a piece for violin and cello called Castillo Interior, as well. And that's the piece that he transcribed for me with changes, and the title of the piece references Saint Teresa of Avila who has these seven castles built on the pathway to understanding God.You have, within religion, those opposites of ascetic and ecstatic, and maybe they're not exactly opposites, but there's sort of two opposing energies kind of working together as one. And so the piece is really compelling, people absolutely love it.” Listen on YouTubeTo hear the rest of my conversation, click on the extended interview above, or download the extended podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.ResourcesAwadagin Pratt/A Far Cry/Roomful of Teeth – Stillpoint (Amazon)Awadagin Pratt/A Far Cry/Roomful of Teeth – Stillpoint (Art of the Piano)Awadagin Pratt (official site)A Far Cry (official site)Roomful of Teeth (official site)

‘Is there a plot to life?' This week, Sally has been reading Daniel Martin, by John Fowles. Follow her musings as she considers the relationship between the writer's public and private selves, anonymity, and the nature of plot. Daniel Martin, now published by Vintage Classics, is available from all good booksellers. All quoted materials are the property of the Estate of John Fowles. The poem, ‘Burnt Norton' from the Four Quartets, parts of which Sally performed last week at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, is available to read here: http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/1-norton.htm This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. Tune in tomorrow for a bonus episode…

Attempt to instruct a group of 12-year-old kids about the importance of duty, honor, perseverance, and friendship by means of a lecture, and the most likely result will be glazed eyes and tuned-out ears. If instead of a lecture, however, the lesson began with, “There once was a tiny creature called a Hobbit, whose name was Frodo. He had hairy feet and a magic ring, and whenever he put that ring on his finger, he'd disappear. But each time he put the ring on, the Ring exercised a dark power over him and attracted the attention of the Dark Lord Sauron. . .”  That story, the plot of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, is more likely to capture the attention and the imagination of kids, as it has tens of millions before them. And, along the way, they'd learn about duty, honor, perseverance, and friendship. This is the power of great stories.  The best stories are not merely well told, they also wrestle with ultimate ideas. Tolkien remains popular today because his stories stand the test of time. They stand the test of time because they engage with us at the deepest levels of the human condition.  More than 2,000 years ago, Damon of Athens wrote, “Give me the songs of a people, and I care not who writes its laws.” Christian musician and novelist Andrew Peterson has said, “If you want someone to hear the truth, you should tell them the truth. But if you want someone to LOVE the truth, you should tell them a story.”  The power of storytelling should come as no surprise to Christians. After all, Jesus told lots of stories. So have Christians throughout history.  Tolkien and T.S. Eliot were two writers from the last century who exemplify the importance of stories. Because of the success of the Lord of the Rings films, Tolkien is better known today than Eliot, but Eliot stands shoulder to shoulder with Tolkien in terms of literary output and genius. Eliot's poem “Hollow Men,” concludes with these better known, haunting lines: “This is the way the world ends/not with a bang but a whimper.” Eliot's melancholy poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which is still read by most college students, captures the despair of modern man facing this broken world without God. In many ways, Eliot was that modern man isolated, spiritually lost, despairing.  A decade or so after he wrote “Prufrock,” Eliot's life and art was transformed when he converted to Christ. He went on to write magnificent religious poetry, such as “Ash Wednesday” and The Four Quartets. For a time, his work even crossed over into pop culture. For example, his book of whimsical verse, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, became the smash-hit Broadway musical Cats.  Chuck Colson often said that “politics is downstream from culture.” That isn't always the case, but it often is. This is why great storytellers and poets like Tolkien and Eliot continue to have such an impact on hearts and minds. Their work goes on to inspire.  In fact, a simple way Christians can impact culture is by simply sharing good stories with those around us. We may not be a Tolkien or an Eliot, but we can know and recommend their works. And we can tell the real-life stories of Christian heroes like William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of the incredible conversions of St. Augustine and Chuck Colson, and of the work of the Christian heroes of today who love God   and neighbor by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked while enduring hardships and persecution.  We should share these stories because like all good stories do, they ultimately point hearts and imaginations to the Greatest Story of All.  For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.  This Breakpoint was originally published 1.3.17. 

