The Inklings Variety Hour

The Inklings as Creative Writers with Sørina Higgins

Friend of the show and Inklings scholar Sørina Higgins joins Chris for a brief but substantive discussion about the Inklings as creative writers.

This is a shorter episode, as I didn't have much time to edit (on vacation with family).

Among other things, we discuss:

• Sørina's writing consultancy service, which you can find here
• The Inklings and Atmosphere (or "Donegality")
• The relationship between poetry and prose
• Clarity, poetry, and mysticism
• The Oxbridge tutor system as ideal for helping students write well

If you liked what you heard this week, there are a few things you can do:

• Check out wyrdhoard.com.  
• Give us a five-star review on iTunes.
• Shoot us an email at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com
• Follow us on instagram: @inklingsvarietyhour

Next time: Diana Glyer joins to talk with me a bit more about the Inklings as writers in community!

Poetry Thursday: "The Adam at Night," by C.S. Lewis

One of my new favorite poems by Lewis. For some reason, he's really good at writing about planets as well as myth...hmm...

You can find it in Poems. Not sure where else.

Middle Grade Authors, Christianity, and Publishing, with J.D. Peabody

Part two of our "all the right books"/summer reading series.

As always, please do give us a five-star review on iTunes if you like this podcast.

J.D. Peabody joins Chris once again to talk about the state of Christian middle-grade publishing.  You can find his article/interview for Christianity Today on the same subject here.  It is well worth reading.

Among other things, we discuss:

• Current changes to traditionally published Middle Grade fiction
• How those changes apply to Christian Middle Grade fiction
• What would The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit have to change to be published today?
• Redacting books
• "On the Reading of Old Books," by C.S. Lewis
• The rise of independent publishing/self-publishing
• Helping your child develop good judgment
• Book recommendations
• Advice for modern Christian Middle Grade authors
• Monty Python, of course (or maybe just John Cleese?)

Feel free to follow us @inklingsvarietyhour for more summer reading recommendations (both for grown-ups and children).

Email me anytime at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

Next week: I'm still deciding, but there's a lot of great stuff to choose from.  You'll like it, I promise!

Music is "Fragrant Fields," by George Winston, from Summer

Pop-up Episode: Hey! Tom Bombadil!

Chris has G. Connor Salter back on the show to discuss Tom Bombadil in Rings of Power, as well as Tom Bombadil more generally.

See you Tuesday!

Poetry Thursday: "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late," by J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien was a pretty good nonsense poet.

You can find this poem in the chapter "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" in The Fellowship of the Ring, as well as in Tales from the Perilous Realm. It was originally printed on its own in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

Enjoy!

Summer Reading Lists with In the Burrow Books

(Apple won't post all the shownotes to this because of limited space; feel free to click on the show website below for more recommendations. Meanwhile, I'll frontload the stuff with links.)

When a character in Narnia has "read all the wrong books," you know they're in for a difficult time. But spending time in Narnia does a lot to compensate for a bad literary diet.

What, though, about our kids, who all live well after the Narnian apocalypse and need good books to thrive in our world?

What are "the right books," and how do we get our children to read them? Heck, how do we find them for ourselves, for that matter?

Chris' guests this week are Angela Teal and Marena Bleech, who, with their powers combined, form In The Burrow Books.  You can follow them on Instagram for more recommendations: @intheburrowbooks.

You can also find Angela Teal's (a.k.a. J. Reese Bradley's) books, the Brumbletide series (which my eight-year-old is currently enjoying), here.

