Podcasts about selected letters

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Best podcasts about selected letters

Latest podcast episodes about selected letters

Lovecraft Therapy
#009 | Ruines paisibles sous l'ombre de Poe : Memory (1919)

Lovecraft Therapy

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2025 78:37


Pour comprendre 'Memory', nous vous plongeons dans le cheminement philosophique de Lovecraft, qui, en cette année 1919, consolide son éthique personnelle et son pessimisme cosmique.Au programme : matérialisme mécanique, escroc évolutionniste et révolte des machines.Sont mentionnés, entre autres, Ernst Haeckel,  Frank Herbert, et, bien sûr, l'inénarrable Edgar Allan Poe.Errata :1/ Ce crustacé dont Frédéric cherche désespérément le nom quand Audrey lui présente le cœlacanthe, c'est le nautile. 2/ Le National Amateur daté de juillet 1919, dans lequel fut publié “Idealism and Materialism—A Reflection,” sortira à l'été 1921 et non 1922.3/ Le livre publié par Hugh Elliot en 1919 s'intitule Modern Science and Materialism, et non Science and Materialism tout court.4/ H.L. Mencken (né en 1880) est mort en janvier 1956, et non pas dans les années 1910 comme l'affirme Frédéric.00:00 Contexte et premières impressions23:28 L'influence de Poe (encore)45:18 La construction philosophique de LovecraftCo-host : Audrey PatryMusique : Empty Shell AxiomSources : I Am Providence, The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft (vol 1) de S.T. Joshi, édité par Hippocampus Press (édition révisée de 2013)H.P. Lovecraft The Complete Fiction, édité par Barnes & Noble (2011)Lovecraft studies 21  https://archive.org/details/Lovecraft_Studies_21_1990-Spring_CosmicJukebox/page/n37/mode/2up Idealism and Materialism : a Reflection https://archive.org/details/WetzelGeorgeed.TheLovecraftCollectorsLibraryVolumeISelectedEssays1952/page/n13/mode/2up La citation d'ouverture est tirée d'une lettre de HPL à Maurice W. Moe du 15 Mai 1918 (Selected Letters 1.63–64)Tentaculez-vous bien ! 

All the Books!
New Releases and More for January 28, 2025

All the Books!

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025 45:51


This week, Liberty and Patricia discuss Old Soul, Syme's Letter Writer, From These Roots, and more great books! Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify and never miss a book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. A new year means a new Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons. To get recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. All Access subscribers get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. You can become an All Access member starting at $6 per month or $60 per year to get unlimited access to all members-only content in 20+ newsletters, community features, and the warm fuzzies of knowing you are supporting independent media. To join, visit bookriot.com/readharder. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Books Discussed On the Show: Old Soul by Susan Barker Syme's Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life, with Odes to Desktop Ephemera and Selected Letters of Famous Writers by Rachel Syme Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton  From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy by Tamara Lanier We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin  Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su For a complete list of books discussed in this episode, visit our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Painted Bride Quarterly’s Slush Pile
Episode 128: Put Your Pants Back On!

Painted Bride Quarterly’s Slush Pile

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2024 39:19


We just had to start this episode with a reassurance that everyone was dressed, which you'll understand as soon as you read or listen to “Pneuma”, the poem by BJ Soloy that kicks everything off. The bonkers energy of a country and a world overflowing with bad news and tragedy is juxtaposed with some very real tenderness and self reflection in two astounding pieces by Soloy. These astutely paced poems are brimming with the overwhelm of modern life while threading in historical references (Brown vs. Board of Education, Troost Avenue, and scud missiles, for starters).   Some other links we think you'll like: Sapphic stanzas Marion's IMDB credit   At the table: Kathleen Volk Miller, Marion Wrenn, Samantha Neugebauer, Dagne Forrest, Jason Schneiderman, Lisa Zerkle, Isabel Petry BJ Soloy is the author of Birth Center in Corporate Woods (forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press), Our Pornography and other disaster songs (Slope Editions, 2019), and Selected Letters, a chapbook out with New Michigan Press. He lives and dies in Des Moines, home of the whatever.   Pneuma   Put your pants back on, America. It's four in the morning & also   five, three, & two, simultaneously, you big lug. Plus, there's snow.    In this light, really any light, my nose looks like a tired potato   got punched in its mute mouth. With any light on, I want to see other people   when I look in the mirror, when I slouch in this bathroom booth where I hope to die   on the shitter, like an American, like one of yours. Clinton, TN is any other frowsy town   with a cock & balls scribbled on its playground slide & square pitbulls straining at their chains.    America, I came to bed late as always. You roll over, softly surprised & then delighted,    offering, “I forgot where I was.” I'm yawning, breathing just to get oxygen on this fire.      Well, tonight is not the only place I am tonight. Beyond me & between me light bulbs hiccup & burble    & a frenzied squirrel loses its map of maples & restarts. Maybe we ought to  take what we've still got & laminate it in frost    & then salt & then the gold leaf over spring's pat rapture.   There are things I've learned already this young soft year I don't know what to do with: one  gets a pregnancy test when in the ER   for their attempt on their own life. What to name that baby?    I worry I'm doing this wrong. I've got beans soaking, sharps  & meds hidden, the last dank well swill of our bank account  miraculously transformed into boxed wine. Winter's here    with its expressive eyebrows & doomed neighborhood cats  under every car. You yawn so I kiss you & you taste better  than free food, but you can't sleep & I try to stay up reading    but layers of exhaustion—wet blankets on this piss whisper  of a fire—keep accumulating. I worry you'll do it right next time  & I'm still attached to this day of ours, whatever day it is. Benesh   It's been a long night & your mouth already tasted like rain an hour ago. Writing often of the sky instead of tasting it, I look to the sconces & the sconces look fake & their light looks fake & I have authentic responses to both, which is how storms start. As seasons     digest themselves (a short talk on short talks), holiday cards become less applicable & so more affordable & Fox 8 or whatever news vans circle the weather or immanent site of tragedy tourism. Some nights I go out & walk the sidewalk in socks or bare feet     longer than I'd meant to & notice the crystal glass & homely bends & feel deeply the Troost neighborhood. My ears circle in on themselves, stereo sinkholes, by which I mean I'm eavesdropping & I'm sorry. I've had bad teeth forever & so got online & bought God's vibrator     as a toothbrush & sunburned my mirror & stood boldly before the middle-aged self. White as I am, I trust most the islands that kill their first tourists. Three weeks' swim away, a cargo ship full of luxury cars continues to burn in the Atlantic. A mother about a mile from right here     killed her dog & decapitated her son after calling the cops on the devil. The news: The snows. The Olympics. Rubble-crusted outskirts of Kiev. The soft snoring of our toddler. What do we do? I dither. I stand numb before the light. I look deeply. I look like Fabio     if, instead of an angular chin, his face flesh just sort of dangled & then if also  that formless dangle continued on down the rest of the frame. My point is I have long hair right now. A Hadean earth. A wobbling star. A thought floating in like pickled nimbus, ghost fart. In the mirror,        I am an amplified echo of my middle school self making muscles at himself, waiting for hair to grow, SCUD missiles arcing across the nightly news downstairs.  Tonight, I got news off Facebook, which makes me middle-aged again & sad. You'd already gone to bed when I found out Robert died. I didn't wake you up. I didn't even check you were asleep. You needed      a night & this news is not the night you needed. A neighbor is yelling at something,  maybe himself, & the still-lengthening night repeats. I rarely call in favors, but every  time I do, I claim to do it rarely, but still, please sleep. Please go to sleep or  keep sleeping. He was thirty-three. It's later still & your mouth is full  of rain. I'll tell you in the morning.

RNZ: Nine To Noon
Book review: Dear Colin, Dear Ron: the selected letters of Colin McCahon and Ron O'Reilly by Peter Simpson 

RNZ: Nine To Noon

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 7, 2024 5:12


Lynn Freeman reviews Dear Colin, Dear Ron: the selected letters of Colin McCahon and Ron O'Reilly by Peter Simpson published by Te Papa Press

dear selected letters peter simpson colin mccahon lynn freeman
Orthodox Wisdom
Fighting the Passions - Archbishop Theophan of Poltava

Orthodox Wisdom

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2024 16:53


Archbishop Theophan of Poltava (+1940) whom we commemorate today (February 6/19) was a spiritual son of St. Theophan the Recluse, spiritual father of Archbishop Averky of Jordanville, and confessor for the Russian Royal Family before their martyric deaths in 1918. In these letters we are given general advice on fighting the passions, prayer, and answers to various specific questions many people have today. 0:11 Letter 23: Fighting the Passions 1:32 Letter 24: The Inner Struggle With Vain Thoughts and the Meaning of Humility 3:52 Letter 27: Exhaustion During Prayer and the Concept of Penance 5:28 Letter 8: Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov's Essays and the Proper Attitude Toward the Temptations Which Befall Us 8:00 Letter 21: Fighting the Passions and Dispassion 10:02 Letter 22: Preserving Inner Contemplation and Remembrance of God 11:25 Letter 26: Self-Reliance vs. Social Life; Fasting and Prayer 12:35 Letter 31: How Often Should One Receive Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ? 13:59 Letter 36: How to Prevent Sorrows From Disturbing One's Peace of Mind and Confession 14:57 Letter 54: The Proper Way to Conduct Spiritual Warfare These letters come from the book: “Selected Letters of Archbishop Theophan of Poltava” -BUY books from St. Theophan and Archbishop Averky here: https://churchsupplies.jordanville.org/ -FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you: https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/ ______ Archbishop Theophan writes: Until a man achieves dispassion he abides in the passions. The passions are, however, strongly manifest only in some people, in others they are inactive. But inactivity of the passions is not dispassion. In this case the passions are merely latent. When a man enters into battle with them, they assert their existence. "Many are the Saints," said St. Symeon the New Theologian, "but few are the dispassionate (those of perfect dispassion), and there is a great difference between the two" (Homily 84, para. 1; v. 2, p. 398). -Letter 21 When we forget about God, passions and evil thoughts arise. -Letter 22 One must compel oneself to remember God. -Letter 22 Until we reach the harbor of dispassion we must fight the passions and vain thoughts. There will be both victories and defeats, but we must conduct this battle until the end of our life. The battle will be successful only if it is conducted properly, and it will be conducted properly only if we depend not on our own might to conquer our passions and vain thoughts, but on God's might. In order to accomplish this we must constantly call upon God to help us by incessant appeal in God's name. -Letter 23 Penance is not, in the legal sense of the word, a punishment for a crime, but rather a spiritual remedy, the aim of which is to rid the person who uses it of a certain spiritual infirmity. The number of prostrations depends on the nature of the transgression or sin. -Letter 27 ______ Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/orthodox-wisdom/message