‘Other echoes inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?'   This week, Sally is reading T. S. Eliot in preparation for her performance at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival on the 6th of October. She explores the landscape of ‘Burnt Norton' (1936), improvising scenes on the theme of memory via rose leaves, purses, lightbulbs, and dry crackling lawns. The Oxford Chamber Music Festival, run by Priya Mitchell, takes place from the 4th to the 7th of October. All are welcome, please come along!   The Festival website is here: https://www.ocmf.net/2023-festival/   The poem, ‘Burnt Norton' from the Four Quartets, is available to read here: http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/1-norton.htm   The wonderful music is by Paul Clarke. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen   Special thanks to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Today's poem is by Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965), a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.[1] Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. Through his trials in language, writing style, and verse structure, he reinvigorated English poetry. He also dismantled outdated beliefs and established new ones through a collection of critical essays.[2]Eliot first attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" from 1914 to 1915, which, at the time of its publication, was considered outlandish.[5] It was followed by The Waste Land(1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943).[6] He was also known for seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".[7][8]-Bio via Wikipedia Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Today's poem is by Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965), a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.[1] Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. Through his trials in language, writing style, and verse structure, he reinvigorated English poetry. He also dismantled outdated beliefs and established new ones through a collection of critical essays.[2]Eliot first attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" from 1914 to 1915, which, at the time of its publication, was considered outlandish.[5] It was followed by The Waste Land (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943).[6] He was also known for seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".[7][8]—Bio via Wikipedia Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Brent Billings and Reed Dent consider a different framework for spiritual practice and explore how Reed engages his own practices.BEMA 24: Creating a SpaceGrasslands National Park — WikipediaVisiting Grasslands National Park — Brent BillingsBig Bend National Park — Wikipedia_Four Quartets_ by T. S. EliotThe Books of Scott CairnsDaily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community by Pádraig Ó TuamaPoetry Unbound PodcastMaking All Things New by Henri NouwenEat This Book by Eugene H. PetersonCommon Prayer by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma OkoroEndless Life by Scott CairnsEvery Moment Holy, Volume I by Douglas Kaine McKelveyEvery Moment Holy, Volume II by Douglas Kaine McKelveySpiritual Direction by Henri Nouwen“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins from The Apple That Astonished ParisThe Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen“Your Kids Aren't Too Old for Picture Books, and Neither Are You” by Pamela Paul — The New York Times

As Charlie enjoys a cruise to Alaska to celebrate his wife's birthday, I thought we'd replay one of my favorite shows I (as the producer) got to participate in last year that we called "LESSONS FROM THE TOMB". If the title alone doesn't intrigue you enough to listen, here are some of Charlie's notes from that original episode: "This show is about endings and beginnings and the unspoken time in-between the two.  Life is one long journey of these beginnings and endings like projects, careers, marriages and even life itself. As T.S. Elliot writes in his poem East Coker from Four Quartets, to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." So let's rewind to an earlier episode and begin our journey again. As we review where we've been.  And reflect on some of Charlie's "Lessons from the Tomb".  

This week in physical media, Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski look at some classic genre fare, classics of the cult variety and some films still overlooked. They include films from Douglas Fairbanks, John Wayne and Howard Hughes. Harrison Ford's screen debut can be found as can one of the better Mike Myers comedies and one of the films chosen for this year's Chicago Critics Film Festival. For the cult crowd there is a foursome of Chucky films, two versions of a Stephen King adaptation and a cable staple from the late ‘80s. An early MST3K favorite gets a Blu-ray upgrade and even earlier music videos get themselves a collection. The discussion is bookended with a pair of must-own titles though including a sci-fi classic from the 1950s and the film which launched the great Bill Paxton into the next phase of his great career. 0:38 - Criterion (One False Move (4K)) 8:27 - Cohen Media (Robin Hood (1922) / The Black Pirate (1926)) 12:36 - Arrow Films (Blood Money: Four Classic Westerns) 17:45 - Lions Gate (My Best Friend Is a Vampire (Vestron Collector's Series)) 21:43 - Indicator (Jet Pilot, Thunderbolt, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, The Song of Songs) 33:39 - Music Box (Revoir Paris) 36:49 - Kino (Soundies: The Ultimate Collection, T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, Needful Things (4K)) 53:45 - Shout! Factory (Bride of Chucky (4K), Cult of Chucky (4K), Curse of Chucky (4K), Seed of Chucky (4K), Team America: World Police)       1:02:11 - Sony (So I Married An Axe Murderer (4K)) 1:09:18 - Bayview (Robot Monster) 1:17:48 - Paramount (The War of the Worlds (1953) (4K)) 1:27:27 – New Blu-ray Announcements

