The Literary Life Podcast

Dive into a discussion of George MacDonald’s Phantastes, focusing on the enchanting 'other world' in fantasy. Discover the interplay of poetry and prayer in Celtic traditions and how they influence modern storytelling. The hosts explore themes of truth, redemption, and the journey through memories, emphasizing the importance of letting go. They also critique modern education, calling for a shift towards nurturing curiosity. With festive touches, they announce reading challenges and highlight new resources for the Advent season.

Dive into the enchanting realms of George MacDonald’s 'Phantastes' as the hosts unravel the themes of disorientation and self-discovery through captivating narratives. They explore the impact of William Morris on fantasy literature and highlight the contrast between false and true homes. Discover the intricate cosmic connections of humanity and the moral complexities of love displayed through various literary works. The discussion culminates in celebrating the transformative power of storytelling, inviting deeper understanding and reflection.

Dive into an exploration of George MacDonald’s Phantastes, where doppelgangers and deception take center stage. The hosts connect themes to literary classics and mythological influences, including the Pygmalion myth. Enjoy humorous discussions about familial quirks alongside profound reflections on identity and beauty in literature. The contrasts of modern versus medieval perspectives offer rich commentary on parenting and personal growth. Plus, festive Advent resources and literary traditions add a whimsical touch to the conversation!

Dive into the enchanting world of George MacDonald’s 'Phantastes' as hosts unravel its rich Victorian themes. They reflect on the importance of imagination and reminisce about the Christmas spirit tied to MacDonald’s works. The role of grandmothers in stories and the dynamics of personal growth are highlighted. Connections to C.S. Lewis’s literary journey spark discussion on storytelling’s impact. Plus, explore how fairy tales blend reality with fantasy, guiding listeners on a quest for wisdom and understanding of their identity.

Angelina Stanford, a literary scholar focused on fairy tales, joins Cindy Rollins, an expert in literary interpretation, to explore the significance of fairy stories. They dive into how these tales transcend mere escapism, revealing deeper truths about life and character. Stanford contrasts fairy tales with myths and addresses common misconceptions about gender roles in these narratives. They discuss the historical roots and cultural universality of tales like 'Sleeping Beauty,' emphasizing their rich metaphorical meanings and enduring relevance.

Today on The Literary Life Podcast, our hosts Angelina and Cindy chat with Cindy's longtime friend and, according to her, the "smartest woman on the internet," Wendi Capehart. Wendi is an adventurous mom of many and has lived throughout Asia. Now she lives the life of an at home librarian caring for her disabled daughter and spending time with her 15 grandchildren. She also serves on the AmblesideOnline Advisory board. Angelina starts off the conversation asking Wendi about her reading life beginning with her childhood memories of reading. Wendi talks a little about how books helped her survive and heal from the trauma of living in an abusive situation. They also discuss what the difference was for Wendi in leisurely reading and reading for school. Wendi shares some of the reasons she began homeschooling her own children, as well, and how she kept reading voraciously even after she became a mother. Angelina and Wendi talk about the brain and changing your reading habits to digest and enjoy more challenging books. Wendi shares how she built a library while one a military budget and moving frequently. They talked about too many things to mention in this summary, but you can scroll down for the many book titles mentioned in this episode! Commonplace Quotes: "We're all fools," said Clemens, "all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly." Ray Bradbury Where science does not teach a child to wonder and admire it has perhaps no educative value. Charlotte Mason Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth, a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with tremendous difference–that it really happened–and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God's myth, where the others are men's myths. That is, the pagan stories are God expressing himself through the minds of poets, using such images as he found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through real things. C. S. Lewis If Only I Were King by A. A. Milne I often wish I were a King, And then I could do anything. If only I were King of Spain, I'd take my hat off in the rain. If only I were King of France, I wouldn't brush my hair for aunts. I think, if I were King of Greece, I'd push things off the mantelpiece. If I were King of Norroway, I'd ask an elephant to stay. If I were King of Babylon, I'd leave my button gloves undone. If I were King of Timbuctoo, I'd think of lovely things to do. If I were King of anything, I'd tell the soldiers, "I'm the King!" Book List: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury Towards a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas Gene Stratton Porter The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton Jane Austen The Little Prince by Antione de Saint-Exupéry The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson The Heroes by Charles Kingsley The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham Kim by Rudyard Kipling The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis The Rescuers by Marjorie Sharp The Borrowers by Mary Norton Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome Booth Tarkington Ben Hur by Lew Wallace The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major Thornton W. Burgess 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 https://cindyrollins.net, 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

