The Inklings Variety Hour

Tolkien Among the Ruins: ”The New Transcendentalism”

Jonathan Geltner joins the show once again to discuss his essay, "The New Transcendentalism."

We ask, and attempt to answer the question: "What would Western society look like if it was rebuilt only around the works of Tolkien?"

We're not sure ourselves, but there would probably be a lot more smoking. 

Spoilers: We don't ever quite answer this question, but we do speculate about it quite a bit, covering topics from "How 'true' did Tolkien think his own legendarium was?" to "Is Tolkien's secondary world self-contained enough that no context is necessary to appreciate it?"

If you have more concrete ideas about what a Tolkien-based culture would look like, we'd love to hear them. Email the podcast at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

Check out Jonathan's stuff here, here, and here.

Next time: Sophie Burkhardt joins me to talk about the Shire!

Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur

If you liked this episode, give us a rating and review on iTunes so that other people can find us.  We'd love to hear from you, so reach out to me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.

This week, Jonathan Geltner joins Chris to talk about J.R.R. Tolkien's unfinished King Arthur poem, The Fall of Arthur, indulging in discussions of medieval literature 

Among other things, we discuss:

• Why you should never tell an author that they must finish a work (thanks a lot, R.W. Chambers!)
• The plot of The Fall of Arthur
• The Arthurian "chronicle" tradition in medieval literature (Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, Layamon, and the Alliterative Morte Arthure
• Who is the historical Arthur?
• The Britons versus the English
• What "Wales" means
• Tolkien's not-so-cordial dislike of French
• Tolkien's focus on the natural world
• Lancelot and Gawain
• Tides as time in Tolkien
• Guinever as fay-woman
• Old English prosody in The Fall of Arthur
• Images and phrases in this work that prefigure LOTR
• Mordred's agents: The first Black Riders?

Sorry for the late posting!

Next week, we'll be talking about Jonathan's essay--a thought experiment about what would happen if we had to restart civilization with only Tolkien's work.  Feel free to read it here before we discuss: The new transcendentalism (III): fragments or foundations? (substack.com)

Feel free also to follow Jonathan at Slant Books, and to purchase his debut novel, Absolute Music.

Roger Lancelyn Green’s King Arthur

Sorry for the late post--it just didn't sit right to publish an episode on the most iconic British monarch during my country's Independence Day celebration. Also, there were hot dogs.

If you like this podcast, please give us a five-star rating on iTunes. We'd also love to hear from you, so please reach out--inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com!

Friend of the show Eric Geddes returns to talk about Lewis' friend and student, Roger Lancelyn Green, who was best known for the many children's books he wrote about myths and legends, many of which remain standard.

After briefly discussing Green's friendship with Lewis, we talk about Green's King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, which Lewis called "better than Malory," before adding, "well, not really, but you know what I mean."

High praise indeed!

Topics and works discussed include:

• Roger Lancelyn Green's biography
• His friendship with Lewis
• Some of his best-known works.
• Lewis' Discarded Image, dedicated to Green
• Tolkien's annoyance with Narnia, revisited
• Diana Glyer's The Company They Keep
• The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, ed. by Walter Hooper
• Sir Thomas Malory versus Roger Lancelyn Green...
• ...versus Dave Pilkey (or, Pipkin's unhinged "get-off-my-lawn" rant about kids' books these days)
• The two swords of Arthur
• Monty Python, of course
• Odds Bodkin's Perceval
• Chretien de Troyes versus Roger Lancelyn Green
• The Holy Grail
• Galahad versus Perceval
• When the holy and the fairy converge
• Is it a foregone conclusion that Camelot (and all civilizations) would fail--and is it one that a Christian is obliged to make?

Digressive and rambling, as usual, but come along for the ride and you'll probably have fun.

Also--are there other Inklings or topics you would like to hear us discuss?  Let us know!

There will be more on King Arthur (as written by Tolkien) very soon. Thanks for listening!