Can you understand a novel - or a life - before you know how it ends?Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesFrom Beethoven's 5th to Batman, Harry Potter to Hamlet, we want and expect satisfying endings that tie up loose ends and provide resolution. But real life doesn't often come tied up so neatly. Relationships and careers often evolve in tangled confusion with transitions that can leave messy legacies. And, as TS Eliot said, often things end "not with a bang but a whimper." Is it that our stories and narratives are in error, or the way we run our lives? Academy award nominee David Hare, critically acclaimed writer Janne Teller and director-producer Sophie Fiennes talk endings. Hosted by Barry Smith, Director of the Institute of Philosophy.There are thousands of big ideas to discover at IAI.tv – videos, articles, and courses waiting for you to explore. Find out more: https://iai.tv/podcast-offers?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=after-happily-ever-afterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the second episode of our Creative Nonfiction Film podcast season, Sophie Fiennes discusses The Four Quartets and how she approaches documenting live performance on screen. In The Four Quartets, she captures the stage play of the same name, directed by and starring her brother, actor Ralph Fiennes. For the production, Ralph Fiennes adapted the T.S. Eliot poem for the stage — which was never originally intended to be performed that way — and then toured this production around the UK in 2021. Sophie Fiennes's film of The Four Quartets is neither live capture nor a full adaptation of the play. Instead, Fiennes remarkably documents the theatre production on screen, maintaining all the original lighting and blocking. Her choices of framing and camera movement really puts us in the black box theatre with Ralph Fiennes. Unlike most recorded theatre, where there is a constant sense of information loss, Sophie Fiennes gives us a sense of the theatrical space so we get a better sense of what we're missing when we're missing it. It's built into Sophie Fiennes's direction. Sophie Fiennes discusses Ralph Fiennes's production, the challenges of documenting the play on screen, and how working with Declan Donnellan of Cheek by Jowl just before she shot The Four Quartets changed how she thinks about acting and theatre. Click here to read the episode show notes. The show notes also include excerpts from Sophie Fiennes's director's script. You will also find an AI-generated transcript in the show notes. Useful links Read T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets Listen to Cheek by Jowl's Not True But Useful podcast episode on thresholds and space Read our interview with Sophie Fiennes on Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami More on creative nonfiction Download a FREE excerpt from Subjective Realities here. Get your copy of the ebook Subjective Realities: The art of creative nonfiction film here. Get your copy of the ebook In their own words: Documentary Masters vol. 1 Become a Member All of our episodes that are over 6 months old are available to members only. We also regularly record members only episodes. To get full access to the podcast, including episodes from past Sundance Film Festivals and past Sundance films, become a member. As a member, you will also be supporting what we do, and helping us cover the (expensive) costs of hosting, running a website, podcast equipment, and more. This helps to ensure we can continue producing the podcast. Related Episodes on creative nonfiction Ep. 99: Creative Nonfiction with Penny Lane and Carol Nguyen Sundance 2023 Ep. 7: Best of the fest + documentaries Fantastic Machine, Is There Anybody Out There, and more Ep. 123: Sundance 2022: Creative Nonfiction Members Only Episodes Ep. 67: Frederick Wiseman's Ex Libris and City Hall  (Members only) Ep. 95: No Ordinary Man and John Ware Reclaimed: Reclaiming history in documentary (Members only) Credits Host Alex Heeney is the Editor-in-Chief of Seventh Row. Find her on Twitter @bwestcineaste. Email us at contact seventh row com. This episode was edited, produced, and recorded by Alex Heeney.