Tiny In All That Air
'Philip Larkin: Funny Man' by John White (2010)

Tiny In All That Air

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2023 45:32


This talk was given to the Philip Larkin Society in 2010 by Emeritus Reader of American History at the University of Hull, John White. John White is the PLS jazz consultant and along with Trevor Tolley, compiled the wonderful ‘Larkin's Jazz' 4 disc CD released on Proper Records. This was part of the Larkin25 commemorative events. The talk is a warm and witty exploration of Larkin's -sometimes extremely dry- sense of humour taking in camels, Jack Nicholson, raccoon coats and wine that tastes ‘like cricket bats.' Content warning- liberal use of swearing… References: Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion (Faber 1993) Pretending to Be Me- Tom Courtney (Hachette Audio Book 2003) The Philip Larkin I Knew- Maeve Brennan  (Manchester University Press, 2002) Selected Letters of Philip Larkin 1940-1985 (ed. Anthony Thwaite, Faber 1992) Philip Larkin: A Bibliography, 1933-1994- B Bloomfield All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961 - 1971 (Faber) Philip Larkin Poems referenced: Church Going, Wild Oats, This Be The Verse, Vers de Societe,  Self's The Man read by Philip Larkin can be heard at the end of the talk. Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com  Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Oh! What a lovely podcast
39 - Benediction

Oh! What a lovely podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2023 56:33


How do you create a biopic of one of the most famous First World War poets?   This month we're joined by Dr Jane Potter (Oxford Brookes) to discuss the 2021 film Benediction about the life of Siegfried Sassoon.   Along the way we explore the long shadow of Regeneration, soldiers in drag, and the brilliance of Edith Sitwell. We also get very excited by a surprise cameo from the star of a previous episode!   References: Alice Winn, In Memoriam (2023) Benediction' is a shattering biopic of the English war poet Siegfried Sassoon, LA Times  Benediction review – Terence Davies' piercingly sad Siegfried Sassoon drama, The Guardian Brian Bond, The Unquiet Western Front (2008) Edith Sitwell, Wheels (1919) Jane Potter, Selected Letters of Wilfred Owen (2023) Regeneration, dir by Gillies MacKinnon (1997) Siegfried Sasson, The Complete Memoirs of George They Shall Not Grow Old, dir by Peter Jackson (2018)

Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age

In this episode:In this third part of my series on the fairytale The Iron Stove, I explore the importance of bringing together the mind and the body in the work of the symbolic life.Let's make this a conversation:Do you have a comment or  question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Instagram (@digital.jung), Facebook (facebook.com/jungiananalyst), or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith)Or: Subscribe to the Digital Jung Newsletter (https://digitaljung.substack.com/)For more on living a symbolic life:Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.Sources for quotes and more:Man and His Environment in ‘C.G. Jung Speaking' (William McGuire, ed.) Just as the Winged Energy of Delight by Rainer Maria Rilke in ‘Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke' (trans. by Robert Bly)The Iron Stove, Grimm's Fairy Tales S3, Ep. 14: The Life of the Spirit -- The Iron Stove, pt. 1S3, Ep. 15: Resisting Change -- The Iron Stove, pt. 2'Selected Letters' by C.G. JungMichael Maier, Symbola aureae mensae (quoted in Mysterium Coniunctionis in 'Collected Works, vol. 14' by C.G. Jung)'Crossing the Unknown Sea' by David Whyte'Redemption Motifs in Fairytales' by Marie-Louise von Franz'God in Search of Man' by Abraham Joshua HeschelFor text and narration of The Iron Stove, visit: https://digitaljung.substack.com/p/the-iron-stoveLike this podcast?Please consider leaving a review at one of the following sites:Apple PodcastsSpotifyPodchaserOr, if you are able, support the show with a donation at Buy Me a Coffee (link below)Music:"Dreaming Days," "Slow Vibing," and "The Return" by Ketsa are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Support the show

Sisu Lab
Sacred Grief, Dragons by the Temple, and the Gift of Slowing Down

Sisu Lab

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2023 33:57


Dear sisu pilgrim, I hope you are well and held by all the courage ands compassion that makes up your unique you. This episode is a slowing down to feel into...grief; a recognition of that something gentle and sometimes heavy within us, buried deep into the cellular wombs of our experiences and too often bypassed by constant doing and going. I share some of my favourite poems and introduce the concept of "edge emotions" by Drs. Kaisu Mälkki and Larry Green.For those in the woods right now: love is the medicine and sisu is your companion. Keep on going.“…let happy memories sustain you if your strength fails you, they are always there, and their current does not run backwards, even across foggy country it floats toward the future.” Selected Letters of Rainer Maria RilkeNotes:C. S. Lewis: A Grief Observedhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Grief_ObservedJoseph Campbell and the Power of Myth | Ep. 1: 'The Hero's Adventure' (a highest recommendation for the entire interview series)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE8ciMkayVMJean-Luc Marion: Being Given - Toward a Phenomenology of Givennesshttps://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=907The Impact of Grief on Humans at Work with George Kohlrieser on Human Leaders Podcast with Alexis and Sallyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VTojuSV5eg... and one of my personal go-to videos that in times of sadness and depression has allowed me to gently shift my perspective toward an orientation of light. Thus, open to the miracle of life in the moment:The Most Astounding Fact by Neil deGrasse Tysonhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gUWith sisu and love, E. E.Find more about sisu at www.sisulab.com or check my book 'Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu' (2023). Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it is also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age

In this episode:I look at one of the more difficult experiences of the symbolic life, an experience best known by its religious name: the "dark night of the soul."Let's make this a conversation:Do you have a comment or  question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Instagram (@digital.jung), Facebook(facebook.com/jungiananalyst), or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith)Or: Subscribe to the Digital Jung Newsletter (https://digitaljung.substack.com/)For more on living a symbolic life:Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.Sources for quotes and more:'Selected Letters' by C.G. Jung'Concerning the Inner Life' by Evelyn Underhill Concerning Rebirth in 'Collected Works, vol. 9i' by C.G. Jung'Ego and Archetype' by Edward Edinger 'The Masks of God: Creative Mythology' by Joseph CampbellThe Romance of Tristan and Iseult, retold by Joseph Bédier (translated by Hilaire Belloc)Luke 17:33, NKJV Tao Te Ching, translated by Man-Ho Kwok, Martin Palmer, and Jay Ramsay'Mysticism' by Evelyn UnderhillThe Psychology of the Transference in 'Collected Works, vol. 16' by C.G. Jung'The Life of Prayer' by Baron Friedrich von Hügel 'Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology' by Marie-Louise von FranzLike this podcast?Please consider leaving a review at one of the following sites:Apple PodcastsSpotifyPodchaserOr, if you are able, support the show with a donation at Buy Me a Coffee (link below)Music:"Dreaming Days," "Slow Vibing," and "The Return" by Ketsa are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Support the show

The Virginia Woolf Podcast

Karina speaks with Prof Mark Hussey about an often misunderstood  member of the Bloomsbury Group, Clive Bell. Hussey touches on Bell's pacifism, his love affairs, and his powerful influence on Bloomsbury thought. Prof Hussey is the author of Bell's biography, 'Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism' and has edited 'The Selected Letters of Clive Bell: Art, Love, and War in Bloomsbury.'You can purchase copies and learn more at:https://www.markhusseybooks.comFor a 30% discount on The Letters of Clive Bell:See https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-selected-letters-of-clive-bell.htmlCode NEW30 gets a 30% discount. To learn more about Literature Cambridge, go to https://www.literaturecambridge.co.uk or follow them on:Twitter @LitCamband Instagram: @litcamb

Tiny In All That Air
Poet and musician, Ivor Cutler (Larkin's contemporary) with Bruce Lindsey and Gavin Hogg (January 2023)

