The Bookening

Without fear of contradiction, the most gripping, exciting, amazing, spine-creeping THING ever to reach the screen! "DRACULA" has held two generations in fascination and terror! Its daring will ASTOUND you! Its SUSPENSE will chain you to your seat! You'll never forget DRACULA!—from a one-sheet for Universal Pictures _Dracula _movie of 1931It's October, Nathan's favorite month of the year! And as good as excuse as any to make his friends read one of the hallmarks of weird fiction, Bram Stoker's _Dracula. _But first, Nathan and Brandon team up to offer some flesh-crawling context for this creepy-crawly chronicle of cruel carnality! Brandon tells us all about 19th century invasion literature, and Freudian theories of sex and the subconscious_ _(which are kinda unavoidable for this particular work). Nathan gives us a quick overview of vampire tales from Assyrian pottery shards to Bela Lugosi. Then Jake does some pastoral pondering about just why the heck people like vampires stories anyway.Somehow our heroes get from there to Jake's theory that that hack Professor Tolkien stole the entire plot for _Lord of the Rings _from Bram Stoker. At least Bram didn't have any deus eagles machina. But that's getting away from our larger point, which is that you should listen to this episode of The Bookening.Trivia: by complete happenstance, our heroes ended up recording this episode at around midnight in a building that was completely dark and deserted besides the room where they were recording. In Part 2 (coming next week) you'll hear something happen which may or may not sound all that creepy, but actually was pretty creepy in the moment.Next month, we'll be reading a novel with (we're just guessing here) 100% less horrible demonic bloodsucking Transylvanian monsters: _Gilead _by Marilyn Robinson. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

I think “Macbeth” the one supreme drama because it is the one Christian drama; and I will accept the accusation of prejudice. But I mean by Christian (in this matter) the strong sense of spiritual liberty and of sin; the idea that the best man can be as bad as he chooses. You may call Othello a victim of chance. You may call Hamlet a victim of temperament. You cannot call Macbeth anything but a victim of Macbeth. The evil spirits tempt him, but they never force him; they never even frighten him, for he is a very brave man.-G.K. ChestertonSo we'll get to Macbeth in a second, but first ... apparently Hillary Clinton is a Shakespeare truther. There's this article in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, and if you read it you'll see that she, like, went out of her way to bring up the subject. Nobody asked her what she thought about Shakespeare. They just asked her what literary figure she'd like to have dinner with, and she decided to be cute and say "Shakespeare" because she'd like to see who really showed up. So yeah. If you needed another reason to believe that William Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare, there's that.Anyway, this is another episode of The Bookening. In fact it's part 2 of our series about Macbeth. You'll hear lots of discussion about our friends the Macbeths, and what we think makes them tick. Our heroes also argue that the witches are just that—witches.Next month we turn to the Prince of Darkness Himself: Dracula. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Yes, sir, this is an episode of The Bookening about _Macbeth. _In it our heroes discuss _Macbeth. _You should listen to it. It's good. You'll learn lots about Macbeth. Which is a surprisingly thorny play to discuss. After all, just what is so great about a play re: some thug and his castrating shrew of a wife murdering a bunch of people and then feeling bad about it and making a bunch of speeches?  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this episode we discuss the monsters in Beowulf, Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. Why monsters? Why fight them? Is the modern urge to feel sympathy for Grendel justified?Then we figure out What It All Means. Is Beowulf some kind of elaborate Christian apology? Or is it just a cool poem about a bro fighting some demons or whatev?After that, Jake goes to battle with Brandon again, in an attempt to reclaim his Kenning Contest honor. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In today’s episode of The Bookening, we discuss how poems differ from novels, the character of Beowulf as a dudely dude, and the appropriate time to brag about how many sea monsters you’ve killed. Then Brandon and Jake go to war in an epic kenning-guessing context. It’s intense. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Monsters, mothers, dragons, oh my!Our heroes plunge boldly into the poem that have been the inspiration for every video game ever made, what with the multiple levels (Heorot Hall, The Haunted Marsh, etc), each one ending in a big monster fight. They (spoiler) love the Seamus Heanny version, but find themselves in the unenviable position of doing bloody (but respectful, we hope) battle with the Douglas Wilson version. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It's get-down-to-brass-tax time. What is the deal with the crummy last 19515905890 chapters of_ Huck Finn_? Why does the last section go on so long? Why is Tom allowed to be such a brat? Why doesn't Jim have any self-respect at all? Why doesn't Huck, for that reason? What happened to Huck's big epiphany? Where's the big point about racism or southern society or whatever? What the heck was Mark Twain thinking?  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

_I have written 400 pages on it—therefore it is very nearly half done. It is Huck Finn's Autobiography. I like it only tolerably well, as far as I have got, & may possibly ... burn the MS when it is done—_Mark Twain in a letter to William Dean HowellsIn part 2 of our series on Huckleberry Finn, our heroes begin a journey down the river with Huck. But first they have no other choice but to address the controversy surrounding the novel. So the address the controversy surrounding the novel. Then they discuss the novel. They say wise/smart/entertaining things about it.Etc. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It is with heavy hearts that our heroes reconvene to discuss Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. What was once the glorious trio of Nathan, Jake, and Brandon is now the sad, pathetic, useless duo of just Nathan and Brandon.  For alas, Jake lies moldering in the ground, shot by a stray bullet from Brandon's gun. Without Jake's heart, without Jake's wit, without Jake's wisdom, how will our remaining heroes discuss one of the liveliest, funniest, saddest, all-around-greatest American novels this side of the Mississippi?   Listen on to find out ... Next month, Francis Bacon's Macbeth.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Yes, it's part two of our testosterone-soaked series on For Whom the Bell Tolls, this time with 100% more rants about sex! Also rants about discernment, rants about Old People, rants about Kids Today—this episode is just full of rants.  But how could it not be, given that our wise and noble heroes begin the episode by talking about Maria, certainly the most problematic character they've encountered in their literary ramblings thus far. Is she a symbol of Spain, or a vehicle for the romance of the moment, or just a lazy misogynist wish-fulfillment character? Or D) all of the above?  Our heroes must deal with all of that and more. And then they have to deal with the fact that this book contains, like, sex scenes and stuff. Should they have read this book? Should you have read this book? Should anybody read any books? What's a Christian to do??!?!?!? ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★