In this mini-episode, Laura Coe and Kevin Kaiser use a passage from T.S. Eliot's “The Four Quartets” as a jumping off point to discuss presence, timelessness, and what it means to have peace no matter what is happening in the world around you.* Join us at Little Soul School, a community of people dedicated to soul growth, soul learning, and accessing the Akashic Records, a place that hold all of our souls' histories—everything we've done in all of our lifetimes. If you're looking for a deeper connection to yourself and a place to experiment and learn in a non-judgmental, open community of people, join us at https://littlesoul.school. No woo-woo, no fluff. Just fun and connection.Come check it out at https://littlesoul.schoolFollow Laura Coe:Website: www.lauracoe.comInstagram: @laurascoeFollow Kevin Kaiser:Website: www.kevinkaiser.coInstagram: @kevinkaiser.co

Alan Noble joins Jessica to discuss the 20th century Elliot's process of looking back into his tradition as the means of of writing poetry. The pair focus on The Four Quartets with an emphasis on the final of the four poems, Little Gidding while setting the stage of T.S. Elliot's life and situation during the writing of what is considered by many, including Elliot, to be his finest work. "For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business." - T.S. Elliot Collected Poems of T.S. Elliot, T.S. Elliot You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble The Scandal of Reading is sponsored by Brazos Press. Information on the Host:  Jessica Hooten Wilson is a Senior Fellow at Trinity Forum, the inaugural Visiting Scholar of Liberal Arts at Pepperdine University, and the author of several books, including The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, Learning the Good Life: From the Great Hearts and Minds that Came Before, and Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O'Connor and The Brothers Karamazov.  Learn more about Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson. Information on Alan Noble: O. Alan Noble, Ph.D., is editor in chief of Christ and Pop Culture and an assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University. He received his Ph.D. from Baylor in 2013. He and his family attend City Presbyterian in OKC. You may not follow him on Twitter. Learn more about Alan Noble Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alan Noble joins Jessica to discuss the 20th century Elliot's process of looking back into his tradition as the means of of writing poetry. The pair focus on The Four Quartets with an emphasis on the final of the four poems, Little Gidding while setting the stage of T.S. Elliot's life and situation during the writing of what is considered by many, including Elliot, to be his finest work. "For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business." - T.S. Elliot Collected Poems of T.S. Elliot, T.S. Elliot You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble The Scandal of Reading is sponsored by Brazos Press. Information on the Host:  Jessica Hooten Wilson is a Senior Fellow at Trinity Forum, the inaugural Visiting Scholar of Liberal Arts at Pepperdine University, and the author of several books, including The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, Learning the Good Life: From the Great Hearts and Minds that Came Before, and Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O'Connor and The Brothers Karamazov.  Learn more about Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson. Information on Alan Noble: O. Alan Noble, Ph.D., is editor in chief of Christ and Pop Culture and an assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University. He received his Ph.D. from Baylor in 2013. He and his family attend City Presbyterian in OKC. You may not follow him on Twitter. Learn more about Alan Noble Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Read by Juliet Prew Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman

Read by Dave Luukkonen Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman

Read by Juliet Prew Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman

Read by Steven Brent McKenzie Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman

Read by Matthew Sykes Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman

We're at our Season 3 finale! Looking at how to use poetic imagery and poetic techniques to enhance your verse drama...or to ruin it. (Bless you T. S. Eliot, for showing us what not to do.) We're looking at how Shakespeare succeeds (Antony and Cleopatra) and fails (Romeo and Juliet) at using poetic imagery, as well as how T. S. Eliot uses poetic techniques well in his poetry (Four Quartets)...aaaaand not so well in his plays (The Cocktail Party). PLUS! You get to hear Emily laugh for a full minute, before attempting her version of a very posh British accent for good old Eliot's work. Up next, we're going to be offering you various interviews from contemporary verse dramatists, before we jump into Season 4, which will look at the evolution of the history of Anglophone verse drama from the Medieval Ages through to the closing of the theatres in the 1640's. That's in conjunction with the brilliant Beyond Shakespeare Company podcast, so check them out while you're waiting for S4 to drop! Website: http://www.hamlettohamilton.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/hamlettohamilton