Tiny In All That Air

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 27, 2023 68:18


This episode's guests are Gavin Hogg and Bruce Lindsay and we are discussing Ivor Cutler, poet, writer, teacher and musician, who was born Jan 15th 1923 and so is a close chronological contemporary of Philip Larkin, although their paths never crossed. We look at their surreal sense of humour, their different experiences of World War II, their approach to poetry, letter writing, jazz, public performance and the cultural landscape of Britain in the twentieth century. Bruce Lindsay, Ivor Cutler: Life Outside the Sitting Room (Equinox, 2023) https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/ivor-cutler/ Gavin Hogg and Hamish Ironside, We Peaked At Paper An Oral History of Fanzines (Boatwhistle Press, 2022) https://www.boatwhistle.com/we-peaked-at-paper Ivor Cutler poems referenced: A Flat Man; Is that your Flap, Jack?; Creamy Pumpkins; Cycling; Giant: I Believe in Bugs; Mud; Pass the Ball, Jim ; Pickle Your Knees, Sleepy Old Snake; Life in A Scotch Sitting Room Vol 2 John Peel Sessions: https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/Ivor_Cutler Philip Larkin poems referenced: Bridge for the Living, Aubade, Essential Beauty, Mr Bleaney, Church Going The Sunday Sessions (Faber and Faber, 1980) The Selected Letters of Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 1993) Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 2011) Read more about Brunette Coleman in Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions ed. James Booth (Faber and Faber, 2002) Other cultural references Centipede (band), John Peel, The Fall, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Albert Ammonds, Miles Davis, Robert Wyatt, Spike Milligan, The Goons, John Betjeman, John Cooper Clark, Van Morrison, Linton Kwesi Johnson Forces of Victory (1979), Harold Pinter, Charlie Parker, Neil Ardley, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Sidney Bechet. Interludes – Thelonious Monk (Round Midnight and Thelonius) Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg PLS Membership and information: The Philip Larkin Society – Philip Larkin Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

The London Lyceum
Anselm with Thomas Williams

The London Lyceum

Play Episode Play 27 sec Highlight Listen Later Jan 9, 2023 53:39


Jordan talks with Thomas Williams about Anselm. They cover topics like who is Anselm, what is Anselm's account of individuation, what new things did Prof Williams learn while writing his Very Short Introduction on Anselm, and more.Resources:1) Anselm: A Very Short Introduction, Thomas Williams2) The Complete Treatises: with Selected Letters and Prayers and the Meditation on Human Redemption, Translated by Thomas WilliamsFind out more about the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture's upcoming conference on human formation here.Support the show

Enduring Interest
Marc Conner and Lucas Morel on Ralph Ellison's “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” and “What America Would be Like Without Blacks”

Enduring Interest

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2022 72:04


Ralph Ellison wrote one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, Invisible Man. He was also a gifted essayist and in this episode we discuss two essays in particular: “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” and “What America Would be Like Without Blacks.” The former was first published in The American Scholar in the Winter 1977/78 issue. In my view it's one of the finest meditations on American identity ever written. That latter first appeared in Time magazine in April of 1970. They both appeared in a collection called Going to the Territory in 1986 and can also be found in The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison published by Modern Library.   We discuss the problem of aesthetic communication in American democracy, why the American condition is a “state of unease,” and the centrality of writing and our founding documents to American identity. Ellison loved both the traditional and the vernacular and was deeply attuned to how the interaction of these elements produced a complex cultural pluralism. Although written over 40 years ago, these essays seem quite timely. Consider this (from the “Little Man” essay): “In many ways, then, the call for a new social order based upon the glorification of ancestral blood and ethnic background acts as a call to cultural and aesthetic chaos. Yet while this latest farcical phase in the drama of American social hierarchy unfolds, the irrepressible movement of American culture toward the integration of its diverse elements continues, confounding the circumlocutions of its staunchest opponents.”   Our guests are Marc C. Conner and Lucas Morel. Marc Conner is President of Skidmore College (and Professor of English). Prior to coming to Skidmore in summer 2020, Marc was Provost and the Ballengee Professor of English at Washington and Lee University. His primary area of scholarship and teaching is literary modernism, both narrative and poetry, including Irish modernism, the modern American novel and African-American literature. He has authored and edited eight books, primarily about the work of Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Charles Johnson, and James Joyce, including The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison, named one of the 100 notable books of the year by The New York Times. Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University. He is the author of Lincoln and the American Founding and Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self-Government. He's also edited two books on Ralph Ellison: Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to “Invisible Man” and more recently, The New Territory: Ralph Ellison and the Twenty-First Century (which he co-edited with Marc Conner). Dr. Morel conducts high school teacher workshops for the Ashbrook Center, Jack Miller Center, Gilder-Lehrman Institute, Bill of Rights Institute, and Liberty Fund.

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

Our hysterical homosexuals pit quotes by Julianne and Marianne Moore, then play a game of fuck, marry, kill: the poetic form edition. You can read the Marianne Moore poems we reference by clicking on the links below:"Roses Only""Nevertheless""In Distrust of Merits" "Poetry""Silence" Read a small essay by Annie Finch on (as well as Ms. Moore's poem) "What Are Years?" here.One correction: James gets a word wrong when he quotes Marianne Moore saying, "I have no sympathy for people who find unpopularity embittering," but she says she has "no sympathy with people." The quote is from her Selected Letters. We reference Michael Cunningham's The Hours, which won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Cunningham is a Scorpio and was the first out gay man to win the Pulitzer for Fiction (though many queer writers before him won, they had not publicly acknowledged their queerness).For readers and writers looking for books on form and craft:A great resource about the ghazal is Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English, edited by Agha Shahid Ali. Another anthology about craft is Of Color: Poets' Ways of Making: An Anthology of Essays on Transformative Poetics (The Operating System, 2019; much of the anthology is available for download on TOS's website).We also recommend Lewis Turco's The New Book of Forms, as well as Annie Finch's and Kathrine Lore Varnes's An Exaltation of Forms:  Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art.  And David Lehman's edited collection called Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms.Please support the poets and writers we mention, and support indie bookstores. If you need a good one, we recommend Loyalty Bookstores, a black-owned bookstore in Washington, DC.  

Let Genius Burn
Louisa Through the Ages: Conversation with Daniel Shealy

Let Genius Burn

Play Episode Play 45 sec Highlight Listen Later May 30, 2022 61:40


Most Alcott scholars cannot imagine what it would be like to do research without the Selected Letters and Selected Journals of Louisa May Alcott, these two seminal works that make Alcott's work so accessible.Dr. Daniel Shealy, however, knows exactly what it's like--because he was part of the team that edited these two publications, bringing together hundreds of letters from around the country and compiling them into the legible, useful edition that Alcott scholars depend on for their work. This is the work that has enabled other professors, writers, and filmmakers to shift their perception of Louisa May Alcott, from the famed children's writer to a more serious, scholarly study.Daniel Shealy shares his experiences working with Joel Myerson, Madeleine Stern, and Leona Rostenberg, giving us a glimpse into the early days of Alcott scholarship. We discuss Louisa's changing legacy over the years, and Daniel even gives his opinion on Little Women films.Daniel Shealy is Professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, where he teaches American literature.  He has published thirteen books on Louisa May Alcott, including co-editing Alcott's Selected Letters and Journals.   He also edited Little Women Abroad: The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-71, which recounts May Alcott's first journey to Europe.  His most recent book is Little Women at 150.

Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age

In this episode:We discuss those times in the symbolic life that call on us to bring tolerance, kindness, and patience to ourselves.Let's make this a conversation:Do you have a comment or  question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Instagram (@digital.jung), Facebook (facebook.com/jungiananalyst), or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith).For more on living a symbolic life:Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.Sources for quotes and more:Psychotherapists and the Clergy from 'Collected Works, vol. 11'  by C.G. JungTransformation Symbolism in the Mass from 'Collected Works, vol. 11'  by C.G. Jung'Children's Dreams' by C.G. Jung'From the Life and Work of C.G. Jung' by Aniela Jaffé'Selected Letters' by C.G. Jung'Ego and Archetype' by Edward EdingerThe Hawk (Sakuṇagghi Sutta)Like this podcast?Please consider leaving a review at one of the following sites:Apple PodcastsSpotifyPodchaser...or support the show with a donation at Buy Me a Coffee (link below)Music:"Dreaming Days," "Slow Vibing," and "The Return" by Ketsa are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/digitaljung)

Interesting People Reading Poetry
Journalist Theo Padnos Reads Arthur Rimbaud

Interesting People Reading Poetry

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2022 15:52


In this episode, Theo Padnos reads “The Drunken Boat” by Arthur Rimbaud. Padnos is an American writer and journalist. In 2012, he was kidnapped and held captive for two years by an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. His new book about the experience, "Blindfold: A Memoir of Capture, Torture, and Enlightenment," was described in the Atlantic as "the best of the genre, profound, poetic, and powerful." https://open.spotify.com/episode/0E57BTo2FI63XOPVyjsqrZ Arthur Rimbaud was a French symbolist poet born in 1854. He composed “The Drunken Boat” when he was just 16 years old, and stopped writing poetry altogether in his early twenties. "The Drunken Boat" by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Wallace Fowlie, appears in "Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters," published by University of Chicago Press. "Blindfold: A Memoir of Capture, Torture, and Enlightenment" by Theo Padnos is available now from Simon & Schuster. To learn more about Theo's story, we also recommend the documentary "Theo Who Lived" directed by David Schisgall. 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.

