The Inklings Variety Hour

From the Old Winyards: War in Heaven, Part 5 (Saturday Rerun)

Sorry for the late Saturday upload! Another classic in the War in Heaven series.

Welcome back!  In this final episode covering Charles Williams' spiritual thriller, War in Heaven, we discuss the conclusion of the book!  What does Charles Williams have in common with J.K. Rowling?  Is Gregory the Satanist the secret protagonist of this book?  And finally, what do you do if a priest falls down dead in the middle of mass, but it was a really pleasant service otherwise?  Stay tuned next time for a bonus episode, after which we will be talking about J.R.R. Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories."

 

If the Inklings squaring off against Aleister Crowley tickles your fancy, please do go pick up a copy of Heaven's War by Micah Harris with art by Michael Gaydos!

From the Old Winyards: War In Heaven, Part 4 (Saturday Rerun)

From the past! Original description:

This is part four of our five-part discussion of War in Heaven, Charles' Williams' modern take on the Holy Graal Quest.  In the chapters we discuss this week, Gregory Persimmons drives Barbara Rackstraw insane using "the ointment," in order to obtain both the Graal and Barbara and Lionel's son, Adrian.  The guardians of the Graal willingly trade the Graal for Barbara's sanity, only to have her cured by an unexpected visitor...who is somehow the Graal himself.  It's not who you think.  In this episode, Satanism meets pessimism, devotion to relics meets humanism, and everybody meets Prester John. 

 

9/22: Happy Hobbit Day!  We're talking about Charles Williams, but we do mention the hobbits (with reference to homeliness and attachment to objects) in a few places.  

 

Works referenced:

 

War in Heaven, by Charles Williams;

 

"Hermeticism and the Metaphysics of Goodness in the Novels of Charles Williams," by Scott McLaren (Mythlore);

 

The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend, by Alan Lupack;

 

 

Music:

 

"Venus," by Gustav Holst

 

"Lohengrin," by Richard Wagner

 

"Princes of the Universe" by Queen. 

 

(Here's the intro that I parody.  Note: Inklings Variety Hour does not formally endorse the USA show "Highlander"--based on the movie of the same name--even if it was awesome.)

 

_Thank you_ to those of you who have left reviews and ratings on iTunes and elsewhere!  Please don't hesitate to drop us a line if you'd like--we'd love to know who you are and what you're interested in hearing us cover in the future!  Our email is InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com. 

Camp Narnia: The Gangurru (Camp Monsters Parody)

If you already listened to this, my apologies! 

I think my releasing it the afternoon before Halloween (rather than the week before) meant that it wasn't on many people's radar. 

I'm quite proud of it (and worked hard on it), so I'm re-releasing. I know it's not Halloween anymore, but, hey--it's also not Christmas, and you don't see that deterring most businesses from playing Bing Crosby.

 

From the Old Winyards: War in Heaven, Part 3 (Saturday Rerun)

Another classic from the vaults. 

Original description: 

This week, we're covering Part III of Charles Williams' supernatural thriller, War in Heaven, in which the good guys (The Archdeacon, Kenneth Mornington, and the Duke) steal the Graal back from Gregory Persimmons, who desires to use it for his own dark purposes.  They then must pray to prevent the Graal from being magically disintegrated from a long distance by Manasseh and Dmitri, two more advanced members of Gregory's shady organization.  We'll also witness a friendship blossoming between all three of our protagonists, talk about how holy and unholy detachment can help make for a very exciting* plot, throw a little shade at King Henry VIII, discuss pagan interpretations of the Graal, and speculate about how P.G. Wodehouse may have been the secret ingredient in Gregory's eventual redemption.  This conversation went well over an hour--if you simply can't get enough of Charles Williams, you're in for a treat.  And hang around (if you'd like) for some bonus material at the very end--should be worth a laugh or two.  I mean, we laugh, anyway.

 

Music from Lohengrin by Wagner, Mercury by Holst, Venus by Holst, and, of course, "Take the Land," by Don Potter.

 

We reference William Blake's poem, "And did those feet in ancient time," which speculates on the very strange legend that the boy Jesus may have been taken to England by Joseph of Arimathea at some point--presumably a pre-Graal excursion for Joseph (I don't think even Blake believed this, though).  "And did those feet" was set to music by Sir Hubert Parry as "Jerusalem," an anthem/hymn that helped revive the drooping nationalism of British troops during World War I and remains popular to this day.

 

If you haven't read any of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series, we encourage you to drop everything and do so as soon as possible.  

 

Finally, this podcast will probably be more fun for you if you read along with us.  Feel free to pick up a copy of Charles Williams' War in Heaven!

