American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

We go back to the travel writings with Mark Twain's 1880 A TRAMP ABROAD. These are some of the funnest to read and some of the hardest to talk about books I have ever one on this podcast. In any case, let's see what Mark Twain thinks of Europe now that he is not innocent anymore.

This one (Robert A. Heinlein's SIXTH COLUMN) certainly leaves us with lots to talk about, including Pan-Asianism, technology, religion, and race. This is episode 1 of 2 exploring this short novel, originally published in 1941.

Let's explore some Super science and posthumanism with Robert A. Heinlein's LOST LEGACY, a novella about the untapped potential of humanity and infiltrating The Boy Scouts.

In this episode I finish another book (Mark Twain's PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF JOAN OF ARC) and another volume of the Library of America. At this rate, I will finish in about the time it took for France to win the 100 Years War!

Like in the previous episodes on THE PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF JOAN OF ARC by Mark Twain, I focus on what  Joan of Arc can mean to us today. The book stans way to hard for Joan, so we need move a bit beyond the text.

I finish up my thoughts on METHUSELAH'S CHILDREN in this episode. Mostly, I talk about the tension between individualism and the community. If it were not so cliche I would have mentioned Tocqueville.

This part of the THE PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF JOAN OF ARC is about lifting the siege of Orleans, but I do not says much about that and instead continue to explore the question of what in Mark Twain's mind made Joan of Arc great and what she transformation she causes.

Here I take a look at part 2 of "Methuselah's Children"  by Robert A. Heinlein. I spend most of the time trying to figure out what might be the key to understanding this story and Heinlein himself. I fail. I guess I will need to read more Heinlein.

What do we owe our youth? Maybe we just owe it to get out of their way. In this episode I use JOAN OF ARC by Mark Twain to reflect on this question and the type of world we leave to our children.

The first part of METHUSELAH'S CHILDREN by Robert A. Heinlein does a great deal of work in putting together the "future history" world and introduces one of his cornerstone characters. It is also a great ideas novel.