This week on The Literary Life Podcast we have our final installment of the series on C. S. Lewis' masterpiece Til We Have Faces. This week, our hosts finish up with Part 2, Chapters 1-4. Opening the conversation, Angelina shares some of her feelings on just having finished the book. She points out the importance of understanding the Cupid and Psyche myth. Cindy brings up the concept of a "sin-eater" in relation to Orual's taking on of Psyche's trials. They talk about the ways in which Orual begins to see more clearly and remember things differently at this point in the story. The theme of selfish love versus self-sacrificing love comes full circle as the book closes. Orual's symbolic death and rebirth are key topics, and the allusions to Christ and the Gospel throughout this story are truly exciting. Join us next week for a special interview with Wendi Capehart on her literary life! Listen to The Literary Life: Commonplace Quotes: I can't say I learned nothing, at St. Charles Borromeo. I learned bladder control; which is good for women, useful in later life. The second thing I learned was that I had got almost everything terribly wrong. Hilary Mantel We read Dante for his poetry and not for his theology because we have already met the theology elsewhere. W. H. Auden In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanish, leaving us naked before Him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since that contact cannot be avoided for long, and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it. That is the first and greatest commandment. C. S. Lewis from "Autumn Journal" by Louis Macneice In a week I return to work, lecturing, coaching, As impresario of the Ancient Greeks Who wore the chiton and lived on fish and olives And talked philosophy or smut in cliques; Who believed in youth and did not gloze the unpleasant Consequences of age; What is life, one said, or what is pleasant Once you have turned the page Of love? The days grow worse, the dice are loaded Against the living man who pays in tears for breath; Never to be born was the best, call no man happy This side death. Conscious – long before Engels – of necessity And therein free They plotted out their life with truism and humour Between the jealous heaven and the callous sea. And Pindar sang the garland of wild olive And Alcibiades lived from hand to mouth Double-crossing Athens, Persia, Sparta, And many died in the city of plague, and many of drouth In Sicilian quarries, and many by the spear and arrow And many more who told their lies too late Caught in the eternal factions and reactions Of the city state. And free speech shivered on the pikes of Macedonia And later on the swords of Rome And Athens became a mere university city, And the goddess born of the foam Became the kept hetaera, heroine of Menander, And the philosopher narrowed his focus, confined His efforts to putting his own soul in order And keeping a quiet mind. And for a thousand years they went on talking, Making such apt remarks, A race no longer of heroes but of professors And crooked business men and secretaries and clerks Who turned out dapper little elegiac verses On the ironies of fate, the transience of all Affections, carefully shunning the over-statement But working the dying fall. Book List: (Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.) Hallelujah by Cindy Rollins Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoire by Hilary Mantel The Dyer's Hand by W. H. Auden The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs Descent into Hell by Charles Williams The Private Memoires and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg 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 https://cindyrollins.net, 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

Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast! This week, our hosts are covering chapters 16-21 of C. S. Lewis' masterpiece Til We Have Faces. Also, to celebrate Cindy's re-release of her book Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah, she is doing a social media giveaway over the next four weeks. To enter to win a copy, post about the book release with hashtag #hallelujahadvent. They begin the conversation about Til We Have Faces with an examination of Lewis' personal journey and its similarity to Orual's own in this story. This opens up a discussion of education, Lewis's schooling, and Charlotte Mason's philosophy. Angelina then goes on to talk about the three types of veils worn by Orual, and Cindy and Thomas explore the idea of veils and their role in relationship and power. Orual's friendships with Bardia and the Fox further highlight her continued blindness to her own disordered affections. Join us next week for the last installment in our series on Til We Have Faces. The following episode will be a special interview with Wendi Capehart on her literary life! Commonplace Quotes: Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophesy, and religion. All is one. John Ruskin Since then I have always been addicted to something or other, usually something there's no support group for. Semicolons, for instance, I can never give up for more than two hundred words at a time. Hilary Mantel The two hemispheres of my mind were in the sharpest contrast. On the one side, a many-islanded sea of poetry and myth; on the other, a glib and shallow "rationalism." Nearly all that I loved, I believed to be imaginary. Nearly all that I believed to be real, I thought grim and meaningless. C. S. Lewis Moonlight by Walter de la Mare The far moon maketh lovers wise In her pale beauty trembling down, Lending curved cheeks, dark lips, dark eyes, A strangeness not their own. And, though they shut their lids to kiss, In starless darkness peace to win, Even on that secret world from this Her twilight enters in. Book List: (Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.) Hallelujah by Cindy Rollins Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoire by Hilary Mantel The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 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 https://cindyrollins.net, 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