April is the cruellest month, breeding. Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing. Memory and desire, stirring. Dull roots with spring rain. (The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot) The Ringside Preachers and Dr. Arthur Just explore the poetry of T.S. Eliot and his expression of the Christian Faith at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.   Topics: T.S. Eliot leading up to his Christian Conversion The Philosophy of Modern and Postmodern Christianity How does Eliot's poetry speak to Christians today? Repentance and Culture   Guest: Dr. Arthur Just Professor of Exegetical Theology and Assistant Faculty Marshal at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.    Thank you:  Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne 1517.org  Grace Lutheran Ventura St. James Lutheran, Chicago   Music: Joel A. Hess (Willing Virginia) - “Birthdays, Roses, and Balloons “ Dead Horse One - I love my man   Other stuff: Eliot and His Age, Russell Kirk The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer Literary Converts, Joseph Pearce The Confessions of X, Suzanne Wolfe James K A Smith Catherine Pickstock Graham Ward Liturgy in the Postmodern World, Keith Pecklers  The Idea of a Christian Society, T.S. Eliot Notes Towards a Definition of Culture, T.S. Eliot The Road, Cormac McCarthy The Book of Eli (movie) The Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot

It's a new year and a new Unhinged Rant! We're returning to T. S. Eliot, looking at his poetry in The Cocktail Party vs. Four Quartets. The cool thing is Eliot always sounds like Eliot. The cooler thing is that Ralph Fiennes performed Four Quartets (a poetry cycle) on the English stage in 2021. The weird thing is that Fiennes' works...and The Cocktail Party doesn't. What's going on with poetry on-stage anyway? UNHINGED RANTS are Patreon-only monthly exclusives. We're unlocking this one for you, dear listeners. Like what you hear? Come join us over on patreon.com/hamlettohamilton! (Listen on Patreon)

In this episode, I speak to Anthony Domestico about the poetry of TS Eliot. We discuss Eliot the man, the critic, and the poet. We contrast the Wasteland and The Four Quartets, and discuss the reasons we prefer the latter to the former. As always, I hope you enjoy our conversation! Anthony Domestico is Chair of the Literature Department at Purchase College, State University of New York and the books columnist for Commonweal. His reviews and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Baffler, Book Post, the Boston Globe, and the Times Literary Supplement, among other places. His book, Poetry and Theology in the Modernist Period, is available from Johns Hopkins University Press. Jennifer Frey is an associate professor of philosophy and Peter and Bonnie McCausland Faculty Fellow at the University of South Carolina. She is also a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and the Word on Fire Institute. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. Her writing has also been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today. She lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, six children, and chickens. You can follow her on Twitter @ jennfrey. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire. Episode Links: Words Alone, by Denis Donoghue https://amzn.to/3W8lquU Dig it up Again, Ryan Ruby https://bit.ly/3kl99WB Joanna Winant on difficulty https://bit.ly/3QK3Wnv Tradition and the Individual Talent https://bit.ly/2YONtSv Portrait of the Artist as a Grown Man https://bit.ly/3H7Qqa3

In this episode, I speak to Anthony Domestico about the poetry of TS Eliot. We discuss Eliot the man, the critic, and the poet. We contrast the Wasteland and The Four Quartets, and discuss the reasons we prefer the latter to the former. As always, I hope you enjoy our conversation! Anthony Domestico is Chair of the Literature Department at Purchase College, State University of New York and the books columnist for Commonweal. His reviews and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Baffler, Book Post, the Boston Globe, and the Times Literary Supplement, among other places. His book, Poetry and Theology in the Modernist Period, is available from Johns Hopkins University Press. Jennifer Frey is an associate professor of philosophy and Peter and Bonnie McCausland Faculty Fellow at the University of South Carolina. She is also a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and the Word on Fire Institute. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. Her writing has also been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today. She lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, six children, and chickens. You can follow her on Twitter @jennfrey. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire. Episode Links: Words Alone, by Denis Donoghue Dig it up Again, Ryan Ruby Joanna Winant on difficulty Tradition and the Individual Talent Portrait of the Artist as a Grown Man