Exploding Lewis Myths with Harry Lee Poe (Becoming C.S. Lewis)

If you're enjoying the show, please do rate us on iTunes!  Also, we'd love to hear from you at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.

Hal Poe joins the show to discuss his comprehensive and very readable three-volume C.S. Lewis biography, Becoming C.S. Lewis, which you can find here. He talks about how he became interested in C.S. Lewis, the process of writing the biography, and a few of the assumptions about C.S. Lewis he's disproven.

Among other things, we discuss:

• The importance of Lewis' childhood in forming his tastes
• The Janie Moore affair (or lack thereof?)
• Biography versus memoir
• Lewis' love of allegory and his Allegory of Love
• Lewis' likely influence on Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
• Barfield: The Inkling Who Wasn't
• Some objections to the Planet Narnia thesis
• C.S. Lewis as Mrs. Moore's house elf
• Lewis' writing speed
• Apologetics after Lewis

We hope you enjoy it!  Thanks again to Hal Poe for taking the time to discuss this with us--and thanks to Andrew Lazo for introducing us!

 

Ruth Pitter, with Don W. King

Chris interviews Don W. King about Ruth Pitter, a superb and often-overlooked poet who was friends with Lewis and many of the other Inklings. 

Don also shares some of his exclusive recording of Pitter reading her poetry.  Definitely worth hearing!

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour, we have no way of knowing it unless you email us (inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com) or leave us a rating (and review) on iTunes. If we're a part of your life, we'd love to have you be a part of ours as well--let us know what you're enjoying, and what you'd like to see more of.

I'd write more, but I have a newborn--welcome Arthur Edmund Pipkin, who has the most Inkling-y name of all my children.

Aliens and C.S. Lewis (”Religion and Rocketry”), with Jordan Duncan

As a kind of epilogue to Out of the Silent Planet, Chris talks with Jordan Duncan from Lesser-Known Lewis about C.S. Lewis' 1958 essay, "Religion and Rocketry," also published as "Will We Lose God in Outer Space?"  You can find it collected in The World's Last Night and Other Essays. 

This is a wide-ranging conversation (we get a lot of mileage out of a comparatively short essay), and we cover everything from the question of aliens, to government conspiracies, to apologetics, to Richard Dawkins, Elon Musk, James Cameron (and of course, Sir Fred B. Hoyle), to Lewis' idea of animals and humans "becoming" something higher and what that has to do with rational souls, to (oddly enough) the Monkey King from The Journey to the West, as well as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Story of Your Life (Arrival). 

Come for the self-indulgent semi-conspiratorial ramblings, and stay for Chris actually disagreeing with C.S. Lewis about something, as well as for the following hypothetical questions, as posed by Lewis and by us:

• If aliens existed would this invalidate the Christian faith?
• If aliens existed would this actually prove the existence of God?
• If aliens existed, should Western democracies opt out of the new space race that would result?
• Should we avoid colonizing other planets (for instance, Mars), even if they are uninhabited?
• Is adventure bad (the result of the Fall) or is it how God designed us? And isn't making contact with aliens another adventure?
• Speaking of good intentions potentially having disastrous consequences: Is C.S. Lewis indirectly responsible for James Cameron's Avatar?

If you like this podcast, please rate it on iTunes. Please also consider dropping us a line at Inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you.

Also, I highly recommend Jordan's podcast, Lesser-Known Lewis. This will be the first of a few collaborations.

Next time, I'll be talking with Sørina Higgins about her book of short stories, Shall These Bones Breathe?

Michael Drout: The Liberal Arts and Beowulf

Renowned Beowulf and Tolkien scholar Michael Drout joins me to talk about the two projects he is publishing through Signum University Press--How to Learn How to Think: What the Liberal Arts Are Good For, Anyway and The Beowulf Project. 

