The Literary Life Podcast

This week on The Literary Life podcast, our hosts dive into Act 1 of Oscar Wilde's satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas share their commonplace quotes, which leads into a conversation on education before they begin talking about the play. Thomas talks about the name of the play as well as the name "Ernest" in context of this time period. Angelina highlights her excitement of noticing the connection between Wilde's humor and P. G. Wodehouse. Angelina talks about the changing roles of social classes in the late Victorian age and how that comes into this story. Our hosts go through this first act and discuss the social conventions at which Wilde is poking fun. Commonplace Quotes: We find that the mind is better fed by digesting a page than by devouring a volume. Thomas Macaulay Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one. John Ruskin Kew Gardens by D. M. Black (in memory of Ian Armstrong Black, d. 1971) Distinguished scientist, to whom I greatly defer (old man, moreover, whom I dearly love), I walk today in Kew Gardens, in sunlight the colour of honey which flows from the cold autumnal blue of the heavens to light these tans and golds, these ripe corn and leather and sunset colours of the East Asian liriodendrons, of the beeches and maples and plum-trees and the stubborn green banks of the holly hedges – and you walk always beside me, you with your knowledge of names and your clairvoyant gaze, in what for me is sheer panorama seeing the net or web of connectedness. But today it is I who speak (and you are long dead, but it is to you I say it): 'The leaves are green in summer because of chlorophyll and the flowers are bright to lure the pollinators, and without remainder (so you have often told me) these marvellous things that shock the heart the head can account for. But I want to sing an excess that is not so simply explainable, to say that the beauty of the autumn is a redundant beauty, that the sky had no need to be this particular shade of blue, nor the maple to die in flames of this particular yellow, nor the heart to respond with an ecstasy that does not beget children. I want to say that I do not believe your science although I believe every word of it, and intend to understand it; that although I rate that unwavering gaze higher than almost everything, there is another sense, a hearing, to which I more deeply attend. Thus I withstand and contradict you, I, your child, who have inherited from you the passion that causes me to oppose you.' Book List: Amazon affiliate links are used in this content. The Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Macaulay The Modern Painters, Vol. 3 by John Ruskin Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis "A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated" by Oscar Wilde Hard Times by Charles Dickens The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton The Allegory of Love 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

On this episode, the hosts introduce Oscar Wilde and his play The Importance of Being Earnest, discussing themes such as art for art's sake and Victorian society. They also share personal experiences during isolation, reflect on noisy neighborhoods, explore the influence of Coleridge on American romantics, discuss Charlotte Mason's belief in the power of attention, and examine the transition from the Victorian to the Edwardian era. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the balance of forgiveness and condemnation and looks forward to the next episode.

In light of the recent changes to all our lives, The Literary Life crew is breaking from the previously announced schedule to discuss the importance of stories in times of crisis. But first, we want you to know about a special gift from Cindy Rollins. You can download a PDF copy of her Handbook of Morning Time for free by visiting her shop here. You can also purchase the replays of the Re-Enchanting the World online conference at HouseofHumaneLetters.com. Angelina talks about the impulse of humanity to turn to stories during time of upheaval and plague. Cindy points out the need we have for an ordered universe, and that this is one of the things good books provide. Together with Thomas, they discuss how important it is to find stories that reassure us that there is order and redemption to come. They also give some recommendations for personal reading as well as family read-alouds for these challenging times. Finally, our hosts give us an update with how they are doing with their own 20 for 2020 Reading Challenge lists. If you would like more bonus content, especially our new monthly live chats called "All Fellows Eve", become a Patreon supporter of The Literary Life! Listen to The Literary Life: Commonplace Quotes: An important part of a child's education is storytelling, since good stories excite the imagination and strengthen the bond between parent and child. St. John Chrysostom It is in the essential nature of fashion to blind us to its meaning and the causes from which it springs. Edwin Muir Unless the writer has gone utterly out of his mind, his aim is still communication, and communications suggests talking inside community. Flannery O'Connor Sonnet 6 by William Shakespeare Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry, As, to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn, And