The Literary Life Podcast

On The Literary Life today we continue our re-airing of a series from our "Summer of the Short Story" that originally aired way back in Season 1 of the podcast! This week's episode features Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins discussing G. K. Chesterton's essay "A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls."
Angelina opens with a brief history of the Victorian era and the more prevalent availability of the novel to the masses. She also gives several examples of the "penny dreadful." Cindy and Angelina discuss why they agree with Chesterton that people need these simple, even formulaic stories. They remind us that childhood is a time for good books, not a time to worry about reading all the "Great Books."
Another topic that Cindy and Angelina chat about is the importance of developing imagination. They talk about the truth that fiction and story-telling are necessary parts of human culture. Cindy highlights the importance of the heroic adventure stories for boys. Angelina brings out the point that the elite critic is out of touch with the masses who long for stories of good winning over evil. The penny dreadful should not be judged as art, since that was never what it was intended to be.
If you want to find replays of the 2019 Back to School online conference referenced in this episode, you can purchase them in Cindy's shop at MorningTimeforMoms.com. You can also find out about all the current classes and summer events happening at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
For the full show notes on this episode, please visit https://theliterary.life/332.

This week on The Literary Life we begin revisiting a series from our "Summer of the Short Story" that originally aired way back in Season 1 of the podcast! Today we return to Episode 11, in which Angelina and Cindy enjoyed a discussion of the short story "Araby" by James Joyce.
Delving into "Araby," Angelina talks about the history and development of the short story form. Cindy gives a little of her own background with reading James Joyce and why she loves his short stories. Angelina and Cindy also discuss the essential "Irishness" of this story and all the tales in The Dubliners. Angelina walks us through the story, highlighting the kinds of questions and things we should look for when reading closely. Themes discussed in this story include: blindness and sight, light and darkness, romanticism, religious devotion, the search for truth, money, courtly love, and the knight's quest.
If you want to find replays of the 2019 Back to School online conference referenced in this episode, you can purchase them in Cindy's shop at MorningTimeforMoms.com. You can also find out about all the current classes and summer events happening at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Check out the schedule for the podcast's summer episodes on our Upcoming Events page.
View the complete show notes for this episode at https://theliterary.life/331.

This week on The Literary Life Podcast, our hosts seek to answer your questions about reading ancient literature. Angelina and Thomas and joined by their colleague, Dr. Anne Phillips, and together they cover some of the most frequently asked questions about diving into the ancients, including the following:
Which epic should a person start with, and why?
How should kids be introduced to the epics?
What is a good place to begin reading the Greek dramatists?
Where to begin becoming familiar with Greek myth?
Where should someone start to dip into ancient history?
What if a person wants to read ancient philosophy?
Don't forget to check out everything going on over at HouseofHumaneLetters.com to stay up to date on all the upcoming new summer classes and webinars. Also, you can visit Cassiodorus Press to order Dr. Jason Baxter's newest books, and get on the email list so you don't miss any publication news!
Finally, if you want to view the full show notes for this episode, including links to books and authors mentioned, as well as today's poem and quotes, please visit https://theliterary.life/330.

On today's episode of The Literary Life, our hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks are joined by Jenn Rogers for a new discussion of "On Fairy Stories" by J.R.R. Tolkien. After sharing some opening commonplace quotes, Jenn gives us background and context for how "On Fairy Stories" comes to us today. She talks about the conversations being had by Tolkien and other philologists and folklorists that set the stage for this essay. Angelina highlights the idea of the Tree of Tales and its importance to understanding all of literature. Other topics they discuss together include sub-creation, the soup of story, the real versus the ordinary, recovery and escape, plus so much more!
Don't forget to check out everything going on over at HouseofHumaneLetters.com to stay up to date on all the upcoming new summer classes and webinars, including Heather Goodman's May webinar on Mary Poppins.
To view the full show notes for this episode, please visit https://theliterary.life/329.

This week on The Literary Life, we are re-airing an episode from the archives featuring a discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" between Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks. Angelina sets the stage for this discussion by orienting us to the context for the essay by Tolkien as a critique of what is considered a fairy story. She points out the difference between cautionary tales like those by Charles Perrault and the German folk and fairy tales collected by the Grimm Brothers. Our hosts highlight Tolkien's definition of true fairy stories, ones that take place in the "perilous realm" and involve a journey element. He critiques Andrew Lang as including many stories as fairy tale that are not truly fairy stories. They also discuss topics from the essay including sub-creation, magic and spells, suspension of disbelief, and children's responses to fairy stories.
Join us again next week for an additional "update" episode on this same essay with Jenn Rogers.
Don't forget to check out everything going on over at HouseofHumaneLetters.com to stay up to date on all the upcoming new summer classes and webinars! Cindy also has some exciting things happening at MorningTimeforMoms.com, including registration for her summer discipleship group.
For the full show notes for this episode, see our podcast website at https://theliterarylife/328.