Among other things, we discuss:

• Why Christians should go to the library
• Ideological conformity among "top five" publishers
• Motivating kids and competing with screens
• "On Fairy Stories," by J.R.R. Tolkien
• "On Three Ways of Writing for Children," by C.S. Lewis
• Why you should judge books by their illustrations

Post-show recommendations from Marena:

• Amy Grimes does some of the most beautiful work. I highly recommend her book(s) and giving her a follow.
• I adore these Enid Blyton picture books. They're great for early readers.
• I think one of my favorite picture books (which of course, I didn't mention) is The Cottage At the End of the Lane which is worth having if you can get it. 
• Like I said, Brambly Hedge is the best!
• Astrid Sheckels was one I mentioned that's a great current author/illustrator. 
• Of course, A Book of Narnians is wonderful.
• This is such a beautiful book of poetry. (And anything by Tasha Tudor is worth having)
• I'm also a big Winnie-the-Pooh fan, and any book with Ernest Shepherd illustrations.

Post-show recommendations from Chris:

• My friend J.D. Peabody’s middle grade book series, The Inkwell Chronicles is a lot of fun (“The Inklings” is a secret society of authors far larger and older than the Oxford group with Lewis and Tolkien). He also wrote an article on middle grade books for Christianity Today that I’m going to release a podcast about soon.
• I didn’t talk about the Prydain Chronicles or the Earthsea books as great fantasy books that aren’t necessarily Christian, but they were absolutely vital (though I didn’t get into Earthsea until college)
• I have a Pauline Baynes (out of print) book that is a beautiful illustration of the Nicene Creed. 
• Spells of Enchantment (collection of stories), edited by Jack Zipes
• Tales before Tolkien (collection of stories), edited by Douglas Anderson
• My wife Glencora’s children’s book and my far less successful one, where we tried to create engaging (if not very professional) illustrations for good poems
• Our book about Christmas, Twelve Tide, which has lots of literature excerpts and has done a bit better.
• The Never Ending Story (the book!) by Michael Ende
• The Half Magic series, by Edward Eager
• Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit
• The Book of Wonder, by Lord Dunsany

Among other things, we recommend:

• Harry Potter
• Inkheart
• The Wrinkle in Time series
• Anything by Roald Dahl, who was a mean old cuss
• The Borrowers
• Grimm's Fairy Tales
• The Wind in the Willows (illustrated by Arthur Rackham)
• Anne of Green Gables
• The Secret Garden
• Peter and Wendy
• Brambly Hedge
• Beatrix Potter
• Beverly Cleary's Ramona books
• The Indian in the Cupboard
• The Magic Treehouse series

Picture books:

• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
• The Naming and I Believe:The Nicene Creed illustrated by Pauline Baynes
• Beatrix Potter's books (but avoid the new fake stuff not drawn by her as you would avoid Mr. MacGregor's garden--sold under her name, too!).
• Astrid Sheckels' Hector Fox series
• Mr. Bliss, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf

Movies and TV Series:

• The Secret World of Arrietty (there are actually better Miyazaki films (such as the most recent one), though, and they are all absolutely gorgeous.  He’s not afraid to be still.
• I have to mention two of the hand-drawn Irish films influenced by Miyazaki, The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea.
• Best of all (and most American), the series Over the Garden Wall, which is funny, beautiful, moral, and creepy.  Here’s the first episode (though the rest you have to buy—worth it!)

But what about new children's books and middle-grade fiction?

Next time: Middle-grade author J.D. Peabody weighs in. Check out his article on the subject in Christianity Today.

 

Music: "Living in the Country," from Summer, by George Winston

Email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram @inklingsvarietyhour

 

Nightmare Alley and Bill Gresham

Poetry Thursday will be back next week!  Today, we have our normal show, which was displaced by the Pop-Up Pop Rings of Power Teaser Reaction Tuesday.

Here's an article Connor wrote for "A Pilgrim in Narnia" that compares the themes of Nightmare Alley with those of Lewis' work.

Connor Salter joins Chris to discuss Bill Gresham, Joy's first husband, and the movie Nightmare Alley, based on Gresham's bestselling book.