While not explicitly about Lewis or Tolkien, these subjects we cover this episode were near and dear to the heart of Lewis and Tolkien, as well as other members of the Inklings--many of whom were scholars.

Find out more about Exploring Beowulf here:

Exploring Beowulf

And find out about other books being published through Signum here:

https://press.signumuniversity.org/

I am also joined by friend of the show, Sørina Higgins, Editor-in-Chief of Signum University Press.

Next week: We'll be talking about C.S. Lewis' essay, "Religion and Rocketry," as well as Sørina's book, Shall These Bones Breathe?

Music for this episode is by The Medieval Jazz Quartet.

Rerun: Mythopoeia (Reading)

We should be back on Thursday to bring you an interview with Michael Drout. But until then, enjoy Tolkien's "Mythopoeia," read by Anika Smith in Season One!

We'll have a conversation with Jordan Duncan on "Religion and Rocketry" pretty soon as well, but I wasn't able to complete it quite in time for Tuesday this week.

Here's the old description for "Mythopoeia":

This week, we have J.R.R. Tolkien's "Mythopoeia," read by Anika Smith!

You can find the text of the poem online if you want to read along, or you can buy this lovely book.

Music in the background is Lohengrin, by Richard Wagner.

Next week, we'll be back to discuss Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories," in which a part of "Mythopoeia" is quoted.

If you're enjoying these podcasts, please share with a friend or drop us a line to tell us so (InklingsVarietyHour@gmail.com).  Constructive feedback and suggestions for future episodes are welcome.  We'd also very much appreciate reviews in iTunes, if you can spare the time.  

Verlyn Flieger: A Waiter Made of Glass

Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger joins Chris to talk about her new book, A Waiter Made of Glass, a collection of short stories and poems recently published by Quickbeam Books, an imprint of Signum University Press. Topics covered include myth, grief, and the creative writing process.

Go here to learn more about Signum University Press.

We'll be back next week to talk with scholar Michael Drout about his forthcoming book on the liberal arts and ongoing Beowulf Project!

I also plan to release a conversation between myself and Jordan Duncan, from the Lesser-Known Lewis podcast, about Lewis' essay, "Religion and Rocketry"--but it is possible that this will be delayed!

If you're enjoying this podcast, please drop me a line to let me know!  Also, do feel free to jump on our new substack to discuss episodes (I am, admittedly, still figuring out how to post new podcasts there, but the old ones are up).  You can find it here.

And, as always, feel free to email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from you.

David C. Downing: Out of the Silent Planet, Part 4

If you're enjoying The Inklings Variety Hour, please consider giving us a review on Apple Podcasts. We'd also love to hear from you, so feel free to shoot us an email at Inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.  Additionally, we now have a Substack, so if you have thoughts on any of these episodes, we'd love to discuss them with you!

The Inklings Variety Hour is pleased to welcome Dr. David C. Downing for our final episode discussing Out of the Silent Planet. David wrote the first serious scholarly book on C.S. Lewis' "Ransom Trilogy," Planets in Peril and he is the co-director, with his wife, Crystal, of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College. Check out their fine podcast, if you haven't already. 

Among other things we discuss:

• How David became interested in C.S. Lewis and the genesis of Planets in Peril
• Why Lewis is like an EGOT-er
• Tolkien and Lewis, their influence on each other, and their different approaches to fantasy
• Lewis and Mysticism
• Into the Region of Awe, Looking for the King, and C.S. Lewis on Writing (And Writers)
• J.B.S. Haldane and Lewis
• Controversy as Muse
• Clear Writing
• Lewis' personal aesthetic experiences as basis for fiction

I hope you enjoy!  Thanks again to Dr. Downing for joining me.

On Thursday, join us again as I interview another heavy hitter, renowned Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger, as part of a continued series of interviews with authors publishing through Signum University Press. I will be talking with Verlyn about her new book of stories and poetry, A Waiter Made of Glass, which is now available wherever books are sold.