guilded honour shamefully misplaced, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, And right perfection wrongfully disgraced, And strength by limping sway disabled, And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill, And simple truth miscall'd simplicity, And captive good attending captain ill: Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my love alone. Book List: Amazon affiliate links are used in this content. The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlock Glyer Tolkien: Man and Myth by Joseph Pierce The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tokien Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis The Kingfisher book of Tales from Russia by James Mayhew Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen Taylor Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vera Hodgson Cider for Rosie by Laurie Lee Plainsong by Kent Haruf Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 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 and our discussion of the Art of Writing! If you missed last week's discussion, you can go back and catch up here. We start off today with Angelina Stanford asking Karen Glass about the principles of good writing. Karen talks a bit about William Zinsser and his ideas about writing and education. Our hosts give some practical encouragement to the average homeschool parent listening to this conversation. Cindy highlights the value of waiting to teach specific skills until students are old enough to process them. Angelina, Cindy and Karen talk about narration in the Charlotte Mason education, its benefits and its challenges. They emphasize the importance of guiding children to think well instead of just learning mechanical skills devoid of context. Angelina brings up the sensitive topic of assessing and grading writing. Karen leaves us with a challenge to narrate this podcast discussion in writing in order to apply what you've learned! Loving In Truth by Sir Philip Sydney Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain, Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,— I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe, Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain, Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain. But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay: Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows, And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way. Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite: "Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write." Book List: Writing to Learn by William Zinsser 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, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas sit down with Karen Glass for a conversation centering on the topic of writing. They discuss the problem of trying to teach writing in a formulaic way. They also talk about the challenge of helping students learn to think well in order to write well. Karen highlights narration as a tool to teach thinking well in the form of oral composition. Cindy digs into the idea of imitation as an integral part of the learning process. Angelina and Karen both emphasize the importance of addressing skill and form on an individual basis, depending on what your student needs to improve. Tune in again next week for Part 2 of this great conversation! Listen to The Literary Life: Commonplace Quotes: To write or even speak English is not a science, but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up. George Orwell Rhetoric, or the art of writing, is not governed by arbitrary laws. Its rules are not statutes passed long ago by some assembly of critical scholars; they are merely common-sense principles derived from the observed practices of persons who have succeeded in writing well,–that is, from the method of good authors. Hence, when we study composition, we investigate these methods, in order to apply them in our own writing. from "Manual of Composition and Rhetoric" When a child is reading, he should not be teased with questions as to the meaning of what he has read, the signification of this word or that; what is annoying to older people is equally annoying to children. Charlotte Mason Follow Your Saint by Thomas Campion Follow your saint, follow with accents sweet; Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet. There, wrapp'd in cloud of sorrow, pity move, And tell the ravisher of my soul I perish for her love: But if she scorns my never-ceasing pain, Then burst with sighing in her sight and ne'er return again. All that I sung still to her praise did tend, Still she was first; still she my songs did end; Yet she my love and music both doth fly, The music that her echo is and beauty's sympathy. Then let my notes pursue her scornful flight: It shall suffice that they were breath'd and died for her delight. Book List: Amazon Affiliate links are used in this content. Manual of Composition and Rhetoric edited by Gardiner, Kittredge and Arnold Home Education by Charlotte Mason Know and Tell by Karen Glass On Writing Well by William Zinsser Writing to Learn by William Zinsser Range by David Epstein 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

