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The Literary Life Podcast

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Jan 10, 2023 • 41min

Episode 154: The “Best of” Series – What Is the Literary Life?, Ep. 1

Welcome to this episode in our “Best of The Literary Life Podcast” series, this time replaying our very first episode! In this inaugural episode, Cindy and Angelina introduce the podcast and what they mean when they talk about having a “literary life.” Each of them share how stories have shaped their personal lives, as well as how they believe stories have the power to shape culture. You can find and listen to the other 3 introductory episodes of The Literary Life mentioned in this replay at the links below- Episode 2: The Interview Episode Episode 3: The Importance of Detective Fiction Episode 4: Gaudy Night, Ch. 1-3 Although the online conference mentioned at the end of this episode has long since come and gone, you can still purchase the replay at HouseofHumaneLetters.com. Commonplace Quotes: The first reading of some literary work is often, to the literary, an experience so momentous that only experiences of love, religion, or bereavement can furnish a standard of comparison. Their whole consciousness is changed. They have become what they were not before. C. S. Lewis The storyteller is one speaking out of memory, out of more than memory, speaking out of a trust left to the memory of the one speaking. Padraic Colum The Truisms by Louis MacNeice His father gave him a box of truisms Shaped like a coffin, then his father died; The truisms remained on the mantlepiece As wooden as the play box they had been packed in Or that his father skulked inside. Then he left home, left the truisms behind him Still on the mantlepiece, met love, met war, Sordor, disappointment, defeat, betrayal, Till through disbeliefs he arrived at a house He could not remember seeing before. And he walked straight in; it was where he had come from And something told him the way to behave. He raised his hand and blessed his home; The truisms flew and perched on his shoulders And a tall tree sprouted from his father’s grave. Book List: An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis The Stone of Victory and Other Tales by Padriac Colum Stratford Caldecott Essay on Man by Alexander Pope For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay Elizabeth Gaskell Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Joseph Pieper Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
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Dec 29, 2022 • 1h 32min

Episode 153: Our Literary Lives of 2022

On The Literary Life podcast today, our hosts look back on their reading lives over the past year. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas each share a commonplace quote, then they each share a little about how they approach reading in a way that fits with the demands of their busy lives. Each of our hosts talks about their literary surprises, their most outstanding reads of the year, disappointing books they read, and their personal favorite podcast books from 2022. Angelina also reiterates why reading rightly is so important to us all! Don’t forget to join us for the 2023 Reading Challenge! Get your books and Bingo cards ready! Commonplace Quotes: A good story isn’t told to make a point. A good story reflects the World God created. The point makes itself. Timothy Rollins “Blessed be Pain and Torment and every torture of the Body … Blessed be Plague and Pestilence and the Illness of Nations…. “Blessed be all Loss and the Failure of Friends and the Sacrifice of Love…. “Blessed be the Destruction of all Possessions, the Ruin of all Property, Fine Cities, and Great Palaces…. “Blessed be the Disappointment of all Ambitions…. “Blessed be all Failure and the ruin of every Earthly Hope…. “Blessed be all Sorrows, Torments, Hardships, Endurances that demand Courage…. “Blessed be these things–for of these things cometh the making of a Man….” Hugh Walpole I will not walk with your progressive apes, erect and sapient. Before them gapes the dark abyss to which their progress tends – if by God’s mercy progress ever ends, and does not ceaselessly revolve the same unfruitful course with changing of a name. I will not treat your dusty path and flat, denoting this and that by this and chat, your world immutable wherein no part the little maker has with maker’s art. I bow not yet before the Iron Crown, nor cast my own small golden sceptre down. J. R. R. Tolkien, from “Mythopoeia” A Selection from “The Secular Masque” by John Dryden All, all of a piece throughout; Thy chase had a beast in view; Thy wars brought nothing about; Thy lovers were all untrue. 'Tis well an old age is out, And time to begin a new. Book and Link List: Episode 60: Why Read Pagan Myths Episode 124: The Abolition of Man (beginning of series) Fortitude by Hugh Walpole The Killer and the Slain by Hugh Walpole The Old Ladies by Hugh Walpole Cherringham Mystery Series by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards Anthony Berkeley Ronald Knox Rex Stout Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey Light Thickens by Ngaio Marsh Henry the Eighth by Beatrice Saunders The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott Hard Times by Charles Dickens Captive Flames by Ronald Knox The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin The Most Reluctant Convert by David C. Downing The Truth and Beauty by Andrew Klavan The Man Who Knew Too Much by G. K. Chesterton The Rosettis in Wonderland by Dinah Roe Just Passing Through by Winton Porter The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories ed. by Martin Edwards The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P. D. James Edmund Crispin Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley Dorothy L. Sayers by Colin Duriez The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis by Jason Baxter Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh I Live Under a Black Sun by Edith Sitwell The Dwarf by Par Lagerkvist You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble Dune by Frank Herbert The Twist of the Knife by Anthony Horowitz The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (not recommended) The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger (not recommended) The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Dracula by Bram Stoker The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
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Dec 20, 2022 • 1h 51min

