How To Love Lit Podcast

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.  And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is episode two in our three part series on Ishmael Beah’s national bestseller A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.  It is Ismael Beah’s first hand account of what he experienced as a child during Sierra Leone’s long armed conflict which completely ravaged the country and displaced a third of its inhabitants between 1991 until its official end in January of 2002. Last week we discussed the origins of the war and the fact that the violence endured for so long and was so bloody in large part because it was funded by what we call blood diamonds, those precious gems that were mined and sold by both sides of the conflict in order to buy weapons.      Beah’s account begins with an introduction dating in 1998 as a reflection.  From the beginning we know that Beah not only survives the war but somehow is writing his story from New York City, which is crazy to think about after reflecting on the chapters we discussed in the last episode, chapters 1-10.  We also can see by that introduction that he manages to escape the conflict before its official ending.  In these early chapters we meet an innocent group of boys living normal adolescent lives that are interrupted by murderous and senseless  killing sprees.  The boys run because that is the only thing they can do.  They run in a group so as to survive, but by the very nature of the war, they are not only threatened by all sorts of dangers, but they themselves are also perceived as threats.  They are the exact profile of the nation’s most deadly assassins.  They are on the run with no where to go and are totally disenfranchised for what is almost an entire year.  This week, we will discuss only five chapters, chapters 10-15.  These are the chapters that detail Beah’s relatively brief discussion of his two years spent as a soldier.  He is only 13 but he will serve as a soldier for two years in what is basically a terrorist squad victimizing in many cases innocent civilians.  Garry, before we read Beah’s individual story, let’s look at the concept of child soldiers in general.  It is obviously an inhumane practice.  What armies and terriorists do to the children to manipulate them into becoming killing machines is  immorale by any code of. Morality.  What these children do in the perceived service of freedom or liberation go far beyond international humanitarian law or acceptable standards of warfare conducted by  adult soldiers in armed conflicts, especially what they did to innocent civilians.  How could any leader on any side of any political concept justify this practice for any political or economical reason?     Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ismael Beah - A Long Way Gone - Episode 1 - The Stirring Memoir of a Child Soldier Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Edgar Allan Poe - The Cask Of Amontillado Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.  I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  Last episode we concluded our series on George Bernard Shaw, a man who believed art should be didactic.  This week we explore another artist, Mary Fisher, who also has something important to say.  Fisher advocates through her sculptures, quilts and textiles, but also through her speeches.  She has authored six books, received honorary doctorates and has traveled around the world as a Special Representative of the United Nations.  Fisher first emerged into the American national spotlight on August 19 in 1992 when she ascended to the podium in Houston, TX at the 1992 Republican National Convention.  She spoke for ten minutes in the middle of the day long before the famous keynote politicians of the evening.   She was not is a politician.  She stood before the crowd of partisan delegates as the daughter of a wealthy and powerful fundraiser.  She was an adviser to former president Ford, but that was not why she was there.  She was there to announce that she, like Rock Hudson, Magic Johnson and Freddie Mercury and thousands of others was HIV positive.  Her speech, “A Whisper of AIDS”, rocked not just the stunned onlookers from within the hall, but also the millions who watched the broadcast on TV.  It has been ranked by Oxford Press as one of the 100 Best American Speeches of the 20th Century.  Today we will read her remarkable speech, discuss the rhetorical situation in which is was delivered, and the impact Fisher has made on this important global issue.  If you’ve listened to our discussions of other non-fiction pieces, you may have heard us reference Aristotle, the father of rhetoric in the West.  He has informed speakers and writers for thousands of years, literally.  According to Aristotle, all speakers must do three essential things do to be effective.  First, we must establish our credibility.  When anyone gets up to speak whether you realize it or not, you’re going to ask yourself why should I believe what you have to say?  