Among other things, we discuss

• The plot of the film
• Possible meanings of the film
• Noir films and the search for God
• Community among carnival performers
• Bill Gresham's life (and death)
• Bill's and Joy's involvement with Dianetics

A few other works that get mentioned include:

• Monster Midway
• The Greater Trumps

And you can find Connor's stuff here, as well as at Fellowship & Fairydust.

• Please do the following if you like this show:
• Follow us on Instagram @inklingsvarietyhour
• Give the show a five-star review on iTunes
• Email us to say hi!  inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

Next week: What are "the right books" Eustace didn't read, and how can your kids find them in an increasingly bizarre middle grade marketplace?  Ideas for kids' summer reading in the spirit of the Inklings.

Pop-up Episode: Rings of Power Season 2 Trailer Reaction

The teaser for season two of the "Rings of Power" has Chris in an unusually curmudgeonly mood, doubting whether there is indeed a reason for this season. 

Luckily, he is visited today by three spirits who know more about the show and the lore behind it than he does.

Can Sørina Higgins, Connor Salter, and Jordan Key cause him to believe in Tolkien adaptations again? Or will he drag them down with him into the cynical abyss, full of zombie swordfish and indistinct symbiote goo? (I mean, can a crossover with the MCU be far away--it's clearly Venom.)

We talk about:

1. How Tolkienian is the trailer?

2. What each image in the trailer might be.

3. What would they have to announce about the new season to make us excited (or at least less grumpy) about it?

Apologies for doing almost no editing on this one!  It needed to be churned out fast to be even the tiniest bit relevant.

Drop us a line at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com and feel free to share your thoughts about the series.

Notice: We'll have the normal IVH episode (about Nightmare Alley) on Thursday, in place of the poem--this week.  In future weeks, we'll return to the Hour-Tuesday/Poetry-Thursday format.

By the way, here's where the conversation between Sørina Higgins and Jordan Key about Season One will become available.

Poetry Thursday: "The Future of Forestry," by C.S. Lewis

Sorry for the late upload!

This is a fairly rambly meditation on C.S. Lewis' "The Future of Forestry."  Also, intellectual and political history painted with a very, very broad brush. Edgy! (Or maybe just careless.)

The views expressed here (which are solely Chris's and might be wrong as many of them were formulated while writing), please do write in at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com! I'd love to hear from you! If anyone would like a longer episode with many contrasting views of Lewis' and Tolkien's conservative conservationism, let me know--that could be a lot of fun. 

Next week--come visit Nightmare Alley with me and Connor Salter!

Thanks again to Sørina Higgins for her readings!

"The House by the Stable" by Charles Williams (with Jason Will)

• If you're enjoying this podcast, please leave us a six-star review! Failing that, you can always leave a five-star one.
• Also, I'd love to hear from you!  inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.
• Also, I'm on Instagram: @inklingsvarietyhour

Chris is joined by actor Jason Will to discuss Charles Williams' nativity play, The House by the Stable, recently staged by the Acacia Theater Company with Grab and Grace.

Together, they weigh the following questions (among others):

• How can modern theater companies make up for the fact that audiences are not familiar with verse plays?
• What is the context of this play?
• Who was Ruth Spalding?
• Why did Williams' choose to combine medieval allegorical and medieval Bible ("mystery") plays, and what does that have to do with Man, Pride, Hell, Gabriel, and the Holy Family?
• How should one read verse drama?
• Could this be Williams' clearest piece of fiction?
• Also, is there tobacco in heaven?

Episode links:

• The House by the Stable
• Grab and Grace
• Acacia Theater Company
• What Prominent Charles Williams Scholars Are Saying
• Also, see the Oddest Inkling Blog entry
• What Critics Are Saying

Next week: We're talking with Connor Salter about Nightmare Alley by Joy Davidman's ex, Bill Gresham!  At long last, a connection between the Inklings and film noir!  And it's a really good film noir, too (and yes, I know that Gresham didn't direct the movie but wrote the book that inspired the movie--don't be such a geek).