The Inklings Variety Hour

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 7 (Saturday Rerun)

Apologies (again) for the late Saturday upload. Here's Part 7 of our Till We Have Faces series. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for the first brand new episode of Season 5. We'll start with The Horse and His Boy on March 4 and update with a new episode every two weeks.

---------------------------------------------------------

Original description:

If you like this podcast, please give us a review in iTunes!  Also, we'd love to hear from you!  Email us at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  

This week, Chris and Anika discuss Chapters 12 and 13 of Till We Have Faces.  Subjects for discussion include:

• Santeria and the First Amendment (and also, of course, "Santeria" by Sublime)
• How Orual-the-author is being changed while telling us about Orual-the-character's refusal to change
• Possessive love and our tendency to be ruined by strong loves
• The "ferly" in Middle English literature
• Is Bardia's fear of the gods practical fear for his safety or fear of the numinous?
• Orual withholds key evidence!
• The Fox's theology and soul-houses
• How true divine nature is foolishness to the Greek and a stumbling block for the Glomian
• At the end: Various proposals for an '80s fantasy movie based on Till We Have Faces.  (Someone please make a poster of this idea.)

Special thanks to my brother Jason Pipkin for the incredible '80s-style synth track used at the end!  Apologies if I overuse it, but I really liked it.  Other music sampled includes:

• "Our Father" in Aramaic
• "The Hurrian Hymn" as played by Michael Levy
• "Santeria," by Sublime
• "Princes of the Universe," by Queen
• "Quantum Leap" theme by Mike Post

In two weeks, we meet the God of the Mountain!  Talk about numinous and sublime!  

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 6 (Saturday Rerun)

Apologies for the late upload!

A new season of The Inklings Variety Hour is coming on Tuesdays in March, starting with The Horse and His Boy. 

In the meantime, enjoy this old episode, with one of our first guest-stars, Andrew Lazo, talking about his favorite Lewis book, Till We Have Faces!

Original Description:

This week, we're talking with Andrew Lazo, author, speaker, and noted Till We Have Faces  and C.S. Lewis scholar.  You can find additional information about Andrew's projects, current and future, at mythoflove.net.  We would like to thank David Bates at Pints with Jack for connecting us with Andrew!  In this episode, Anika, Chris and Andrew discuss some classical and medieval influences on Till We Have Faces, as well as concepts like mortal shame and the way physical and spiritual attitudes alter perception in Lewis' work.  In some ways, this is also a broader view of Till We Have Faces itself, thanks to Andrew's expertise.  Stay tuned for bonus material at the end, where we hear from Andrew about the circumstances of Lewis' writing of Till We Have Faces.  Enjoy the conversation!  We certainly did.

Some references in this episode:

A Naked Tree, by Joy Davidman  

Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Over the Rhine (band)

Weeping Bay, by Joy Davidman

"After Ten Years," from Of Other Worlds by C.S. Lewis

Pearl, by the Gawain-poet (Tolkien's translation here)  (Original text here)

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour, drop us a line to tell us so!  You can email us at InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  Also!  Please find us on iTunes and give us a rating if you like us.  Additionally, if you'd ever like to guest star and talk with us about these works (whether you are a scholar or not), we'd love to have you.  If you're listening to this podcast, you are already a kindred spirit, and we would enjoy meeting you.  Just saying.  

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 5 (Saturday Rerun)

A new season of The Inklings Variety Hour is coming your way in March! In the meantime, here's another rerun. Old description:

This week, we are still hiking up the enchanting mountain that is Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, hearts dancing all the while.  And why should they not, as we discuss such topics as:

• Fighting and work as a potential antidote for depression
• Resurrection as a potential antidote for depression
• How King Trom is a bro
• Refusal of joy and its effect on perception
• Would-be eucatastrophe
• Landscape, symbolism, and the sticky wicket of literalized metaphor
• Potential lawsuits Psyche could bring against Redival

Recommendations include:

• cslewisdoodle
• Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter

We'd love to hear from you if you're enjoying the podcast!  We'd also love to have you on the show if you'd like to join us sometime (and don't mind reading a few chapters of Till We Have Faces first)!  Our email is InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com.  

Next time we will have Till We Have Faces scholar Andrew Lazo on to discuss Chapters 10, 11, and 12!  It will be worth the wait!

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 4 (Saturday Rerun)

From the vaults! More of C.S. Lewis' underrated final novel!

Original description:

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

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 3 (Saturday Rerun)

Enjoy!

Original Episode Description:

 

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 2 (Saturday Rerun)

Till We Have Faces, Part 2!

Here are the original shownotes:

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!

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 1 (Saturday Rerun)

Sorry about the late upload! Enjoy!

 

From the original episode description:

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

 

From the Old Winyards: Smith of Wootton Major, Part 2 (Saturday Rerun)

Happy New Year!

Kora Burton rejoins Chris to discuss Tolkien's last fairy (or is it faerie?) story, "Smith of Wootton Major" (1967). 

Smith of Wootton Major is a short story, a parable about the nature of what Tolkien called “fayery” or “Faerie,” an evocative fairy tale in its own right, as well as a melancholy meditation on the loss of artistic capacity.  Though told simply enough for children to understand its plot, Tolkien called it “an old man’s book.”

 

Thanks as always to Logan Huggins for producing this episode!

 

If you have any questions or would like to contact us, please do so at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you.

From the Old Winyards: Smith of Wootton Major, Part 1 (Saturday Rerun)

From the Old Winyards: It's Time for the Feast of Good Children (to which not many are invited).

___________________________________

Kora Burton joins Chris to discuss Tolkien's last fairy (or is it faerie?) story, "Smith of Wootton Major."  

Smith of Wootton Major (1967) is Tolkien’s last work of fiction and was begun as part of an Introduction to an edition of George MacDonald’s The Golden Key–an edition that was never published.  Tolkien began by writing a kind of parable about a stupid baker making a cake for children that inadvertently had something faerian in it.  But when he found this illustration was taking on a life of its own, he discarded the introduction entirely and worked on the story–which he realized was in part a critique of the things he did not like about George MacDonald, among other Victorians (still, I find it owes a real debt to The Golden Key and Phantastes, as much as it does to anything medieval).  Smith of Wootton Major is a short story, a parable about the nature of what Tolkien called “fayery” or “Faerie,” an evocative fairy tale in its own right, as well as a melancholy meditation on the loss of artistic capacity.  Though told simply enough for children to understand its plot, Tolkien called it “an old man’s book.”

One of my favorite history of English podcasts, just in case you want more philology or historical linguistics: https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/

Thanks as always to Logan Huggins for producing this episode!

 

If you have any questions or would like to contact us, please do so at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you.

Next week: We enter Faerie with Smith!

An Inklings Christmas Carol (Repeat)

For the first time, all three parts of last year's Christmas play are edited together. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas.

Previous description:

At last!  Here is the first part of a (Zoom) table reading of my "play" (loosely defined), "An Inklings Christmas Carol."  

Two more (longer) parts are to come!  Gee, it's a good thing Christmas begins on December 25, or I'd be out of time. Twelve Tide, etc., etc.!

Special thanks to Anika Smith, Sørina Higgins, and Joe Hoffman for reading this episode.  Thanks in general to Sørina's Author's Circle, which you can find out more about (and even join) here. 

Hope you enjoy it--keep in mind this is a first draft, none of us are professional actors, and I'm not making a cent off this episode! As with any holiday movie or play, if you keep your expectations low, you'll have a pretty good time!

Feel free to send me feedback at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  And please rate the show if you like it!