Episode 152: Dracula At the Movies

On The Literary Life podcast this week, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are joined by Atlee Northmore to talk about film adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Atlee guides us through the timeline of Dracula film adaptations and, together with our hosts, talks about why these have fallen short of the book and how they have distorted people’s view of this story. Head over to the HouseofHumaneLetters.com to get in on their sales through the end of 2022. Check out the sales on past online conferences this Christmas over at MorningTimeforMoms.com. Find Atlee’s list of Movies and Their Literary Roots in pdf form here. You can also view an infographic of his Dracula film adaptation timeline here. Commonplace Quotes: The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself. George MacDonald, as quoted in A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War With all his passion for art he was not inclined to glorify the artist or to conceive of him as a superman producing masterpieces in his lonely pride. He thought of him rather as a workman who gave more than was asked from him from love of his work. Arthur Clotton-Brock Descartes did not begin with memory, with ‘Grammar’: he went straight to Thinking before going through Remembering. Stratford Caldecott The cinematic Dracula, however, is generally bereft of metaphysical gravity. It is his seductive humanity that fascinates. Close examination of the cinematic Dracula reveals a gradual stripping away of his metaphysical attributes and a progressive tendency to humanize him, until, at the end of this evolution, he is transformed into a postmodern tragic antihero in revolt against the injustice of the Christian God. Jack Trotter, “The Cinematic Dracula: From Nosferatu to Bram Stoker’s Dracula Hamlet’s Advice to the Players by William Shakespeare Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. Book List: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling Beauty in the Word by Stratford Caldecott A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by Joseph Loconte William Morris: His Work and Influence by Arthur Clutton-Brock Dracula (Ignatius Critical Edition) by Bram Stoker Hamlet by William Shakespeare Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
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9 snips
Dec 13, 2022 • 1h 42min

Episode 151: The Literary Life Podcast Reading Challenge 2023

This week on The Literary Life podcast our hosts introduce the 2023 Reading Challenge! Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are excited to share with you about all the categories on this year’s Literary Life Bingo Reading Challenge! You can download your own copy of the challenge here, as well as check out our past reading challenges. Scroll down in the show notes to see a list of the links and books mentioned in this episode. You can use the hashtag #LitLifeBingo on social media so we can all see what everyone is reading in 2023! Don’t forget to shop the House of Humane Letters Christmas Sale now through the end of the year. The Literary Life Back to School online conference recordings are also on sale at Morning Time for Moms right now. Commonplace Quotes: Much that we call Victorian is known to us only because the Victorians laughed at it. George Malcolm Young, from Portrait of an Age I think that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there. Annie Dillard, from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison Thunderstorms by William H. Davies My mind has thunderstorms, That brood for heavy hours: Until they rain me words, My thoughts are drooping flowers And sulking, silent birds. Yet come, dark thunderstorms, And brood your heavy hours; For when you rain me words, My thoughts are dancing flowers And joyful singing birds. Book and Link List: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie Episode 14: “The Adventures of a Shilling” by Joseph Addison Episode 3: The Importance of Detective Fiction Episode 16: “Why I Write” by George Orwell Reading Challenge Downloads The Letters of Jane Austen by Jane Austen Abigail Adams: Letters ed. by Edith Gelles The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple ed. by G. C. Moore Smith Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson Letters to an American Lady by C. S. Lewis Letters of C. S. Lewis by C. S. Lewis Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor ed. by Sally Fitzgerald Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman by Lord Chesterfield The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer The Aeneid by Virgil The Saga of the Volsungs by Anonymous The Vision of Sir Launfal by James Russell Lowell Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Ramayana of Valmiki ed. and trans. by Robert and Sally Goldman The Prelude by William Wordsworth Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton P. D. James Edmund Crispin Alan Bradley Patricia Moyes Peter Granger Rex Stout Sir Walter Scott The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke Mythos by Stephen Fry The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell Coming Up for Air by George Orwell P. G. Wodehouse The Last Days of Socrates by Plato The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis Champagne for the Soul by Mike Mason Edges of His Ways by Amy Carmichael The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald Knox Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey Jane Austen Patrick Leigh Fermor Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson Heroes by Stephen Fry Troy by Stephen Fry Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman The Mabinogion trans. by Sioned Davies The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson Cindy’s List of Literature of Honor for Boys (archived webpage) Bleak House by Charles Dickens David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens The Man Who Knew Too Much by G. K. Chesterton The 39 Steps by John Buchan Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith The Well Read Poem An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis The Truth and the Beauty by Andrew Klavan The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill Jacob’s Room is Full of Books by Susan Hill The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis by Jason Baxter 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff Q’s Legacy by Helene Hanff Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
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29 snips
Dec 6, 2022 • 1h 49min

Episode 150: “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, Ch. 18-End

Dive into the eerie world of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' as key themes unfold, including Mina's struggle between the New Woman and the Angel in the House. Discover Dracula's dark ties to greater evil and the potent Christian imagery woven throughout. Enjoy a humorous yet insightful discussion on the destructive power of rumor and how it reflects societal issues. The exploration of gender roles, alongside themes of redemption and spiritual warfare, invites a deeper understanding of this timeless tale. Personal anecdotes add a light touch to the literary analysis.
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34 snips
Nov 22, 2022 • 1h 15min