Tiny In All That Air
Dr James Underwood

Tiny In All That Air

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2022 72:15


In this episode, Lyn talks to Dr James Underwood, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Huddersfield and Deputy Director of the Ted Hughes Network. James's book Early Larkin (2021) reveals so many aspects of Larkin's less well known writing and charts Larkin's growth into the towering poet he eventually became. We look at poems, letters and prose, and how Larkin shaped his world through his writing. Larkin poems referred to- -Livings, Dockery and Son, The Whitsun Weddings, Afternoons, The Mower, Dublinesque, The Winter Palace, I See A Girl Dragged By The Wrists, Femmes Damnes, A School in August. Other writers and references: Maeve Brennan The Philip Larkin I Knew (2002), James Booth Philip Larkin, Life, Art and Love (2014),Selected Letters of Philip Larkin 1940-1985 (1992 ed. Anthony Thwaite), Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions by Philip Larkin (2002 ed. James Booth), W. B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium” from The Poems of W. B. Yeats: A New Edition. Nick Cave The Red Hand Files, The Vampires Wife blog Our favourite Larkin poem. Presented by Lyn Lockwood. Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz Audio editing by Simon Galloway. Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Trinity Long Room Hub
TLRH | On Writers' Letters: A Culture Night Conversation

Trinity Long Room Hub

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 20, 2021 58:07


Friday, 17 September 2021, 12 – 1pm What can we learn about a writer from reading their letters? This online roundtable, organised by the Trinity Long Room Hub as part of Culture Night 2021, invites a panel of experts to reflect on the letters of three major writers, American author Shirley Jackson, American poet John Berryman, and Irish novelist John McGahern. The roundtable will feature Bernice Murphy (TCD), Philip Coleman (TCD), and Frank Shovlin (University of Liverpool), and will be chaired by Eve Patten, Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub. About the speakers Philip Coleman is Professor in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. His is an expert on American poetry and short fiction, and is the author/editor of several books, including John Berryman's Public Vision (2014), David Foster Wallace: Critical Insights (2015), and George Saunders: Critical Essays (2017). His most recent book is the Selected Letters of John Berryman (Harvard University Press, 2020), which he co-edited with Calista McRae (New Jersey Institute of Technology). Bernice M. Murphy is an Associate Professor and Lecturer in Popular Literature in the School of English, Trinity College, Dublin. Her books include the edited collection Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy (2005), The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture (2009), The Rural Gothic: Backwoods Horror and Terror in the Wilderness (2013), and The California Gothic in Fiction and Film (forthcoming). Bernice was an expert consultant on The Letters of Shirley Jackson, edited by Laurence Jackson Hyman (Random House, 2021). Frank Shovlin is Professor of Irish Literature in English at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool. His several publications include Journey Westward: Joyce, Dubliners and the Literary Revival (2012), and Touchstones: John McGahern's Classical Style (2016). Frank is editor of the newly-published Letters of John McGahern (Faber, 2021).

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)
H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 8: Episode 4: Letters, Nov. 1932-Jan. 1933

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2021 44:14


In this episode,  I talk about the fourth volume of H. P. Lovecraft's Selected Letters, focusing on the winter of 1932-1933. Overall, a tame set of letters during a transformative period for the United States and the world.

Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age
Embracing Limits: Old Sultan, pt. 2

Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2021 27:41


In this episode:We finish our reading of the tale, Old Sultan, and discuss the importance of limits in the discovery and expression of our true selves.Let's make this a conversation:Do you have a comment or  question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Facebook (facebook.com/jungiananalyst) or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith).For more on living a symbolic life:Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.Sources for quotes and more:"In an era which has concentrated exclusively upon extension of living space and increase of rational knowledge at all costs, it is a supreme challenge to ask man to become conscious of his uniqueness and his limitation. Uniqueness and limitation are synonymous.” ~ C.G. Jung from 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections.'Episode 32: Embracing Change, Old Sultan, pt. 1“The complete expression of everything of which we are capable — the whole psychological zoo living within us, as well as the embryonic beginnings of artist, statesman or saint — means chaos, not character...." ~ Evelyn Underhill in 'The Spiritual Life.'Old Sultan from 'Grimms' Tales,' translated by Margaret Hunt.“Fidelity to the law of one's own being is a trust in this law, a loyal perseverance and confident hope; in short, an attitude such as a religious man should have towards God.” ~ C.G. Jung from The Development of the Personality in 'Collected Works, vol. 17.'Episode 29: The Art of Reflection“Becoming conscious means continual renunciation because it is an ever-deepening concentration.” ~ C.G. Jung in 'Selected Letters of C.G. Jung, 1909 - 1961.''The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals' by Barbara Hannah.“Distant ends, religious, moral, and artistic interests, may become as relevant to us as our concern for food.” ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel in 'Man Is Not Alone.'“To develop one's personality is indeed an unpopular undertaking, a deviation that is highly uncongenial to the herd.” ~ C.G. Jung from The Development of the Personality in 'Collected Works, vol. 17.'“The truly free individual is free only to the extent of their own self mastery.” ~ Steven Pressfield in 'The War of Art.'“All your power, all your resolution is needed if you are to succeed in this adventure: there must be no frittering of energy, no mixture of motives....” ~ Evelyn Underhill in 'Practical Mysticism.'Music:"Dreaming Days," "Slow Vibing," and "The Return" by Ketsa are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The National Gallery of Ireland Podcast
Brian O'Doherty's life and work

The National Gallery of Ireland Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2021 86:07


In this National Gallery of Ireland podcast, Caomhán Mac Con Iomaire is in conversation with Dr Brenda Moore-McCann, as they examine the life and work of the Irish artist Brian O'Doherty. Dr Brenda Moore-McCann, Assistant Professor (Adjunct) at Trinity College Dublin, editor of Dear...Selected Letters from Brian O'Doherty from 1970s to 2018 (2018), and author of the first monograph, Brian O'Doherty/Patrick Ireland: Between Categories (2009), discusses O'Doherty's work in detail, offering art historical and personal contexts. This podcast was produced on the occasion of the display of Brian O'Doherty works, including a series of prints created in collaboration with Stoney Road Press. This display is complementary to the Living with art: Picasso to Celmins, A British Museum touring exhibition, 10 May – 7 June 2021. Several of Brian O'Doherty's works, including this self-portrait, can be seen as part of the National Gallery of Ireland's summer exhibition, New Perspectives, Acquisitions 2011-2020: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/new-acquisitions-2010-2020 A full transcript of this podcast is available here: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/sites/default/files/2021-05/brian-odoherty-podcast-transcript-2.pdf Image: Brian O'Doherty, Portrait of the Artist as a Naked Young Man, 1953. © National Gallery of Ireland

Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age

In this episode:We look at the limits of a merely rational approach to life and the need to make place in our lives for mystery.Let's make this a conversation:Do you have a comment or  question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Facebook (facebook.com/jungiananalyst) or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith).For more on living a symbolic life:Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.Sources for quotes and more:“In our time, it's the intellect that is making darkness, because we've let it take too big a place...." ~ C.G. Jung from On the Frontiers of Knowledge in 'C.G. Jung Speaking.'“A mercenary of our will to power, the mind is trained to assail in order to plunder rather than to commune in order to love.” ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel in 'Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion.'Discussion of "instrumentally rational" in The Reenchantment of the World by Morris Berman.“The experiment presupposes a distorted image of [the human being].” ~ Raimon Panikkar in 'A Dwelling Place for Wisdom.'“There is no such thing as a baby.” ~ D.W. Winnicott from The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship in 'The International Journal of Psychoanalysis.' “Everything hints at something that transcends it; the detail indicates the whole, the whole, its idea, the idea, its mysterious root...." ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel in 'Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion.'The Cloud of Unknowing from the 'Classics of Western Spirituality' series."Understanding is a fearfully binding power, at times a veritable murder of the soul as soon as it flattens out vitally important differences...." ~ C.G. Jung from 'Selected Letters of C.G. Jung, 1909 - 1961.'“Love can survive only if wisdom has an effective voice.” ~ Gregory Bateson from Style, Grace, and Information in Primitive Art from 'The Anthropology of Art.'Music:"Dreaming Days," "Slow Vibing," and "The Return" by Ketsa are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)
H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 6: Episode 8: Letters Septmber-December 1931

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2021 38:36


We wrap up our look at the third volume of the "Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft" with the later part of 1931. During this period, Lovecraft was writing THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. He begins to write with increasing frequency to J. Vernon Shea, a young weird fiction writer.

Friends Forum: A Series for Curious Minds
John Berryman’s Selected Letters

Friends Forum: A Series for Curious Minds

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2021 92:05


Please join the University of Minnesota Libraries for an international virtual book launch for “The Selected Letters of John Berryman,” edited by Philip Coleman (Trinity College Dublin) and Calista McRae (New Jersey Institute of Technology). The editors and invited guests — including Eve Cobain, Henri Cole, Ray Gonzalez, Patricia Hampl, and Richard J. Kelly — will read from Berryman’s letters and consider his legacy in a discussion moderated by poet and critic Peter Campion. Bringing together scholars and poets from both sides of the Atlantic, the launch will explore how the letters shed light on Berryman’s life and work. The post John Berryman’s Selected Letters appeared first on continuum | University of Minnesota Libraries.

Short Stacks from the University of Minnesota Libraries
John Berryman’s Selected Letters

Short Stacks from the University of Minnesota Libraries

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2021 92:05


Please join the University of Minnesota Libraries for an international virtual book launch for “The Selected Letters of John Berryman,” edited by Philip Coleman (Trinity College Dublin) and Calista McRae (New Jersey Institute of Technology). The editors and invited guests — including Eve Cobain, Henri Cole, Ray Gonzalez, Patricia Hampl, and Richard J. Kelly — will read from Berryman’s letters and consider his legacy in a discussion moderated by poet and critic Peter Campion. Bringing together scholars and poets from both sides of the Atlantic, the launch will explore how the letters shed light on Berryman’s life and work.