On today's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Cindy interview Karen Glass. Karen is part of the Advisory of AmblesideOnline. She has four children, ages 13 to 27, who have been homeschooled using Charlotte Mason's methods from beginning to end. She has been studying and writing about Charlotte Mason and Classical Education for over twenty years, and has written Consider This to share the most important things she has discovered about the connection between them. We are giving away a copy of her newest book, In Vital Harmony, to 2 lucky listeners who share about this podcast episode on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #invitalharmony. After sharing their commonplace quotes, our hosts dive into this conversation with Karen about how she became a lover of books. She talks about her voracious reading as a child and teen. Karen also recounts how her mediocre education did not discourage her reading life but just gave her more time and reason to read. This leads into a meaty discussion among Karen, Cindy and Angelina about self-education, homeschooling and lifelong learning. Commonplace Quotes: Let us consider an apple. If we approach it synthetically, we take it as we find it–in its state of wholeness and completeness–and we eat it. Once eaten, it is digested, absorbed, and becomes a part of us. If we approach it analytically, we take it apart–not in a natural way, which is merely a smaller portion (here is half an apple!), but rather, here is the fiber, here are the vitamins, here is a bit of water, and some sugar. Suppose we ingest each bit–a spoonful of fiber, a vitamin pill, a swallow of sugar-and-water. On paper, we have consumed the same thing in both cases–equal portions of nutrition–but there is a very, very large difference. Only one of those meals tasted good and created an appetite for more. Karen Glass However difficult it may be to characterize correctly the medieval class system, it is even more difficult to grasp medieval thinking, which was broadly metaphorical and analogical, rather than merely logical and rational. Thomas Cahill Remember that the uttermost penalty was reserved for him who could say to his brother "Thou fool!" because contempt was the most un-godlike quality which man could display. Beware above all things lest a little knowledge only reinforce conceit and lead you into a false world where self is enthroned, far away from the true world which is illuminated by the love of God, manifested in the Person of the Incarnate Word. Mandell Creighton A Poison Tree by William Blake I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I waterd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night. Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine. And into my garden stole, When the night had veild the pole; In the morning glad I see; My foe outstretched beneath the tree. Book List: Amazon Affiliate links are used in this content. Consider This by Karen Glass Mind to Mind by Karen Glass Know and Tell by Karen Glass In Vital Harmony by Karen Glass Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill Thoughts on Education by Mandell Creighton Bedtime for Frances by Russel Hoban Petunia by Roger Duvoisin Dorrie's Magic by Patricia Coombs Watership Down by Richard Adams The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkein The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss Lovey by Mary MacCracken A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz The Philosophy of Christian School Education Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Thomas Lynley Mysteries by Elizabeth George Jan Karon's Mitford Series 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

On today's episode of The Literary Life, we wrap up our discussion of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale with a look at Act 5. Our hosts, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks also announce our next book to read together, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Angelina notes that Act 5 is all about reconciliation and redemption. Thomas points out that Shakespeare had a challenge here in how to bring this play to a close with all those relationships resolved. Cindy brings up Paulina's character and the significance of her name. Our hosts discuss the truth that though in an ultimate sense all will be made right, this play reminds us that in this life, there are some things that are not fully redeemed. They also talk about how Shakespeare plays with both the audience's expectations and with the form in this act. Leontes' imagination is also in need of redemption, and we see that happen here at the end of the play. Thomas makes the connection between the myth of Pygmalion, Euripedes' Alcestis and A Winter's Tale. The theme of resurrection is so prevalent in this final act, particularly in the case of Hermoine, but also in other characters and plot points. The winter is over, and spring has come to Sicily. The old order is not restored. A new order has been brought into being. Upcoming Events: We are excited to announce a new online conference coming on March 13-14, 2020. Our theme will be Re-enchanting the World: The Legacy of the Inklings. Our keynote speaker is Inklings scholar, Joseph Pearce. Go to Angelina and Thomas' new website HouseofHumaneLetters.com for all the info and to register. Commonplace Quotes: An ancient rhetorician delivered a caution against dwelling too long on the excitation of pity; for nothing, he said, dries so soon as tears; and Shakespeare acted conformably to this ingenious maxim, without knowing it. William Hazlitt A work of art is a world unto itself, but all works of art belong to one world. Harold Goddard In all narration there is only one way to be clever, and that is to be exact. Robert Louis Stevenson Hermione in the House of Paulina by C. S. Lewis How soft it rains, how nourishingly soft and green Has grown the dark humility of this low house Where sunrise never enters, where I have not seen The moon by night nor heard the footfall of a mouse, Nor looked on any face but yours Nor changed my posture in my place of rest For fifteen years–oh how this quiet cures My pain and sucks the burning from my breast. It sucked out all the poison of my will and drew All hot rebellion from me, all desire to break The silence you commanded me. . . . Nothing to do, Nothing to fear or wish for, not a choice to make, Only to be; to hear no more Cock-crowing duty calling me to rise, But slowly thus to ripen laid in store In this dim nursery near your watching eyes. Pardon, great spirit, whose tall shape like a golden tower Stands over me or seems upon slow wings to move, Coloring with life my paleness, with returning power, By sober ministrations of severest love; Pardon, that when you brought me here, Still drowned in bitter passion, drugged with life, I did not know . . . pardon, I thought you were Paulina, old Antigonus' young wife. Book List: Characters of Shakespeare's Plays by William Hazlitt Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Poems 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

This week on The Literary Life, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas dive in to Act 4 of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. We are excited to announce a new online conference coming on March 13-14, 2020. Our theme will be Re-enchanting the World: The Legacy of the Inklings. Our keynote speaker is Inklings scholar, Joseph Pearce. Go to Angelina and Thomas' new website HouseofHumaneLetters.com for all the info and to register. This act is jam packed with action and important plot points, but Cindy points out the connection between the shepherd and his son and the tale that Mamillius was telling Hermoine in an earlier act. Angelina brings up the juxtaposition of winter and spring in this play. She also talks about how Shakespeare departs from Aristotle's "rules" for unity of time and place in playwriting. This act is all about redeeming what was lost, and it is also full of disguises. Thomas explains the connection between Perdita and Flora. Our hosts discuss the wedding customs of Shakespeare's day as well as the festivities we see in this play. Thomas gives us a little overview of the myth of Persephone and how A Winter's Tale alludes to this myth. Angelina also highlights the importance of the kiss in the fairy tale. Cindy encourages us to read and re-read because there is such depth in Shakespeare that we can never get to the bottom of it all. We are also invited to look for the mirrors of the characters and action in this act to things that happen in the first three acts. Angelina also instructs us on the two classic fairy tale story patterns and how A Winter's Tale follows both of those patterns. The Winter's Tale Show Schedule: February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows Commonplace Quotes: She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love: A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! —Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me! William Wordsworth In the 12th-century Church of San Clemente in Rome, the brilliant mosaic apse over the main altar presents us with a view of reality that is both Cosmic and Eucharistic. The central image is of the crucified Christ, mildly accepting his suffering and death, his face full of peace. But spiraling forth from the foot of the cross, where it is watered by the blood of Christ, a stupendous acanthus bush curls outward and upward, encircling nearly a hundred separate images. The spiraling branches of the acanthus embrace even two pagan Roman gods, Baby Jupiter, formerly king of the gods, and Baby Neptune, formerly king of the deep, who rides a slippery looking dolphin. Even the ancient pagans have been redeemed, and their mythologies are usable by us. Thomas Cahill Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible. Lord Salisbury You Ask My Why, Tho' Ill at Ease by Alfred, Lord Tennyson You ask me, why, tho' ill at ease, Within this region I subsist, Whose spirits falter in the mist, And languish for the purple seas. It is the land that freemen till, That sober-suited Freedom chose, The land, where girt with friends or foes A man may speak the thing he will; A land of settled government, A land of just and old renown, Where Freedom slowly broadens down From precedent to precedent: Where faction seldom gathers head, But by degrees to fullness wrought, The strength of some diffusive thought Hath time and space to work and spread. Should banded unions persecute Opinion, and induce a time When single thought is civil crime, And individual freedom mute; Tho' Power should make from land to land The name of Britain trebly great— Tho' every channel of the State Should fill and choke with golden sand— Yet waft me from the harbour-mouth, Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky, And I will see before I die The palms and temples of the South. Book List: Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber Pandosto by Robert Greene 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