Summer surprised us, coming over the StarnbergerseeWith a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,And I was frightened. He said, Marie,Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.In the mountains, there you feel free.I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land is a monument of modernist poetry built out of fragments. But the poem also turned 100 in 2022, and so Chris and Suzanne wonder: What does it mean to read this poem today? What still delights us, and what frustrates us? And what are the various languages, dialects, and registers all doing in this poem, rubbing up against each other like that?SHOW NOTES.T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land. (And Eliot's endnotes, usually published alongside the poem.)Also a new edition of a facsimile of the original drafts of The Waste Land, with Ezra Pound's notes, was published for the centenary.And you can listen to Eliot reading the poem.Other works by Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Hollow Men. Four Quartets. Murder in the Cathedral. The Cocktail Party.Support us on Patreon and hear Chris and other Megaphonic hosts talking about the 1965 epic The Greatest Story Ever Told.Jessie Weston.The Beatles: Revolution 9.Our episode on Ulysses.Rothenberg & Joris, eds.: Poems for the Millennium, Vol. 1.Some books that have been published for the centenary:Matthew Hollis: The Waste Land: A Biography of the Poem.Jed Rasula: What the Thunder Said: How The Waste Land Made Poetry Modern.Robert Crawford: Eliot After The Waste Land.Next: Bernadette Mayer: Midwinter Day. [Bookshop.]Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon and hang out with us in a friendly little Discord.

Show Notes  Our show today is about endings and beginnings AND the of the unspoken time in between the two. Life is one long journey of beginnings and endings. Projects, careers, marriages, and life itself all have an end. Beginnings are typically both challenging and inspiring. My personality type is driven to begin new ventures, loves change, and new opportunities. But I must always keep in mind that with beginnings must also come endings. But, with an end is also a new beginning… even with death. Unfortunately, we all too frequently harbor some kind of negative emotion around things coming to an end, especially an abrupt or unwanted end. However, that certainly doesn't have to be the case. T.S. Elliot writes in his poem East Coker from Four Quartets, “To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” In this show I'd like to share a new insight that occurred to me more than one year ago. That insight has to do with the crucial time between ending one station in life and wisely proceeding to the next. It was from this experience that I learned the “value of the tomb,” the resting place between a figurative death and resurrection.   Today's show will be just Producer Paul and me talking about, “Lessons from the Tomb.” Important Links For more on Charlie go to www.thenextchapter.life For more on Wells of Life visit www.wellsoflife.org    

In his poem The Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot wrote: “What the dead had no speech for, when living, They can tell you, being dead: the communication Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.” In Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Dante's Divine Comedy, we read about encounters with those who have died. Odysseus seeks wisdom from the prophet Teiresias and his mother, Anikleia (Odyssey 11.1-224). Aeneas meets his father Anchises, parent and prophet (Aeneid 6.739-983). And Dante holds a long conversation in Heaven with his great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida who also assumes the role of prophet (Paradiso 15-17). What can we learn from these fictional encounters with the dead? Dr. Glenn Arbery gave this introduction at the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought.

In this episode, Makoto Fujimura reads an excerpt from “Burnt Norton” by T. S. Eliot. Fujimura is a leading contemporary painter whose work fuses abstract expressionism with traditional Japanese painting styles. He is also the author of several books, including Art + Faith: A Theology of Making, out now from Yale University Press. https://open.spotify.com/episode/22qWbZwSKOZFHnuq7jxzb2 T. S. Eliot was an influential modernist poet, playwright, and literary critic born in St. Louis in 1888. His late masterpiece, Four Quartets, is a collection of four linked poems partially inspired, in sound and structure, by Beethoven's late string quartets. “Burnt Norton,” the first poem in the series, was written while Eliot was living in England in 1935. “Burnt Norton” by T. S. Eliot appears in Four Quartets, published by Ecco. Art + Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura is available now from Yale University Press. Keep up with Fujiumura – and explore his recent visual art – on his website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Subscribe on RadioPublic, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

Bonus episode! After the conversation with Corey about how Bergson's theory of time influenced the literature of Lewis and Eliot, Jane and Corey take us into T.S. Eliot's poem The Four Quartets to show us an example of these ideas in the text. 

Did you know that both C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot wrote about Time? About how the present moment is the means by which we touch eternity? Join Brian, Jane, and special guest Corey Latta as they dig deeper into the philosophies that influenced Lewis and Eliot's theology of time, and consequently some of their most famous works like The Screwtape Letters and The Four Quartets. When you understand that your only point of connection with eternity is the present moment, it changes your relationship with your past, your future, and with yourself.