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)
H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 6: Episode 1: Letters July-November 1929

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2021 66:32


So we are back to the "Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft" in this episode. Features correspondents include Maurice Moe, Elizabeth Toldridge, and James Ferdinand Morton. Topics include poetry, lost cultures, and machine culture

Books for Breakfast
21: Fiction for 2021; Berryman's letters; African American poetry

Books for Breakfast

Play Episode Play 60 sec Highlight Listen Later Jan 21, 2021 48:44


Welcome to Books for Breakfast in 2021! We begin the year with a look at some noteworthy fiction from new and familiar writers. Books mentioned are:The Art of Falling by Danielle McLaughlin A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion Words to Shape My Name by Laura McKenna Pure Gold by John Patrick McHugh Snowflake by Louise NealonWe Are Not in the World by Conor O’Callaghan The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter The Dark Room by Sam Blake Life Sentences by Billy O’Callaghan Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce by Nuala O’Connor White City by Kevin Power A Shock by Keith RidgwayWeirdo by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird Also mentioned was RTE’s Spoken Stories, Independence, a collection of 12 stories where authors write about what Independence means to them.Today's Toaster Challenge Guest is Philip Coleman, Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and co -editor of The Selected Letters of John Berryman. We feature a rare recording of John Berryman reading from the Dream Songs and discuss Berryman's life, work and letters. Philip's Toaster Challenge is the groundbreaking new anthology, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle edited by Kevin Young.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.Artwork by Freya SirrTo subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/books4breakfast)

Weird Studies
Episode 90: 'The Owl in Daylight': On Philip K. Dick's Unwritten Masterpiece

Weird Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2021 69:56


Weird Studies has so far devoted just one show to Philip K. Dick, and that was way back in April 2018, with episode 10, "Adrift in the Multiverse." Last fall, as another foray into Dickland began to feel urgent, Phil and JF talked about which of his books they should tackle. The answer that seemed obvious was VALIS, the semi/pseudo-autobiographical masterpiece that constitutes PKD's most explicit attempt to make sense of the theophanic experiences that altererd his life in 1974. But then Phil suggested The Owl in Daylight, a novel on which PKD worked feverishly in the last years of his life but left unwritten. And sure enough, reviewing and analyzing a book that doesn't exist proved to be the best way of getting to the heart of Dick's incomparable oeuvre. SHOW NOTES Gwen Lee, What if Our World is Their Heaven? The Final Conversations of Philip K. Dick (https://www.amazon.com/World-Their-Heaven-Conversations-Philip/dp/1585673781) The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, volume 6 (https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Letters-Philip-1980-82-Dicks/dp/1887424261) Philip K. Dick, [The Exegesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheExegesisofPhilipK.Dick)_ Anonymous, [Meditations on the Tarot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeditationsontheTarot)_ Secondary qualities (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary/secondary_quality_distinction), philosophical concept Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAoLJ8GbA4Y) Burt Bacharach, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Bacharach) American musician Philip K. Dick, "The Preserving Machine" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1902160.The_Preserving_Machine) Jorge Borges, "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Approach_to_Al-Mu'tasim) The Good Place (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4955642/), American television series Philip K. Dick, Valis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valis) Weird Studies, Episode 78 on John Keel's 'Mothman Prophesies' (https://www.weirdstudies.com/78) Richard Wagner, Parsifal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal) Weird Studies, Episode 73 on Carl Jung (https://www.weirdstudies.com/73)

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)
H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 8: Letters January 1928-December 1928

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2020 36:54


Lovecraft's letters in 1928 ranged in topics from literature to modernism to race and class. I review some of these letters as I continue to work my way through the second volume of The Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft.

Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival
Episode 15: Bloomsbury Muse Featuring Regina Marler And Sarah Milroy

Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2020 65:50


Regina Marler, Sarah Milroy with Virginia Nicholson | Vanessa Bell was a pivotal figure in the 20th Century British art world. In this session, Regina Marler - editor of The Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell - and Sarah Milroy - curator of a recent Vanessa Bell exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, discussed the painter with her granddaughter, Virginia Nicholson.

Tiny In All That Air
Rachael Galletly (Merchandise Officer)

Tiny In All That Air

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2020 52:08


Lyn and Rachael have been friends for over twenty years. In this episode, they discuss their shared enthusiasm for all things Larkin. Larkin poems referred to: Afternoons, Dockery and Son, The Mower, Sunny Prestatyn, The Large Cool Store, A Study of Reading Habits, Toads, Toads Revisited, As Bad as A Mile, Vers De Societe, Home is So Sad, At Grass, The Old Fools, Solar, Church Going, For Sidney Bechet, Reference Back, Wild Oats, Take One Home For the Kiddies. Prose: Jill and A Girl In Winter by Philip Larkin. Other Larkinalia: Trouble at Willow Gables, Selected Letters of Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite, The Philip Larkin I Knew by Maeve Brennan, Treat It Gentle by Sidney Bechet, The Sunday Sessions. Other bits and bobs: And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison, Modern Life is Rubbish (LP) by Blur, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Waste Land by TS Eliot. Presented by Lyn Lockwood. Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Audio production by Simon Galloway. Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Dead Theologians Society
Selected Letters from John Newton

Dead Theologians Society

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2020 28:58


Selected Letters from John Newton

Dead Theologians Society
Dead Theologians Society Episode 5: Selected Letters from John Newton

Dead Theologians Society

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2020


Click on the icon to read a brief bio of John Newton. Click the icon to download a PDF copy of the reading for your own personal use.

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)
H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 2: Episode 1: Early Letters

American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2020 50:05


Since I lack the first volume of the Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft, I am working off some notes I took a few years ago. In the future I promise more complete examination of his wacky letters.

Lars og Pål
Episode 74 Om meditasjon

Lars og Pål

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2020 101:40


I denne episoden er tema meditasjon. Vi drøfter egne erfaringer, hva slags oppfatninger og feiloppfatninger som farter rundt der ute om hva meditasjon er for noe, og hvorfor vi foretrekker ordet meditasjon til ordet mindfulness. Før hoveddelen begynner snakker vi litt om diverse tema, om livet nå for tiden og hjemmeundervisning, blogging og slikt.   Noen gode bøker om meditasjon og relaterte tema: Sam Harris, Waking Up. A Guide to Spiritualism Without Religion, 2014 (god og klar bok, kan være en fin intro til meditasjon for folk med skepsis til religion og alternative greier. Hans app Waking Up er også sterkt anbefalt, synes særlig de korte leksjonene er veldig gode, klargjørende og motiverende. Klikk her for å få en gratis måned, og man kan også få appen gratis for et år om man ikke har råd til å betale for den.) Dhammapada, (klassisk tekst innen buddhismen, overraskende lesbar og artig) Sparrow, «Sparrow’s Guide to Meditation», The Sun, jan 2020 Joseph Goldstein, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, 2013 (hør også samtalene som Sam Harris har hatt med Goldstein på sin podkast Making sense (ep.4, 15, 63), de gir mye bakgrunn i hvordan østlige meditasjonspraksiser kom til vesten.) Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance, 2003 David Treleaven, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, 2019 Ajahn Chah, masse interessante foredrag og bøker, ofte gratis tilgjengelig på nett, feks her Ajahn Anan, The World and the Heart, Seeking Buddho (fine samlinger med korte tekster om meditasjon, fra den thailandske skogskloster-retningen etter Ajahn Chah) Shunryu Suzuki, Zen-sinn, begynner-sinn. Undervisning i zen-meditasjon, 2000 [1970] Viggo Johansen, Indre stillhet, 2013, Stille vitne,2015 ((for de som vil lese greie innføringsbøker på norsk. Er ikke alltid så glad i forklaringene og stilen, men særlig den første boken er en interessant innføring i meditasjon, buddhismen og en interessant selvbiografi) Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body, 2017 Cal Newport, Deep Work, 2016, Digital Minimalism, 2019 Ole Jacob Madsen, «Det er innover vi må gå», 2014 (flott samfunnskritisk blikk på selvhjelp og lignende retninger, viktige aspekter å få med) Winifred Gallagher, Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, 2009 (kort og god bok om hvorfor oppmerksomhet og fokus er verdt å fokusere på) Seneca, Selected Letters (klassisk klokskap, fortsatt ikke gått ut på dato) Willoughby Brittons Cheetah House, som tilbyr støtte og ressurser for folk som har hatt negative og skadelige effekter av meditasjon. Hør også Sam Harris samtale med henne og Jared Lindahl på Waking up, eller på podkasten 10 Percent Happier. Her er artikkelen fra forskning.no, «Meditasjon kan også gi ubehagelige opplevelser», av Karoline Spanthus Bjørnfeldt, publisert 6.juni 2019 ---------------------------- Logoen vår er laget av Sveinung Sudbø, se hans arbeider på originalkopi.com Musikken er av Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, se facebooksiden Nygrenda Vev og Dur for mer info. ---------------------------- Takk for at du hører på. Ta kontakt med oss på vår facebookside eller på larsogpaal@gmail.com Det finnes ingen bedre måte å få spredt podkasten vår til flere enn via dere lyttere, så takk om du deler eller forteller andre om oss. Både Lars og Pål skriver nå på hver sin blogg, med litt varierende regelmessighet. Du finner dem på disse nettsidene: https://paljabekk.com/ https://larssandaker.blogspot.com/   Alt godt, hilsen Lars og Pål

Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft

In which Lovecraft opines to his young friend Frank Belknap Long about the perils of pornography and includes a ribald cautionary poem in an 18th century style to drive the point home. Yes, this episode is safe for work.   Thanks to Arkham House for their Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft.

Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft
Anything But The White Ape

Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2020 49:56


In which HPL writes to Edwin Baird, his first editor at Weird Tales. They talk a bit of business before HPL launches into his autobiography. Yes, we have no bananas. Lovecraft mentions the name of his childhood cat in this letter, and after wrestling with very mixed feelings Andrew chose to bleep it. Thanks to Arkham House for their Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft.

Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft
Sex, Drugs and Marketing

Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2019 24:59


A set of three shorter letters written one hundred years ago, in which 29-year-old HPL dispenses relationship and life advice to one of his earliest correspondents, Rheinhart Kleiner. Hear of Lovecraft's encouragement to the lovelorn, his temptation to try the dreaded cannabis, and more! These letters come from The Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft Volume I. Our deepest thanks to Arkham House Publishing. You can find them at www.arkhamhouse.com Music by Troy Sterling Nies.

The Earful Tower: Paris
Good books about Paris according to a local bookseller

The Earful Tower: Paris

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2019 34:20


Hello everyone! This week it's Penelope Fletcher, who runs The Red Wheelbarrow Bookshop in Paris.  If you want to find the shop, it's at 9 Rue de Médicis, 75006. Here are all the books that Penelope mentioned, in order: Books for adults Stories from the Magic Canoe of Wa'xaid, by Cecil Paul.  A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway. Selected Letters, by Madame De Sevigne. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein. The Flight Portfolio, by Julie Orringer. Almost French, by Sarah Turnbull. Circe, by Madeline Miller. Walking on the Ceiling, by Aysegül Savas. Demystifying the French, by Janet Hulstrand. Books for children Paris Chien, Adventures of an Expat Dog, by Jackie Clark. Marielle in Paris, by Maxine Schur. I'm sure you can find these and more at The Red Wheelbarrow. Check out the site here. Support the Earful Tower on Patreon here for more info on events like the coffee tasting mentioned in today's episode. And a grand merci to Fat Tire Tours, who are offering a ten percent discount on worldwide tours if you use the code word Earful at the checkout. Find out more here.     

Book Cougars
Episode 37 - Boyne, Cather, Harper, Hoeg, Patel and a Joint Jaunt Re-enactment

Book Cougars

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2018 40:28


Episode Thirty Seven Show Notes CW = Chris Wolak EF = Emily Fine Join our Goodreads Group! Let us know what you want us to choose as the next read along. You can email, tweet or join the discussion on the Goodreads page. We have an upcoming read-along: February – Maurice by E.M. Forster Send in questions or comments by March 1st – we will discuss on March 6th episode The 2018 Edgar Awards were announced. Check out the list here – your TBR is about to grow! – Currently Reading/Listening – Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2) – Jane Harper (CW) Jane Steele – Lyndsay Faye (EF)(audio) The Selected Letters of Willa Cather – Willa Cather, Andrew Jewell (CW) Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook – Ina Garten (EF) Ingredienti : Marcella’s Guide to the Market – Marcella and Victor Hazan (EF) – Just Read – My Friend Fear: Finding Magic in the Unknown – Meera Lee Patel (EF) Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Hoeg (CW) The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne (EF) My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy #3) – Willa Cather (CW) (100 year anniversary!) – Biblio Adventures – Chris kicked-off the Willa Cather Book Club at the Bookclub Bookstore & More in South Windsor, CT. Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to Whitlock’s Book Barn in Bethany, CT. Chris wrote about it on her blog. Chris bought two Peter Hoeg books: History of Danish Dreams Borderliners Chris put in another volunteer day at the Institute Library in New Haven, CT. Feb 17-18 – Pequot Library Mid-Winter Booksale – Upcoming Jaunts – January 25, 2018 - Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko, will be at RJ Julia’s Booksellers in conversation with the Book Cougars! February 7, 2018 – Emily is taking her gentleman caller to Wesleyan RJ Julia to see Jeffers Lennox discuss his book Homelands and Empires: Indigenous Spaces, Imperial Fictions, and Competition for Territory in Northeastern North America, 1690-1763. Join Chris on April 19th at 2:00 at Bookclub Bookstore & More in South Windsor, CT for the quarterly Willa Cather book club discussion of The Song of the Lark. – Upcoming Reads – Free Food for Millionaires – Min Jin Lee (CW) The Versions of Us – Laura Barnett (EF) – Also Mentioned – Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway – Anna Jeffers Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1) – Stieg Larsson The Absolutist – John Boyne

Book Cougars
Episode 35 - Chris & Emily Discuss Their Top Reads Of 2017

Book Cougars

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2017 65:20


Episode Thirty Five Show Notes CW = Chris Wolak EF = Emily Fine Join our Goodreads Group! Let us know what you want us to choose as the next read along. You can email, tweet or join the discussion on the Goodreads page. We have an upcoming read-along: February – Maurice by E.M. Forster. – Just Read – Chris DNF’d a book: Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay The Rules of Magic – Alice Hoffman (EF) Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival – Velma Wallis (CW) Cove – Cynan Jones (EF) The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir – Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (EF) – Currently Reading/Listening – Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II – Liza Mundy (CW) (audio) The Selected Letters of Willa Cather – Willa Cather, Andrew Jewell (CW) Someone – Alice McDermott (EF) What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky – Lesley Nneka Arimah (EF) – Biblio Adventures – Emily went to both the Guilford Library and the Glastonbury Welles Turner Library Chris is volunteering and spending time at the Institute Library in New Haven – Upcoming Jaunts – Chris is heading to RJ Julia in Madison to see Paul Kix discuss his book The Saboteur: The Aristocrat Who Became France’s Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando Savoy Bookshop & Café has a New Year’s Day sale with 25% off everything Jan 8 – Kelly Corrigan in Conversation with Ariel Levy at the 92nd St Y – Upcoming Reads – The Immortalists – Chloe Benjamin (CW) Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns & Encountering Naked Reality – Pema Chödrön (EF) (audio) – Top Reads of 2017 – Emily’s favorite reads: Top Nonfiction B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good – Ryan Honeyman (EF) Favorite Memoirs Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body – Roxane Gay (EF) It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool, Too) – Nora McInerny Purmort (EF) The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir – Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (EF) Favorite Fiction The Mothers – Brit Bennett (EF) News of the World – Paulette Jiles (EF) Plainsong (Plainsong #1) – Kent Haruf (EF) Chris’s favorite reads: See Her Blog Post On Gift Ideas Mastering the Art of Self-Expression & More – Laura Thoma (CW) Young Adult-ish Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World – Sarah Prager (CW) Favorite Mysteries The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) – Jane Harper (CW) And Fire Came Down (Caleb Zelic #2) – Emma Viskic (CW) New Haven Noir – edited by Amy Bloom (CW) Favorite Fiction Pachinko – Min Jin Lee (CW) The Leavers – Lisa Ko (CW) The Gypsy Moth Summer – Julia Fierro (CW) Non-Fiction Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body – Roxane Gay (CW)(audio) Going and Goodbye: A Memoir – Shuly Xóchitl Cawood (CW) OSS Operation Black Mail: One Woman’s Covert War Against the Imperial Japanese Army – Ann Todd (CW) – Also Mentioned – Libro.fm – audiobook subscription service Zora Neale Hurston – Barracoon // Their Eyes Were Watching God Chicago Review of Books Velma Wallis – Bird Girl & the Man Who Followed the Sun: An Athabaskan Indian Legend from Alaska Alice McDermott – The Ninth Hour: A Novel // Charming Billy Road to Success with Laura Thoma Dave Eggers – What is the What Jennifer Egan – Manhattan Beach

The Next Track
Episode #80 – John Cage

The Next Track

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2017 46:08


We welcome Laura Kuhn, executive director of the John Cage Trust, to discuss the life and legacy of composer John Cage. “I am most interested in music that doesn't say anything.” John Cage, 1991 This week’s guest: Laura Kuhn, executive director of the John Cage Trust Show notes: The Selected Letters of John Cage John Cage Unbound: A Living Archive (New York Public Library) Episode #69 – Brian Brandt of Mode Records on John Cage, Morton Feldman, and the Music Business Diary: How To Improve The World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) (1991) John Cage / Morton Feldman: Radio Happenings I – V John Cage & Morton Feldman Radio Happenings (book and DVD) John Cage performing Water Walk on I’ve Got a Secret (1960): John Cale on I’ve Got a Secret (1963): Mesostics Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage 4’33” (Wikipedia) No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage’s 4’33” The Curious Score for John Cage's “Silent” Zen Composition 4'33” 4’33” score Freeman Etudes (Books One & Two), Freeman Etudes (Books Three & Four) Number Pieces (Wikipedia) Ryoanji Drawings Recommended pieces; Apple Music links: String Quartet in Four Parts, Lasalle Quartet Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano (first recording by Maro Ajemian) 74 Third Construction Cheap Imitation Ryoanji Our next tracks: Kirk: ECM playlist Doug: Ben Waters: Boogie 4 Stu – A Tribute to Ian Stewart If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast. Special Guest: Laura Kuhn.

