The Inklings Variety Hour

Adapting Tolkien (Rerun)

We have a lot more new episodes waiting for you, including a trip to the borders of Faerie with George MacDonald, a Night Operation with Owen Barfield, and a House by the Stable with Charles Williams!  And a lot more.  

But here's the thing...all of those episodes need to be edited by yours truly. And it's the last week of the semester, and I have a lot of grading (and parenting) to do, so, it's time to treat yourself to a rerun.

Luckily, it's a good one!

Enjoy this old episode about adapting Tolkien!  We'll be back next week!

Old description:

Jonathan Geltner and Eric Geddes join Chris to talk about their favorite adaptations of Tolkien's Legendarium in this fairly self-indulgent and digressive conversation.  Join us!

Do you have a favorite (or least favorite) Tolkien adaptation?  Email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com and tell us about it.

Poetry Thursday: "Surprised by Joy," by William Wordsworth

This poetry Thursday, we're taking on "Surprised by Joy," the sonnet by William Wordsworth that gave Lewis' 1955 memoir its title.  But beyond a title, does the poem have any connection to Lewis' ideas about joy, grief, and love?

Probably, yes.

 

Thanks again to Sørina Higgins for selecting and reading this week's (and last week's) poem!

Here's the poem, by the way: Surprised by Joy by William Wordsworth | Poetry Foundation

And here's Ben Jonson's "On My First Son," which is a real tear-jerker: On my First Son by Ben Jonson | Poetry Foundation

If you enjoy Poetry Thursdays, be sure to let us know at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

 

C.S. Lewis, Trauma, and the World Wars

As always, if you enjoy this program, please leave us a five-star review on iTunes.  

 

Dr. Katherine Wyma joins Chris to talk about how Lewis' writing reflects his experiences in World War I.  In particular, she suggests that his writing about World War II may be a form of narrative therapy that helped him cope with psychological wounds from the previous war.

Katherine mentions a few books listeners might want to check out:

The Maisie Dobbs mystery series

A Morning After War, by K.J. Gilchrist

C.S. Lewis and the BBC, by Justin Phillips

If you want to drop us a line, or join us for an episode (we're recording on Perelandra just now), email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you.

 

Poetry Thursday: "On Meeting Shakespeare," by Charles Williams

Enjoy this short, early poem by Charles Williams!

Many thanks to Sørina Higgins for reading (as well as her counsel and help with this podcast generally).

Find Williams' poem and her commentary (from ten years ago, nearly exactly) here: On Meeting Shakespeare | The Oddest Inkling (wordpress.com)

Next week: Tolkien and Lewis and the World Wars!

Race to Krakatoa (Inkwell Chronicles), with J.D. Peabody

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour, then...

please...

leave us a review with five stars

on iTunes or Apple Music, or whatever.

Yes, we're talking to you through these shownotes, 

and it's all very eerie

and annoying.

*ahem*

Middle-grade author J.D. Peabody rejoins Chris to talk about The Inkwell Chronicles: Race to Krakatoa, the second book in his Inkwell Chronicles series.  

You may want to read the book before listening--or feel free to listen to get an idea of how another author draws on the work of the Inklings to create his own excellent middle-grade fiction. It's pretty inspiring.

Stick around post "credits" to hear Mr. Peabody talk with Chris' 10-year-old son.  

Here, by the way, is Jeff's secret Inkwell Chronicles invisible ink page.  Worth looking through.

Apologies for the late posting! Life has been a perfect storm of grading, kids getting sick, meetings, etc.  

Also--we're on Instagram now.  Follow us @inklingsvarietyhour and feel free to respond there.

As always, email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you.

Poetry Thursday: "The Hoard," by J.R.R. Tolkien

This week, we've got another by Tolkien.  You can find it in Tales from the Perilous Realm, which collects The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in which it was originally published.

Again, the idea for this format comes from "The Daily Poem," so check it out if you haven't already done so.

See you Tuesday!

The Silver Chair, Part 5: Malice in Underland

The finale of our series on The Silver Chair!  We have a lot of great stuff to say, but I have a ten-month-old with an ear infection and it is the last month of the semester, so I will have to write a summary later!  This is also not as scrupulously edited as other episodes are--so savor the authenticity!

My guests are Eric Geddes, Jonathan Geltner (whose blogs you should find and whose books you should buy), and Joseph Weigel (whose podcast you should listen to). My wife Glencora also makes a brief appearance.

You can now find us on Instagram @inklingsvarietyhour.  We'd love to hear from you.

Next week, we'll be talking to J.D. Peabody about his middle-grade fantasy, The Inkwell Chronicles: Race to Krakatoa.  Feel free to look it up and give it a read before then or wait until you hear the episode.

As always, email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com, and please leave a five-star review on iTunes if you're enjoying the podcast.

Poetry Thursday: "On the Circuit," by W.H. Auden

Was Auden an Inkling?

No. No, he wasn't.

But have we played him reading a stanza of this poem (in which he mentions Williams and Tolkien) every week we've published an episode?  

Yes. Yes, we have.

So here's the whole thing in full, for the sake of sweet context.

Again, I am absolutely stealing the pattern of Poetry Thursdays from the wonderful Daily Poem podcast by Goldberry Studios.  Listen to it and be enlightened, if you like this sort of thing.

Next time: We wrap up our Silver Chair discussion!

The Silver Chair, Part 4: How to Cook For Forty Giants

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour and want to support the show without paying us a dime, please consider leaving us a review on iTunes.  

Feel free to follow us on Instagram: @inklingsvarietyhour

And shoot us an email to tell us that our work this week has not been in vain: inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.

 

This week, Chris is joined by a panoply of first-time and returning guests, such as Eric Geddes, Jonathan Geltner, Joseph Weigel, and Glencora Pipkin, to talk about The Silver Chair, Chapters 7-9.  Hopefully you'll find our many digressions refreshing and stimulating--not irritating and uncomfortable, like so many irregular trenches carved into a hill.

Among other things, we discuss:

• Whether we're more afraid of heights or depths (we'd love to hear from you on this question).
• Chris feels vindicated that Lewis had trouble finding a name for this book.
• The V-structure (see Planet Narnia) of The Silver Chair
• The Faerie Queene and the fringes of England and Narnia
• Sources, and Eric's hypothesis about "Narnia and the North"
• Education and The Silver Chair
• Loss of Agency Resulting from Comfort
• The Nature of Dreams
• The Children's Cascading Epiphanies!
•  Humor and Tension in Harfang
• "It's a Cookbook!"
• "It's only cannibalism if your meal was hnau."
• Education as instilling virtue

Here's a link to Jonathan Weigel's podcast, "Men with Chests": Men with Chests on Apple Podcasts

Here's a link to Jonathan Geltner's substack, blog, and books.

 

This Thursday: A poem!  By one of the Inklings, probably!  You'll know when I do!

Next week: Finale of The Silver Chair!

 

Poetry Thursday: "The Birth of Language," by C.S. Lewis

If you're enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving us a review on itunes.  If you're not, you probably have better things to do with your time than to bother with reviews!

As always, feel free to email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com!

Welcome back to Poetry Thursday.

Here's something from the planet Mercury for you all!

Also, the show now has an Instagram--follow us @inklingsvarietyhour

Feel free to let me know if there are poems by Inklings you'd really like to hear.  

We'll be back Tuesday with more of The Silver Chair!

In the meantime, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Happy Easter to you! Cristos Anviat!