Laurel Moffatt asks you to focus on what you find easiest to ignore.There are three layers of attention according to former Google strategist, James Williams:Spotlight - that which engages with immediate actions, like finding your socksStarlight - the layer of attention we give to longer-term goals, like getting a degreeDaylight - the attention that enables a person to know why we have our long-term goals in the first placeLaurel talks about what happens when we lose our 'daylight', that which helps us see all of our surroundings, ourselves, and our place in the world.LINKSHere's a link to T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets, and lots more information about the author.If you'd like to read more on our diminished ability to pay attention, try Johann Hari's Stolen Focus. The next time you're in Santa Fe, check out the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.And here's a verse in the Bible to Jesus as daylight.

Tim Freke is an English philosopher who has devoted extensive scholarship to the Christian Gnostics. He argues that Jesus Christ was not a historical figure but a mythic archetype belonging to earlier Pagan cults. We explore this in the podcast, and we also discuss Tim's concept of 'Unividualism', a term he coined to describe a new syncretic state of spirituality that is applicable for Western society.  I also explicate my especial relationship with T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets, an how this body of poetry seems to have quite literally inspired an awakening. .....................Support me on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/sacredwisdomWatch Tim's TED talkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hHzzS4y-8kTim's websitehttps://timfreke.com

Synopsis On today's date in 2002, a new Violin Concerto received its premiere by the Boston Symphony and  German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, with the new work's composer, Sir Andre Previn conducting. Previn was born in Berlin, came to the United States in 1939, and became an American citizen in 1943. His Concerto reflects a homecoming of sorts in its third movement, subtitled “From a Train in Germany.”  In 1999, while riding on a German train Previn had telephoned a birthday greeting to his manager, who suggested that the new composition he was planning for Boston might reflect that return to the country of his birth. And so its 3rd movement ended up incorporating a German children's song suggested by Anne-Sophie Mutter, one that Previn had known as a child. Autobiographical inferences throughout the Concerto are also suggested by an inscription from T. S. Eliot's “Four Quartets,” which reads: “We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/will be to arrive where we started/and know the place for the first time.” And, as if to underscore the autobiographical interplay of life and art, Mutter and Previn were married on August 1, 2002, five months after the premiere of “their” Concerto. Music Played in Today's Program André Previn (b. 1930) — Violin Concerto (Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; Boston Symphony; André Previn, cond.) DG 474500 On This Day Births 1681 - German composer Georg Philipp Telemann, in Magdeburg; 1727 - Baptism of German composer and keyboard virtuoso Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, in Danzig (now Gdansk); 1804 - Austrian composer and conductor Johann Strauss, Sr., in Vienna; Premieres 1734 - Handel: anthem "This is the day which the Lord hath made" in London at the French Chapel of St. James's Palace, for the wedding of Princess Anne and Prince Willem, the Prince of Orange (Gregorian date: March 25); 1824 - Schubert: String Quartet in a (D. 804) in Vienna, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet; Published the following September, this was the only chamber work of Schubert's published in his lifetime; 1847 - Verdi: opera "Macbeth," in Florence at the Teatro della Pergola; 1885 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta "The Mikado," at the Savoy Theatre in London; 1963 - Simpson: Symphony No. 3, in Birmingham, England; 1975 - Ulysses Kay: Quintet Concerto for brass and orchestra, in New York City; 1976 - Paul Creston: "Hyas Illahee" for chorus and orchestra, in Shreveport, La.; 1986 - Harrison Birtwistle: "Earth Dances" for orchestra, at Royal Festival Hall in London by the BBC Symphony, Peter Eotvos conducting; 1996 - Leo Ornstein: Piano Sonata No. 6, at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, by pianist Marvin Tartak; 2000 - David Maslanka: Wind Quintet No. 3, in Columbus, Mo., by the Missouri Quintet; 2001 - Danielpour: Cello Concerto No. 2 ("Through the Ancient Valley"), by the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting, with soloist Yo-Yo Ma; 2002 - Previn: Violin Concerto, by the Boston Symphony with the composer conducting and soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter; 2003 - Jim Mobberley: "Vox Inhumana" for live and prerecorded sounds, in Kansas City, by the NewEar ensemble. Links and Resources On André Previn More on Previn