On The Literary Life podcast today, we join our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks to discuss Act 3 of The Winter's Tale by Williams Shakespeare. Before jumping into Shakespeare, though, our hosts are excited to announce a new online conference coming on March 13-14, 2020. Our theme will be Re-enchanting the World: The Legacy of the Inklings. Our keynote speaker is Inklings scholar, Joseph Pearce. Go to Angelina and Thomas' new website HouseofHumaneLetters.com for all the info and to register. After catching us up on the plot, Angelina asks Thomas to explain a little about the Oracles and Apollo and how they relate to this play. He also talks about the parallel between this play and the historical events surrounding Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Our hosts also bring out the importance of a legitimate heir to the throne in a monarchy. The idea of the consequence of an out of control imagination continue to be crucial in this act. They also talk about the sudden change in Leontes' feelings and his repentance at the end of Act 3. Angelina points out that the structure of the play tells us that all this death and grief is not the climax of the story. Cindy brings up the Russian feel present in A Winter's Tale. Thomas explores the characters of the shepherds and rustics in Shakespeare's plays. They discuss the fairy elements as well as the gospel elements of the baby and the gold being found by the shepherds. Commonplace Quotes: "I think it was The Times Literary Supplement–and it had left me depressed. What struck me so forcibly, and not for the first time, was that a new book on any subject-history, philosophy, science, religion, or what have you–is always dealt with by a specialist in that subject. This may be fairest from the author's point of view, but it conveys a disagreeable impression of watertight compartments… It wasn't that people can think at once confidently and oppositely about almost anything that matters-though that, too, can sometimes be a sobering reflection. It wasn't that they disagreed. I wished they did. What was biting me was the fact that these minds never met at all." Owen Barfield Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. Aldous Huxley A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. W. H. Auden The Winter's Tale Show Schedule: February 18: Act IV February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows Paradise by George Herbert I BLESSE thee, Lord, because I G R O W Among thy trees, which in a R O W To thee both fruit and order O W. What open force, or hidden C H A R M Can blast my fruit, or bring me H A R M While the inclosure is thine A R M? Inclose me still for fear I S T A R T. Be to me rather sharp and T A R T, Than let me want thy hand and A R T. When thou dost greater judgements S P A R E, And with thy knife but prune and P A R E, Ev'n fruitful trees more fruitfull A R E. Such sharpness shows the sweetest F R E N D: Such cuttings rather heal than R E N D: And such beginnings touch their E N D. Book List: (Amazon Affiliate Links) Further Up and Further In by Joseph Pearce Tolkien: Man and Myth by Joseph Pearce The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis Worlds Apart by Owen Barfield The Two Cultures by C. P. Snow Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Wolf Hall Series by Hillary Mantel Silas Marner by George Eliot 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, our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks are back to discuss Act 2 of The Winter's Tale by Williams Shakespeare. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they begin with a brief recap of the plot. They highlight the story begun by Mamillius upon the entrance of Leontes in Act 2, Scene 1. Angelina explores the concept of Leontes as a tragic hero. Our hosts also get into the ideas of constancy versus inconstancy, lunacy and the Renaissance view of women as changeable. Shakespeare, on the other hand, portrays a man as the one who is changeable and the woman as constant. As we continue through this act, our hosts highlight Leontes' illness and how it infects Mamillius. They also talk about Paulina as a sort of foil for Leontes, as well as her strength of character in the face of the king's unreasonable behavior. Cindy points out the unthinkable nature of Leontes' desire to burn his own wife and child. The Winter's Tale Show Schedule: February 11: Act III February 18: Act IV February 25: Act V March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices? Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays" from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Copyright ©1966 by Robert Hayden. Book List: Amazon Affiliate Links Range by David Epstein There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard by M. R. James Chanticleer and the Fox by Barbara Cooney The Aethiopica by Heliodorus 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: Find Angelina at https://angelinastanford.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