Breaking History Podcast
Episode 17: Soviet Film and the 100th Anniversary of the October Revolution with Harlow Robinson

Breaking History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2017 56:54


Join us as we interview Dr. Harlow Robinson on the 100th anniversary of the Russia's October Revolution. How is the October Revolution remembered? What is its legacy? How did Soviet filmmakers and American filmmakers interact? How did Dr. Robinson navigate academia during the Cold War? How did Russian emigres influence the study of Soviet history in the US? How is the Soviet Union remembered today? Dr. Robinson also reflects on his academic career as he approaches teaching retirement (though not writing retirement!) Matthews Distinguished University Professor Dr. Harlow Robinson is a specialist in Soviet and Russian cultural history, and has written widely on Soviet film and the performing arts. His major publications include Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography, which has appeared in five editions; The Last Impresario: The Life, Times and Legacy of Sol Hurok; and Selected Letters of Sergei Prokofiev, which he edited and translated. His book, Russians in Hollywood: Hollywood’s Russians was published in 2007. He has also contributed numerous essays, articles and reviews to The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Opera News, Opera Quarterly, Dance, Playbill, Symphony and other publications. As a lecturer, he has appeared at the Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Aspen Music Festival and Bard Festival. He has also worked as a consultant for numerous performing arts organizations, and as a writer and commentator for PBS, NPR and the Canadian Broadcasting System. Books mentioned in the episode: The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24040192-the-new-tsar The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia by Tim Tzouliadis https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3171446-the-forsaken Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17262126-mastering-the-art-of-soviet-cooking City of Thieves by David Benioff https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1971304.City_of_Thieves A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29430012-a-gentleman-in-moscow The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association. Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser and Dan Squizzero Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Club Book
Club Book Episode 57 Julie Rivett

Club Book

Play Episode Listen Later May 2, 2017 59:51


Julie Rivett is a scholar and granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett, author of the 1929 detective classic The Maltese Falcon. Hammett is considered the father of the “hard-boiled” style of detective writing, and The Maltese Falcon is undoubtedly his opus. Julie Rivett has edited five books on her celebrated grandfather’s work, including: Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett (2001), Dashiell Hammett: A […]

Club Book
Club Book Episode 57 Julie Rivett

Club Book

Play Episode Listen Later May 2, 2017 59:51


Julie Rivett is a scholar and granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett, author of the 1929 detective classic The Maltese Falcon. Hammett is considered the father of the “hard-boiled” style of detective writing, and The Maltese Falcon is undoubtedly his opus. Julie Rivett has edited five books on her celebrated grandfather’s work, including: Selected Letters of Dashiell […]

Heartland History
Andrew Jewell,Professor of Digital Projects at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries

Heartland History

Play Episode Listen Later May 2, 2017 39:12


Andrew Jewell is a Professor of Digital Projects at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries and the editor of the Willa Cather Archive. Andy has published several essays on Willa Cather and other American writers, scholarly editing, and digital humanities. He is co-editor of the book The American Literature Scholar in the Digital Age (University of Michigan Press, 2011) and has edited, with Janis P. Stout, The Selected Letters of Willa Cather(Knopf, 2013). He also serves as co-editor of the open-access, digital journal Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing.

StoryWeb: Storytime for Grownups
092: Willa Cather: "O Pioneers!"

StoryWeb: Storytime for Grownups

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2016 22:31


This week on StoryWeb: Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers! for Amy Young For many of us, certain books immediately release a flood of memories – where we were when we first read them, friends and relatives who read the books with us. Such is the case for me with Willa Cather’s 1913 novel, O Pioneers! This wonderful book calls to mind Shepherdstown, West Virginia, almost twenty-five years ago. My new friend Amy and I were sharing book after book, poem after poem, film after film with each other. We’d met in Shepherdstown’s just-opened independent bookstore, Four Seasons Books, where Amy was a sales clerk and I was a customer. Since the beautiful October day that first brought us together, we’d been reveling in our shared love of literature. So it was inevitable that we’d be plopped in front of Amy’s TV when Jessica Lange’s made-for-TV adaptation of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! premiered as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special. Perhaps the Hallmark branding should have tipped us off. It’s not that the movie was terrible. It’s more that it made us laugh – and O Pioneers! is most certainly not a comedy. Of special note was Lange’s feigned Nebraska accent, the overdone quality of which sent Amy and I into fits of laughter. Every three minutes, it seemed, Lange – who was playing the heroine, Alexandra Bergson – sang the praises of “the land.” But this nails-on-a-chalkboard television adaptation didn’t diminish our love of Cather or her marvelous novel. Both Amy and I had read a lot of Cather’s work – My Ántonia, A Lost Lady, Death Comes for the Archbishop, The Song of the Lark, My Mortal Enemy, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, and of course, O Pioneers!, which is perhaps the great work of the prairie. Even if she was a bit tone deaf in her accent, Lange was nevertheless right to emphasize “the land,” for the sheer fact of the land – the huge, sprawling, open, expansive prairie land – is indeed the heart of everything on the Great Plains. Unlikely as it would be in prairie culture and as unpleasant as it is to her brothers, Alexandra Bergson is the primary architect of her family’s land. It falls to her to take their inherited land and shape it into something robust, fertile, productive, rich. That she does just that is the proof Cather offers that a fully realized female protagonist can be a full-on hero of the story, that she can be identified with the land and bring it to its full fruition. Ready to read O Pioneers? You can do so for free at Project Gutenberg, but you’ll probably want a hard copy of this magnificent book. And if you like geeking out on literary criticism, then exploring Willa Cather scholarship will yield significant rewards. I especially recommend my friend Janis Stout’s extensive work on Cather. She has written a biography – Willa Cather: The Writer and Her World – and has edited The Selected Letters of Willa Cather. You might also find her critical study of Cather and Mary Austin interesting: it’s titled Picturing a Different West: Vision, Illustration, and the Tradition of Cather and Austin. Another of my favorites is Judith Fryer’s completely imaginative response to Cather’s work in Felicitous Space, which looks also at the work of Edith Wharton. For more on Cather, check out the earlier StoryWeb post on My Ántonia. For links to all these resources, visit thestoryweb.com/pioneers. When I think of Willa Cather, I think of my dear friend Amy. What books take you back in time? Listen now as I read Chapter Two of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! In this scene, the dying patriarch, John Bergson, bequeaths the family land to his daughter, Alexandra.   On one of the ridges of that wintry waste stood the low log house in which John Bergson was dying. The Bergson homestead was easier to find than many another, because it overlooked Norway Creek, a shallow, muddy stream that sometimes flowed, and sometimes stood still, at the bottom of a winding ravine with steep, shelving sides overgrown with brush and cottonwoods and dwarf ash. This creek gave a sort of identity to the farms that bordered upon it. Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening. The houses on the Divide were small and were usually tucked away in low places; you did not see them until you came directly upon them. Most of them were built of the sod itself, and were only the unescapable ground in another form. The roads were but faint tracks in the grass, and the fields were scarcely noticeable. The record of the plow was insignificant, like the feeble scratches on stone left by prehistoric races, so indeterminate that they may, after all, be only the markings of glaciers, and not a record of human strivings. In eleven long years John Bergson had made but little impression upon the wild land he had come to tame. It was still a wild thing that had its ugly moods; and no one knew when they were likely to come, or why. Mischance hung over it. Its Genius was unfriendly to man. The sick man was feeling this as he lay looking out of the window, after the doctor had left him, on the day following Alexandra's trip to town. There it lay outside his door, the same land, the same lead-colored miles. He knew every ridge and draw and gully between him and the horizon. To the south, his plowed fields; to the east, the sod stables, the cattle corral, the pond,—and then the grass. Bergson went over in his mind the things that had held him back. One winter his cattle had perished in a blizzard. The next summer one of his plow horses broke its leg in a prairiedog hole and had to be shot. Another summer he lost his hogs from cholera, and a valuable stallion died from a rattlesnake bite. Time and again his crops had failed. He had lost two children, boys, that came between Lou and Emil, and there had been the cost of sickness and death. Now, when he had at last struggled out of debt, he was going to die himself. He was only forty-six, and had, of course, counted upon more time. Bergson had spent his first five years on the Divide getting into debt, and the last six getting out. He had paid off his mortgages and had ended pretty much where he began, with the land. He owned exactly six hundred and forty acres of what stretched outside his door; his own original homestead and timber claim, making three hundred and twenty acres, and the half-section adjoining, the homestead of a younger brother who had given up the fight, gone back to Chicago to work in a fancy bakery and distinguish himself in a Swedish athletic club. So far John had not attempted to cultivate the second half-section, but used it for pasture land, and one of his sons rode herd there in open weather. John Bergson had the Old-World belief that land, in itself, is desirable. But this land was an enigma. It was like a horse that no one knows how to break to harness, that runs wild and kicks things to pieces. He had an idea that no one understood how to farm it properly, and this he often discussed with Alexandra. Their neighbors, certainly, knew even less about farming than he did. Many of them had never worked on a farm until they took up their homesteads. They had been HANDWERKERS at home; tailors, locksmiths, joiners, cigar-makers, etc. Bergson himself had worked in a shipyard. For weeks, John Bergson had been thinking about these things. His bed stood in the sitting-room, next to the kitchen. Through the day, while the baking and washing and ironing were going on, the father lay and looked up at the roof beams that he himself had hewn, or out at the cattle in the corral. He counted the cattle over and over. It diverted him to speculate as to how much weight each of the steers would probably put on by spring. He often called his daughter in to talk to her about this. Before Alexandra was twelve years old she had begun to be a help to him, and as she grew older he had come to depend more and more upon her resourcefulness and good judgment. His boys were willing enough to work, but when he talked with them they usually irritated him. It was Alexandra who read the papers and followed the markets, and who learned by the mistakes of their neighbors. It was Alexandra who could always tell about what it had cost to fatten each steer, and who could guess the weight of a hog before it went on the scales closer than John Bergson himself. Lou and Oscar were industrious, but he could never teach them to use their heads about their work. Alexandra, her father often said to himself, was like her grandfather; which was his way of saying that she was intelligent. John Bergson's father had been a shipbuilder, a man of considerable force and of some fortune. Late in life he married a second time, a Stockholm woman of questionable character, much younger than he, who goaded him into every sort of extravagance. On the shipbuilder's part, this marriage was an infatuation, the despairing folly of a powerful man who cannot bear to grow old. In a few years his unprincipled wife warped the probity of a lifetime. He speculated, lost his own fortune and funds entrusted to him by poor seafaring men, and died disgraced, leaving his children nothing. But when all was said, he had come up from the sea himself, had built up a proud little business with no capital but his own skill and foresight, and had proved himself a man. In his daughter, John Bergson recognized the strength of will, and the simple direct way of thinking things out, that had characterized his father in his better days. He would much rather, of course, have seen this likeness in one of his sons, but it was not a question of choice. As he lay there day after day he had to accept the situation as it was, and to be thankful that there was one among his children to whom he could entrust the future of his family and the possibilities of his hard-won land. The winter twilight was fading. The sick man heard his wife strike a match in the kitchen, and the light of a lamp glimmered through the cracks of the door. It seemed like a light shining far away. He turned painfully in his bed and looked at his white hands, with all the work gone out of them. He was ready to give up, he felt. He did not know how it had come about, but he was quite willing to go deep under his fields and rest, where the plow could not find him. He was tired of making mistakes. He was content to leave the tangle to other hands; he thought of his Alexandra's strong ones. "DOTTER," he called feebly, "DOTTER!" He heard her quick step and saw her tall figure appear in the doorway, with the light of the lamp behind her. He felt her youth and strength, how easily she moved and stooped and lifted. But he would not have had it again if he could, not he! He knew the end too well to wish to begin again. He knew where it all went to, what it all became. His daughter came and lifted him up on his pillows. She called him by an old Swedish name that she used to call him when she was little and took his dinner to him in the shipyard. "Tell the boys to come here, daughter. I want to speak to them." "They are feeding the horses, father. They have just come back from the Blue. Shall I call them?" He sighed. "No, no. Wait until they come in. Alexandra, you will have to do the best you can for your brothers. Everything will come on you." "I will do all I can, father." "Don't let them get discouraged and go off like Uncle Otto. I want them to keep the land." "We will, father. We will never lose the land." There was a sound of heavy feet in the kitchen. Alexandra went to the door and beckoned to her brothers, two strapping boys of seventeen and nineteen. They came in and stood at the foot of the bed. Their father looked at them searchingly, though it was too dark to see their faces; they were just the same boys, he told himself, he had not been mistaken in them. The square head and heavy shoulders belonged to Oscar, the elder. The younger boy was quicker, but vacillating. "Boys," said the father wearily, "I want you to keep the land together and to be guided by your sister. I have talked to her since I have been sick, and she knows all my wishes. I want no quarrels among my children, and so long as there is one house there must be one head. Alexandra is the oldest, and she knows my wishes. She will do the best she can. If she makes mistakes, she will not make so many as I have made. When you marry, and want a house of your own, the land will be divided fairly, according to the courts. But for the next few years you will have it hard, and you must all keep together. Alexandra will manage the best she can." Oscar, who was usually the last to speak, replied because he was the older, "Yes, father. It would be so anyway, without your speaking. We will all work the place together." "And you will be guided by your sister, boys, and be good brothers to her, and good sons to your mother? That is good. And Alexandra must not work in the fields any more. There is no necessity now. Hire a man when you need help. She can make much more with her eggs and butter than the wages of a man. It was one of my mistakes that I did not find that out sooner. Try to break a little more land every year; sod corn is good for fodder. Keep turning the land, and always put up more hay than you need. Don't grudge your mother a little time for plowing her garden and setting out fruit trees, even if it comes in a busy season. She has been a good mother to you, and she has always missed the old country." When they went back to the kitchen the boys sat down silently at the table. Throughout the meal they looked down at their plates and did not lift their red eyes. They did not eat much, although they had been working in the cold all day, and there was a rabbit stewed in gravy for supper, and prune pies. John Bergson had married beneath him, but he had married a good housewife. Mrs. Bergson was a fair-skinned, corpulent woman, heavy and placid like her son, Oscar, but there was something comfortable about her; perhaps it was her own love of comfort. For eleven years she had worthily striven to maintain some semblance of household order amid conditions that made order very difficult. Habit was very strong with Mrs. Bergson, and her unremitting efforts to repeat the routine of her old life among new surroundings had done a great deal to keep the family from disintegrating morally and getting careless in their ways. The Bergsons had a log house, for instance, only because Mrs. Bergson would not live in a sod house. She missed the fish diet of her own country, and twice every summer she sent the boys to the river, twenty miles to the southward, to fish for channel cat. When the children were little she used to load them all into the wagon, the baby in its crib, and go fishing herself. Alexandra often said that if her mother were cast upon a desert island, she would thank God for her deliverance, make a garden, and find something to preserve. Preserving was almost a mania with Mrs. Bergson. Stout as she was, she roamed the scrubby banks of Norway Creek looking for fox grapes and goose plums, like a wild creature in search of prey. She made a yellow jam of the insipid ground-cherries that grew on the prairie, flavoring it with lemon peel; and she made a sticky dark conserve of garden tomatoes. She had experimented even with the rank buffalo-pea, and she could not see a fine bronze cluster of them without shaking her head and murmuring, "What a pity!" When there was nothing more to preserve, she began to pickle. The amount of sugar she used in these processes was sometimes a serious drain upon the family resources. She was a good mother, but she was glad when her children were old enough not to be in her way in the kitchen. She had never quite forgiven John Bergson for bringing her to the end of the earth; but, now that she was there, she wanted to be let alone to reconstruct her old life in so far as that was possible. She could still take some comfort in the world if she had bacon in the cave, glass jars on the shelves, and sheets in the press. She disapproved of all her neighbors because of their slovenly housekeeping, and the women thought her very proud. Once when Mrs. Bergson, on her way to Norway Creek, stopped to see old Mrs. Lee, the old woman hid in the haymow "for fear Mis' Bergson would catch her barefoot."    