 

If you're enjoying these episodes and have constructive feedback, we'd love to hear from you!  Our email is InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  Feel free also to leave us a review on iTunes if you want to see more of this sort of thing.

Camp Narnia: The Gangurru (Halloween Bonus-Camp Monsters Parody)

Cryptids in Narnia!

Parody of the excellent Camp Monsters podcast.

Happy Halloween!

inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

 

From the Old Winyards: War In Heaven, Part 2 (Saturday Rerun)

Another dip back into the old vaults for the second episode covering War in Heaven. Original shownotes: 

We begin this second part of our series on War in Heaven with the Archdeacon's words to the Holy Graal (yes, that's how it's spelled).  We end as a Georgia thunderstorm knocks out the Internet.  In between, we discuss Chapters 4-8 of Charles Williams' supernatural thriller.

You can find War in Heaven here.  It is pretty inexpensive to buy on Kindle ($0.99 the last I checked).

Other than the usual Lohengrin/Jazz mash-up, the music used is from Uranus, one of the pieces in Gustav Holst's Planets suite.

The poetry excerpt at the end is from "On the Circuit," by W.H. Auden (read by the author).

Stay tuned for Part 3 next week!  

If you're enjoying these episodes and have constructive feedback, we'd love to hear from you!  Our email is InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  Feel free also to leave us a review on iTunes if you want to see more of this sort of thing.

Operation Bungaree (Inkwell Chronicles Book 3)

J.D. Peabody joins Chris once again, this time to talk about the third and (for now) final installment of his Inkwell Chronicles series: Operation Bungaree.

 

Here's the link to the book from JD's page.

 

We've still got a lot of episodes for Season 4. Thanks for the very kind five-star reviews! At the moment, it's all I can do to juggle my teaching load and editing/releasing twice a month, but please do keep the ratings and reviews coming, and as always, email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com with any responses, requests, or ideas.

Next time: The Inklings and Romanticism!

From the Old Winyards: War In Heaven, Part 1 (Saturday Reruns)

Here's another Saturday rerun. Original shownotes here:

This is the first of a series of conversations on Charles Williams' 1930 novel, War in Heaven, in which the Holy Graal (yes, that's how it's spelled here) is discovered in a tiny church in the English countryside.  Hijinks and shenanigans ensue, along with a heavy dose of black magic, car chases, and ecumenism.  You'll also find out whether the hosts would prefer to read a book called Christianity and the League of Nations or Foxy Flossie's Flirtations. 

We'll be covering the first three chapters of War in Heaven, which you can purchase here if you want to read along.

Most of our conversation this episode will be about Charles Williams' life, interest in the occult, and influence.  A few works mentioned include:

• The Third Inkling, by Grevel Lindop
• The Oxford Inklings, by Colin Duriez
• The Fellowship, by Philip and Carol Zaleski
• Hell, by Dorothy Sayers
• Taliessin Through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, by Charles Williams
• The Figure of Beatrice, by Charles Williams

To read the first letters Lewis and Williams wrote to each other, go here!

Stay tuned for Part 2!  If you're enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving us a review, as it is the best way to ensure the podcast will continue.  Also, feel free to drop us a line at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  

From the Old Winyards: Is Narnia a Fairy-Story? (Saturday Rerun)

An old favorite:

This week, we follow up on our discussion of Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories" by applying some of his ideas to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  We're trying to assess whether (despite Tolkien's low view of it), Lewis' children's tale actually works as a Tolkienian "Fairy Story."  Works mentioned include:

• On Fairy Stories
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• The Black Bull of Norroway
• Preface to Paradise Lost (when discussing Primary v. Secondary Epic)

Chris also promotes the blog he and his wife do--12tide.com--that includes resources to help people celebrate a twelve-day Christmas Season.   

If you enjoy this podcast, please recommend it to a friend and give us a review on iTunes.  And please do feel more than free to drop us a line at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you!

Arthurian Torso

Jonathan Geltner and Søri Higgins join Chris to discuss Arthurian Torso--a collection of Charles Williams' Arthuriana (his poems and a non-fiction book) edited by C.S. Lewis. We'll be discussing and reading a few favorite poems and marveling at what Williams managed to achieve. Stick around for some broad-brush critical history of Arthurian myth in general and speculation as to whether the fantasy genre has killed it. (Way to go, Tolkien!)

You can read Jonathan's stuff at Romance and Apocalypse | Jonathan Geltner | Substack and check out his debut novel here.

You can read more of Søri's stuff here, and here, and some of her books here.

Also, if you want Williams' poetry and the Torso is a bit too pricey, she's edited those too, here.

Many thanks for the kind reviews of the podcast! Please keep them coming!

And as always, feel free to reach out to me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you.