The Inklings Variety Hour

Till We Have Faces - Chapters 7-8

In which Anika and Chris reveal the fairly shallow reason we had for doing Till We Have Faces this year and accidentally endorse human sacrifice. 

Mostly, we talk about Chapter 7, in which Orual and Psyche say goodbye, and Chapter 8, in which Orual decides to journey to the mountain and recover Psyche's body.  At issue are whether or not selfish love is still love and whether sacrifice (especially human sacrifice) is effective.

Other highlights:

Ash Wednesday Anecdotes

Anika reads Lewis' poem, "As the Ruin Falls"

Till We Have Faces as a text that changes its narrator

Finally, inspired by WandaVision, the hosts ask whether Till We Have Faces would make a good sitcom--and what kind of sitcom it would be?

Have your own thoughts?  Email us at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you.

Music credits:

• The "Our Father" in Aramaic
• The Hurrian Hymn
• "Aase's Death," by Edvard Grieg
• "The Toy Parade," by Dave Kahn, Melvyn Leonard and Mort Greene
• "Everywhere You Look," by Jesse Frederick
• "With a Little Help From My Friends," by Joe Cocker

We will see you in two weeks for Chapters 9 and 10!

Till We Have Faces - Chapters 5-6

With special guest star and Inklings scholar, Sørina Higgins!  

Our conversation about Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis' final novel, continues, with a veritable musical extravaganza at the end (really, we talk about music from the '70s, 80's, and 90's that would fit Till We Have Faces--not niche at all.  At all.)

We'll be back in two weeks.  Meanwhile, consider this an invitation to be on our podcast, no Inklings expertise required; if you'd like to talk with us, we want you to join us for a show/conversation.  Email us at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  

Many thanks to Sørina (who has a lot of Inklings expertise) for joining us!  We plan to have her on again in the near future to talk about Charles Williams' Poetry, or perhaps even The Inklings and King Arthur.  Texmoot, which we promoted in the previous episode, has already passed, but feel free to get in touch about attending next year's session!

Some things mentioned on this episode:

J.G. Frazer's The Golden Bough, of course.

Elizabeth I's Speech to the Troops at Tilbury and the Kate Beaton adaptation.

"Christian Apologetics," the essay where Lewis makes his religion/soup comparison (collected in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics).

Music Mentioned/Sampled in this Episode:

The "Our Father" in Aramaic

The Hurrian Hymn

In God's Country versus Zoo Station, both by U2

"She Came On," by Super Deluxe

Chopin's Raindrop Prelude

"She's a Mystery to Me," by Roy Orbison

Binnorie/Twa Sisters Folk-song, as interpreted by: Custer LaRue, Loreena McKennitt, Jerry Garcia

"Tainted Love," by SoftCell

"No Rain," by Blind Melon

Mainly, of course, we talk about Chapters 5 and 6 of Till We Have Faces.  Enjoy, and we'll be back in two weeks!

Dorothy and Jack: An Interview with Gina Dalfonzo

[Something went wrong with the previous file and only half the interview was working--hopefully this new file corrects things--apologies!]

This week, we are thrilled to present our very first interview with author Gina Dalfonzo!  Buy her book, Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis.  It's a very readable and insightful exploration of the deep and frequently overlooked friendship between two great Christian writers.

 

Next week, we'll have more Till We Have Faces, and guest-starring will be Inklings scholar Sorina Higgins!  Before that happens, you are cordially invited to join her and many other Inklings scholars and fans online at Texmoot this Saturday.

 

Until next week!

Till We Have Faces - Chapters 3-4

In the spirit of Groundhog's Day, Chris and Anika dig into Chapters 3-4 of Lewis' Till We Have Faces, which retells the Cupid and Psyche myth.  