Trundlebed Tales
Ep 78 William Anderson and Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Trundlebed Tales

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2016 63:00


William T. Anderson is the foremost Laura Ingalls Wilder authority. Wilder was a pioneer and author of the famous "Little House" book series. Anderson has written many books, booklets, and articles on both Wilder and on other historic topics. Anderson' most recent project was collecting and editing the notable letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This will be the last maor collection of previously unpublished Laura writings. Tune in for the full story.

Into the Field from Jacket2.org

Rod Smith is a poet, editor, and publisher from Washington, D.C. He’s a co-founder of Aerial Magazine and founder of Edge Books, which has published titles by Joan Retallack, Anselm Berrigan, Robert Fitterman, Benjamin Friedlander, K. Silem Mohammad, and many others. Smith, along with Friedlander and Mohammad, is a member of the Flarf Collective. Since 1993 he has managed Bridge Street Books in Georgetown. Rod Smith’s books of poetry include Deed (University of Iowa Press, 2007), Protective Immediacy (Roof, 1999), and In Memory of My Theories (O Books, 1996). He co-edited The Selected Letters of Robert Creeley with Kaplan Harris and Peter Baker, to be published by the University of California Press in January 2014.

Into the Field from Jacket2.org

Kaplan Harris is a scholar and editor who writes about a wide variety of 20th- and 21st-century poetry, including the work of Ted Berrigan, Hannah Weiner, Susan Howe, and the Flarf poets. With degrees from North Carolina State University and the University of Notre Dame, he currently teaches at St. Bonaventure University in Western New York. For the last several years, Harris has been co-editing the forthcoming Selected Letters of Robert Creeley with Peter Baker and Rod Smith. His article "The Small Press Traffic school of dissimulation" was recently published in Jacket2.

Brand New Ways
8: Psychosynthetist Dr. Piero Ferrucci

Brand New Ways

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2015 50:41


Fellini, our need for beauty, and the connections between neuroscience and the inner experience. In this episode, I talk to psychotherapist and philosopher Piero Ferrucci, the nephew of Aldous Huxley and a student and collaborator of Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis.   Music Show Opening Mix: Brand New – Salt-n-Pepa Brand New – Pharrell Williams (with Justin Timberlake), Brand New Key – Melanie, Brand New – Kanye West (feat. Rhymefest) String Quartet No. 15 in D Minor, K. 421 (Haydn Quartet No. 2): III. Menuetto and Trio: Allegretto - Salzburg Mozarteum Quartet La strada: La strada - Studio Orchestra + Studio Conductor Show Closing Mix: Brand New Funk – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Brand New You’re Retro – Tricky, Brand New Me – Dusty Springfield, Brand New Me – Isaac Hayes   Reading List What We May Be: The Vision and Techniques of Psychosynthesis, by Piero Ferrucci Inevitable Grace, by Piero Ferrucci The Power of Kindness, by Piero Ferrucci Beauty and the Soul, by Piero Ferrucci Your Inner Will, by Piero Ferrucci Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats The Bhagavad Gita   Watch List La Strada, by Federico Fellini   ** If you like my show, please subscribe and review in iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more information, visit brandnewways.com --> Find the show on Twitter: @brandnewways_ --> Send me an email: show@brandnewways.com

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Forum series

Rose Styron, wife of the late William Styron, and their daughter, Alexandra, discuss the publication of his letters to leading artists of his day, including several describing time spent with President and Mrs. Kennedy.

What Wellesley's Reading
Selected Letters of Emily Dickinson

What Wellesley's Reading

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2011 5:18


Paul Fisher reads an excerpt from Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters by Emily Dickinson, Edited by Thomas Johnson, Harvard University Press. "When I introduce these letters in my classes people gasp at their raw, unexpected beauty, their irony, and their shear brilliance."

Art Institute of Chicago Lectures
Lost at Sea: Jasper Johns and Hart Crane

Art Institute of Chicago Lectures

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2007 62:52


Langdon Hammer, professor at Yale University, draws on his recent book, Hart Crane: Complete Poems and Selected Letters, to highlight the aspects of Crane's life and work that have served as inspiration for artist Jasper Johns. This podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast. Explore more at ancientartpodcast.org.