Today on The Literary Life, our hosts discuss chapters 12-15 of C. S. Lewis' masterpiece Til We Have Faces. Don't forget that Thomas will be teaching a mini-class series on Shakespeare's Roman Plays in October. You can find out more and register at HouseofHumaneLetters.com. We are giving away one spot in the class to someone who shares about the class publicly on social media and tag it #houseofhumaneletters. The winner will be announced on October 2, 2020 on the House of Humane Letters Facebook page! Angelina opens the discussions with the point that Lewis changes the story of Psyche throughout the book, especially in this section. Cindy shares how the last couple of chapters in this week's reading made her feel and the tension of wanting to choose sides. In these scenes, we see again the theme of disordered loves and the rift in the relationship between Orual and Psyche, as well as Orual's descent further into self-deception. Be back next time when we cover chapters 16-21. Commonplace Quotes: This is what I recommend to people who ask me how to get published. Trust your reader, stop spoon-feeding your reader, stop patronizing your reader, give your reader credit for being as smart as you at least, and stop being so bloody beguiling: you in the back row, will you turn off that charm. Stop constructing those piffling little similes of yours. Hilary Mantel He had an outstanding gift for attracting hatreds. Rene Pichon The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship, from a corkscrew to a cathedral, is to know what it is–what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used. C. S. Lewis The Laws of God, The Laws of Man by A. E. Houseman The laws of God, the laws of man, He may keep that will and can; Not I: let God and man decree Laws for themselves and not for me; And if my ways are not as theirs Let them mind their own affairs. Their deeds I judge and much condemn, Yet when did I make laws for them? Please yourselves, say I, and they Need only look the other way. But no, they will not; they must still Wrest their neighbor to their will, And make me dance as they desire With jail and gallows and hell-fire. And how am I to face the odds Of man's bedevilment and God's? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made. They will be master, right or wrong; Though both are foolish, both are strong. And since, my soul, we cannot fly To Saturn nor to Mercury, Keep we must, if keep we can, These foreign laws of God and man. Book List: (Amazon affiliate links) Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoire by Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel A Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis Paradise Lost by John Milton God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles 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 https://cindyrollins.net, 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

This week on The Literary Life, we continue our series on C. S. Lewis' masterpiece Til We Have Faces, and our hosts discuss chapters 8-11 today. Before we get started, we want you to know there is still time to sign up for Cindy's Morning Time Q&A on September 23. Register at CindyRollins.net today! Also, Thomas will be teaching a mini-class series on Shakespeare's Roman Plays in October, and you can find out more and register at HouseofHumaneLetters.com. Angelina starts off the conversation asking for everyone's impressions of this section of reading, and Thomas and Cindy bring up the melancholy nature of much of this story. Themes discussed in this episode include: seeing and not seeing, reason's response to faith, the dream motif, the similarities with the story of Iphigenia, baptism and crossing the river, and the ways relationships change over time. Another topic our hosts highlight is the tension between mysticism and rationalism and the truth that transcends the inadequacy of these. Listen to The Literary Life: Commonplace Quotes: "Self-consciousness is a great barrier to faith. A. B. Simpson It is a mark of true folklore that even the tale that is evidently wild is eminently sane. G. K. Chesterton The poet's job is not to tell you what happened, but what happens: not what did take place, but the kind of thing that always takes place. Northrup Frye Requiescat by Matthew Arnold Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too! Her mirth the world required; She bathed it in smiles of glee. But her heart was tired, tired, And now they let her be. Her life was turning, turning, In mazes of heat and sound. But for peace her soul was yearning, And now peace laps her round. Her cabin'd, ample spirit, It flutter'd and fail'd for breath. Tonight it doth inherit The vasty hall of death. Book List: (Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies by Robert Kirk St. Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton The Educated Imagination by Northrup Frye The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 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 https://cindyrollins.net, 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