We discuss, among other things:

• The apparent popularity of J.G. Frazer in Glome
• "Foxy Redival's Flirtations" 
• Whether we're the worst at what we care about most (and other cheering thoughts)
• Soup and Religion (and other metaphors)
• Narrative asides about weeping in Lewis
• Our ideas for movie adaptations of TWHF

Music:

The Hurrian Hymn

"Our Father" in Aramaic 

They say that behind every groundhog is a Shadowbrute requiring human sacrifice.  May the good town officials of Punxsutawney fail to see it this year.  For all our sakes.

As always, please give us ratings on iTunes if you enjoy this!  It means a lot to us and helps others find the podcast!  Also--feel free to send us your thoughts at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com

Thank you for joining us!  

Next time (in two weeks), we will be joined by special guest and Inklings scholar Sorina Higgins!

Till We Have Faces- Chapters 1-2

Welcome back to The Inklings Variety Hour!  It's a new year, and Ungit has only just hatched out of her egg-house (or something), but already, your intrepid hosts are tackling C.S. Lewis' novel, Till We Have Faces (1956)--widely considered the best novel he ever wrote.  Chris, Anika, and Meagan discuss this retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth as only the Inklings Variety Hour can--with lots of digressions, reading of passages, and laughter.

If you're enjoying this podcast, we're glad to have you along for the ride, and we'd love to know you!  Drop us a line at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  Ratings on the iTunes store would be most welcome also.

Music for this episode includes:

The Hurrian Hymn

The "Our Father" in Aramaic

"Sick Muse" by Metric

Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters

It's an Inklings Variety Hour Jovial Christmas Extravaganza!  Featuring:

A Discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas!

Chris Pipkin and his children, Davey and Virginia!  

Anika Smith! (First half of show) 

Meagan Logsdon!  (Second half of show) 

A cringeworthy impersonation of an old British person by Chris Pipkin!

Bits of music by Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior (The Boar's Head Carol), and Martin Romberg (A Elbereth Gilthoniel), (as well as Virginia Pipkin).

Pipkins' Christmas site promoted: 12tide.com

Thanks for listening to us this year!  As always, if you enjoy this podcast, 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!  Merry Christmas.

Coming up in 2021: Till We Have Faces

Is Narnia a Fairy Story?

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!

"On Fairy Stories" - Pt. 2: Recovery, Escape, Consolation

Join Anika, Meagan, and Chris for the second half of our discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories."  Among other things, we talk about the nature of originality, the way that stories re-enchant and recover reality for us, the nature of true escapism and modernity, the Gift of Illuvatar and whether anyone actually wants to live forever--probably--also, whether Tolkien really did believe in fairies, the idea of consolation, how joy is more poignant than grief, the parts of the Lord of the Rings that make us cry, fairy stories, myth, and the Gospel, how the temporal and material helps us recover the eternal--and, of course, Frodo of the Nine Fingers and His Ring of Doom!  So strap on your steel shoes and prepare to climb the glassy hill of robust conversation with us.

 

You can find this essay in a number of places, but this is a pretty nice edition.

 

Next time, we'll be applying some of the ideas from "On Fairy Stories" to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in order to determine, once and for all, whether it is a fairy story, and whether Tolkien is departing from his own standards in disliking it.  It's full circle time!  If you enjoy this podcast, 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.

Happy C.S. Lewis Day!

Happy "Commemoration of C.S. Lewis Day."  Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?  Here's a quick reading from Walter Hooper's Introduction to "The Weight of Glory and Other Essays," which describes the last three months of Lewis' life.

Stay tuned for more podcasts very soon.

"On Fairy Stories" - Pt. 1: A Rash Adventure with J.R.R. Tolkien

"By the tobacco-tinted teeth of Tolkien!  It's the walrus of the OED, and he wants revenge on those who once defined him!" 

We're waxing philosophical about a philologist's fairy-wondering wander-work this week!  Longer episode description to come, when I'm not deliriously tired!

In the meantime, enjoy the podcast!  Read "On Fairy Stories," if you have it under your pillow or otherwise near at hand.  And have a eucatastrophe or two while you're at it.  They're like catastrophes, only good.  Sort of the red licorice of Greek literary terms.

Anyhow...