The Inklings Variety Hour

Owen Barfield's "Night Operation" (Conclusion)

Charlie Carter from the Thinklings podcast talks with Chris about the rest of Owen Barfield's dystopian novella, Night Operation. 

More description to come. 

Do check out Harry Lee Poe's The Making of C.S. Lewis and Diana Glyer's The Company They Keep and Bandersnatch.

Next time: Perelandra.

Poetry Thursday: Charles Williams does G.M. Hopkins

An unpublished imitation of Gerard Manley Hopkins' style about the "On Earth as it is" part of the "Our Father."

Charles Williams makes an astute theological point, promotes G.M. Hopkins, and benefits from imitating his style.

Win-win-win.

Can somebody say "Exchange"?

Some helpful sources for this one:

The Third Inkling

The Oddest Inkling

Owen Barfield's "Night Operation"

"Dance like no one is understanding your bizarre esoteric philosophy."

Find this and other fitness tips on this episode, when we finally get into Owen Barfield.

In this episode, I talk with Charlie Carter from the Thinklings podcast about Owen Barfield's ideas and the way they play out in the first part of Barfield's dystopian novella, "Night Operation."  

Apologies to Gina Dalfonzo for temporarily forgetting her last name!  Here's her book, Dorothy and Jack.

Learn more about Barfield here: www.owenbarfield.org

We'll conclude the conversation next week!

If you enjoyed this episode, you can do three things (right now) to support the show:

1. Give us a five-star review on iTunes or Apple Music.

2. Email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

3. Follow us on Instagram @inklingsvarietyhour

 

Poetry Thursday(?): Sir Orfeo excerpt, Tolkien Translation

This is long and late, but I wanted to do part of Tolkien's translation of Sir Orfeo, followed by a few ideas, followed by an awkward reading of the original Middle English.  Forgive my poor audio (working out of office), as well as my poor reading of Middle English.  When I do it well, it is very difficult for modern English speakers to understand, which isn't ideal for a podcast.  I tried to split the difference, with the likely result that I did it well enough to still be difficult to follow, but poorly enough to be widely panned by people who read Middle English.  

Sir Orfeo warns, among other things, of the dangers of falling asleep under a grafted tree at noon.  You're only tempting fate (and fairies) when you do things like that.  Come on.

Here's the Tolkien translation still in existence that I was able to find.  Most of Tolkien's Sir Gawain translations also include Sir Orfeo.

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

 

 

The Inklings as Writing Group with Diana Glyer

If there's one scholar whose work captures the spirit of what this podcast tries to do, it's Diana Glyer, author of The Company They Keep, Bandersnatch, and The Major and the Missionary. She joins Chris to talk about what we can learn from the Inklings' approach to writing in community.

This was a rich discussion, and I hope you get a lot from it. Diana and I discuss the following:

• Creativity, community, and writing groups
• Paper-reading groups in Oxford
• Typical Inklings meetings
• Resonators
• Types of critique
• Criticism versus dismissiveness
• Did Hugo Dyson end the Inklings?
• The perilous journeys of the one manuscript of the Lord of the Rings
• Christopher Tolkien, Mordor, WWI, and WWII
• Exclusivity and the Inklings
• Charles Williams' bracing effect on the Inklings
• Williams' influence on Tolkien?
• Lewis, Tolkien, and "Numinor"
• Tolkien's increasing crankiness
• Just what is influence?

Feel free to check out Diana's website at dianaglyer.com to see what she's currently up to!

If you enjoyed this podcast, let us know by doing the following:

• Giving us a five-star review on iTunes so that other people can find us more easily
• Emailing us (inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com)
• If you have Instagram, follow us @inklingsvarietyhour

Next week: Charlie Carter from the Thinklings podcast joins me to talk Owen Barfield and his dystopian novella, Night Operation!

Finally!  Some Barfield!

[Music: George Winston's "Lullaby," from Summer]

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

Another of Lewis' "Adam" poems.  This time, with monsters.

Apologies for my unchancy pronunciation of "wind." Just pretend he's playing the "winding horn," which was invented by Jubal, the half-troll.

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!