Episode 149: “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, Ch. 12-17

Dive into the dark and thrilling world of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' as our hosts explore chapters 12-17! They unravel the Gothic novel's purpose, blending modern technology with ancient wisdom to fight evil. Discover intriguing themes like the duality of womanhood and spiritualism's role in literature, alongside the evolving representation of women like Mina and Lucy. They also touch on the intersection of supernatural elements and morality, accompanied by playful banter and heartfelt reflections on literature and family.
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17 snips
Nov 15, 2022 • 1h 3min

Episode 148: “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, Ch. 8-11

Dive into the chilling world of 'Dracula' as the hosts unpack the concept of the 'New Woman' versus the 'Angel in the House' in Victorian literature. Explore the symbolic significance of blood and medical practices like transfusions, juxtaposed with tales of science battling superstition through Dr. Van Helsing. Personal stories enrich the discussion, as they unravel Mina and Lucy's complex identities, navigating the shadows of femininity and vulnerability in the face of Dracula's dark powers.
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29 snips
Nov 8, 2022 • 1h 21min

Episode 147: “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, Ch. 3-7

The hosts dive deep into Bram Stoker’s 'Dracula,' exploring the proper way to read it beyond modern psychological frameworks. They discuss the dark etymology of 'Dracula' and its connection to evil. Themes of love vs. darkness shine through Jonathan's memories of Mina. The conversation also touches on the richness of intertwined literary symbols and the importance of historical context in understanding classic literature. Additionally, there's excitement about upcoming courses and webinars on literature and history.
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26 snips
Nov 1, 2022 • 1h 28min

Episode 146: Introduction to “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, Ch. 1 & 2

Dive into the intriguing world of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' as hosts discuss the historical backdrop and literary significance of this Gothic classic. They explore themes like the evolving role of monsters in literature, contrasting traditional views with modern interpretations. Personal anecdotes add a humorous twist, while the tension between Enlightenment rationalism and supernatural elements is examined. Listeners will gain insights into Dracula's enduring relevance and the societal anxieties that shaped its narrative.
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Oct 18, 2022 • 1h 16min

Episode 145: The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis: A Conversation with Jason M. Baxter

On The Literary Life Podcast this week, our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks sit down for a special conversation with Jason Baxter, author of The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis. Jason is a speaker, writer, and college professor who writes primarily on medieval thought and is especially interested in Lewis’ ideas. You can find out more about him and his books at JasonMBaxter.com. Our hosts and Jason discuss a wide range of ideas, including the values of literature, the sacramental view of reality, why it is important to understand medieval thought, the “problem” of paganism in Lewis’ writings, and how to approach reading ancient and medieval literature. Be back next week when we will begin digging into Bram Stoker’s Dracula together and learning more about this late Victorian Gothic novel. It’s not what you might think! Get the latest news from House of Humane Letters by signing up for their e-newsletter today! Commonplace Quotes: My part has been merely that of Walter Scott’s Old Mortality, who busied himself in clearing the moss, and bringing back to light the words, on the gravestones of the dead who seemed to him to have served humanity. This needs to be done and redone, generation after generation, in a world where there persists always a strong tendency to read newer writers, not because they are better, but because they are newer. The moss grows fast, and ceaselessly. F. L. Lucas It is the memory of time that makes us old; remembering eternity makes us young again. Statford Caldecott It is my settled conviction that in order to read old Western literature aright, you must suspend most of the responses and unlearn most of the habits you have acquired in reading modern literature. C. S. Lewis, from “De Descriptione Temporum” What then is the good of–what is even the defense for–occupying our hearts with stories of what never happened and entering vicariously into feeling which we should try to avoid in our own person?…The nearest I have yet got to an answer is that we seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves…[In] reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do. C. S. Lewis Victory by C. S. Lewis Roland is dead, Cuchulain’s crest is low, The battered war-rear wastes and turns to rust, And Helen’s eyes and Iseult’s lips are dust And dust the shoulders and the breasts of snow. The faerie people from our woods are gone, No Dryads have I found in all our trees, No Triton blows his horn about our seas And Arthur sleeps far hence in Avalon. The ancient songs they wither as the grass And waste as doth a garment waxen old, All poets have been fools who thought to mould A monument more durable than brass. For these decay: but not for that decays The yearning, high, rebellious spirit of man That never rested yet since life began From striving with red Nature and her ways. Now in the filth of war, the baresark shout Of battle, it is vexed. And yet so oft Out of the deeps, of old, it rose aloft That they who watch the ages may not doubt. Though often bruised, oft broken by the rod, Yet, like the phoenix, from each fiery bed Higher the stricken spirit lifts its head And higher-till the beast become a god. Book List: Beauty in the Word by Stratford Caldecott An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis The Art of Living: Four Eighteenth Century Minds by F. L. Lucas Transposition by C. S. Lewis The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis The Divine Comedy by Dante Nicholas of Cusa The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius Confessions by St. Augustine Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

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