Close Reads Podcast

Bilbo, Thorin, and co. are well on their way, but are they actually good at their jobs? We discuss. Plus: Beowulf, The Hobbit and the question of heroism. Happy listening! Close Reads is community-supported publication. To ensure that we can keep making the content you value, please consider becoming a subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to a new series here on Close Reads! We’re talking Tolkien, we’re talking Hobbits, we’re talking rings and dwarves and wizards, and (this week anyway) we’re talking first lines. So join us as we dig into what makes The Hobbit both so fun and so brilliant, what is has to say about heroism, whether our riddle game is strong, and much more. Plus, at the end, we discuss the annual Close Reads literary bracket, which is on great opening lines in literature. Happy listening! Preorder LUMEN Volume One: www.goldberryarts.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

We’ve come to the end of the line discussing another book and that means it’s time to answer your questions! A lot of questions came in for this one, and we did our best to get to the bottom of as many as we could. Thanks so much to all who posted questions. Happy listening! Up next: The Hobbit, chapters 1-6 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

This week we begin with a brief “Posts for the Hosts” segment before diving into conversation about the final passages in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Topics include passages that are most moving to each of us, whether the final pages are truly hopeful, the archetypal nature of the story, the question of God in the book, and much more. Happy listening! Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to ensure that we can keep making the content you value! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

The gang’s all back to discuss Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. This week we contemplate the gruesome nature of some of the scenes and images in this section, the anagogical core of the book (with a nod to McCarthy’s original working title), the arrival of the mysterious stranger, and much more. As always, happy reading!Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to ensure that we can keep making the content you value. Thanks! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to our new (and long-awaited) series on Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Road. All four of us are here for this one and here in the first episode conversation explores what it is like to read (or re-read) this book as a parent, McCarthy’s unique approach to world-building and language, why people should read this book even if it’s hard, and much more. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

And so we come to the end of our conversations on Anthony Trollope’s The Warden, focusing, as always, on your questions. Join us as we dig into Trollope’s thoughts on the nature of the novel, whether he was doing theological commentary or social commentary, whether the novel works on all four levels of interpretation (and much more!). Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to our conversation on the concluding chapters of The Warden, in which the Close Reads team discusses whether this books ends in anti-climax, whether Trollope is actually poking more fun at Harding himself than it seems at first, the anti-Dickensian nature of the story, the book’s unique moral vision, and much more. Happy listening! Close Reads HQ is a community-supported publication. To ensure that we can keep making the content you value, please consider subscribing! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s episode features a new occasional segment tentatively called “Letters to the Editors” (help us come up with something better!). So click play and tune in as we give the floor to a few listeners who disagree with us . . . and then let conversation flow, of course. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

This week on the show, Sean is forced to confront some . . . questions . . . about The Warden presented by David and Heidi (and David suggest a narrative theory that is definitely worth taking seriously). Happy listening! Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to ensure we can keep on making the content you value. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe