The Inklings Variety Hour

Charlie Carter from the Thinklings Podcast, and Joseph Weigel, from Men With Chests, join me to talk about Chapters 4-8 of Perelandra. 

We do a lot of reading on this episode--we certainly enjoyed ourselves, anyway!  Enjoy the conversations between Ransom and the Green Lady, as well as Ransom and Weston (shudder).

Among other things, we discuss:

• The human desire to have things over again, and whether it is truly the root of all evil
• How someone who is sinless could be tempted to sin
• The ambition of Lewis' portrayal of the Lady
• The precariousness of the Lady's sinlessness
• The Force
• Spiritual sins
• Mer-people, myth, and evolution

See you all next time!  

Email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com, rate the podcast on Apple Music, follow us on instagram (@inklingsvarietyhour), and share us with other people who like the Inklings

I hope you enjoy this, the first of a few (I think about five) episodes on Perelandra, commonly considered the best of Lewis' Ransom Trilogy books. 

It's late, so I won't say much here, except:

• Joseph Weigel, of the Men with Chests podcast is my guest. He's great, and his podcast is well worth checking out.
• Share, rate, and follow this podcast if you like what you hear. Instagram is @inklingsvarietyhour. Email is inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.

That's all for now!  I may be back next week, but it may be in two weeks.  Summer has been unexpectedly busy.  Charlie Carter will be joining Joseph and me for Part 2 of Perelandra!

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

More description to come. 

5/30: Owen A. Barfield, grandson of Owen Barfield, was kind enough to listen to this episode, and put forward his own interpretation of the parachutes--that they represent "Ethers," by which he means "Warmth, Light, Sound, Life".

While you are ruminating on that, here are a few of his other notes:

- OB referred to himself as the "First and Last Inkling" ... particularly as he was the first and last to be published. And he knew he was behind the Inkling impulse.

- OB was not a vegetarian.

- It was Maud (grandmother) who was concerned about children being trapped in wardrobes.

Maud was a good friend to CSL and is much overlooked.

See:  https://www.owenbarfield.org/the-inklings/the-inkling-impulse/

- Lucy Barfield (OB's daughter) was CSL's God-daughter; as her God-father he wrote LW&W for her first.

See: https://www.owenbarfield.org/research/lucy-barfield-and-narnia/

- OB was a poet, author, playwriter, lawyer etc., but also had a career as a Professor in North America. This is much overlooked.

See: https://www.owenbarfield.org/research/recordings/

- OB's theory of 'Ancient Semantic Unity' is what so much influenced CSL & Tolkien and changed their worldview etc.

- The importance of naming for OB, as noted and also in 'The Silver Trumpet'.

- OB was the Philosopher of the Inklings.

- OB is the first to use the phrase 'Evolution of Consciousness' in publication. [He also uses the term co-inherence about a decade before CW.]

Next time: Perelandra.

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

"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

 

May 30, 2025: Owen A. Barfield (grandson of Owen Barfield) was kind enough to listen to this episode, and sent along the following corrections:

- OB referred to himself as the "First and Last Inkling" ... particularly as he was the first and last to be published. And he knew he was behind the Inkling impulse.

- OB was not a vegetarian.

- It was Maud (grandmother) who was concerned about children being trapped in wardrobes.

Maud was a good friend to CSL and is much overlooked.

See:  https://www.owenbarfield.org/the-inklings/the-inkling-impulse/

- Lucy Barfield (OB's daughter) was CSL's God-daughter; as her God-father he wrote LW&Wfor her first.

See: https://www.owenbarfield.org/research/lucy-barfield-and-narnia/

- OB was a poet, author, playwriter, lawyer etc., but also had a career as a Professor in North America. This is much overlooked.

See: https://www.owenbarfield.org/research/recordings/

- OB's theory of 'Ancient Semantic Unity' is what so much influenced CSL & Tolkien and changed their worldview etc.

- The importance of naming for OB, as noted and also in 'The Silver Trumpet'.

- OB was the Philosopher of the Inklings.

- OB is the first to use the phrase 'Evolution of Consciousness' in publication. [He also uses the term co-inherence about a decade before CW.]

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

 

 

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]

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.

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!

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.