Secondly, we must open the hearts of our listeners.  They must not just hear words but be moved to act.  Thirdly, we must create a line of reasoning that makes sense. Our reasons must connect with each other and add up to a conclusion that compels us to move forward in the direction provided by the speaker.  These three elements constitute what many call the rhetorical triangle.   It’s easy to understand what to, much harder to pull it off.  The Ancient Greeks called it ethos, pathos, logos, and the greatest practioners in the world have moved the human race, to do great things as well as to commit great atrocities just through words.  Today, especially as we look at this extremely impactful speech, we need to discuss another ancient rhetorical concept.  The term is “Kairos” or time.  The Greeks used it not to mean the clock as in chronology but to mean timeliness, the timing of the speech - the concept of timeliness of something.  Of course, we understand this all the time, how many times have you heard someone say, “I don’t know if this is the right time to tell you…and then they drop a bombshell”. We intuitively know that sometimes the timing of something makes or breaks the argument.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.  And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This episode we are wrapping up our three-part series on George Bernard Shaw otherwise known as GBS and his phenomenally successful play, Pygmalion.  In week 1, we introduced Shaw, some of his political ideologies, the Greek myth Pygmalion from where Shaw took his inspiration, as well as  ACT 1.  Last week, we discussed Acts 2 and 3.  We talked about Rosenthal’s revolutionary psychological discovery named the Pygmalion Effect.  We spoke to the symbolism of language, of clothes, of the gramophone, and mirrors.  We highlighted the parallels between Alfred Doolittle and Professor Higgins.  We allowed Shaw to preach at us as he humorously characterized the “undeserving poor”, and “middle class morality”, all Shavian terms, and finally we got to Eliza, the flower girl transformed into a duchess crashing through that point of no return otherwise known as the climax.  She fools all of good society into thinking she’s genteel getting away with declaring that it was “not bloody likely” she’d be walking home but would be taking a taxi.  And of course, all of this is very didactic, a word he uses to mean moralizing, but it’s also very very funny.  We smile when Alfred Doolittle justifies begging for money to buy liquor by claiming that it couldn’t possibly ruin him.  It would all be gone by the end of the weekend.  He further claims (and of course this is Shaw’s voice moral judgement toward us theater attenders)  that anyone would be as immoral as he, if we were also the undeserving poor.  He’s simply too poor to afford morals; morals are luxuries of the middle class.  Shaw’s wit is on full display when he’s sermonizing which brings us to the final two acts of the play.  Of course, they sermonize the most, but also are arguably the most entertaining for the same reason.  We referenced the end of the play and that Shaw would never have endorsed the thematic license My Fair Lady took with the ending, but today we will make Shaw’s case for him as to why.  For a good long time, I was with the rest of the world and was highly irritated at Shaw’s anti-climatic ending.  Having said that, after reading his sequel, hearing his commentary, and understanding better Shaw’s purposes for having it end the way it does, I now completely agree with Shaw, there is no other way to end the play but for Higgins and Eliza to part ways.    Well, there went that, I hope it’s okay we’re going spoil the ending at this point.  Well, let me put it this way, if you’ve watched My Fair Lady, or Pygmalion, you may think that Shaw think that Shaw spoiled his own ending because there is not a happily ever after ending to this romantic comedy.  People feel deceived when they get to the end because romantic comedies are not supposed to end in angst but especially one with the word romance in the title.  We haven’t brough it out yet, but there is a subtitle to this play, and many have claimed Shaw has misled us with what he’s attempting to do in the play through the subtitle.  The full title of the play is Pygmalion, a Romance in Five Acts.  He labels it a romantic comedy, and most people reading that reasonably assume certain characteristics that are usual to comedies, at least classically modeled ones.   For one, there should be a wedding at the end, and secondly, the lead man should end up with the lead woman, a love story gone right.  Everyone knows, comedies end in marriage; tragedies end in death.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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George Bernard Shaw - Pygmalion - Episode 1 - No One Is Safe From The Acerbic Wit Of GBS!Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.  And I am Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is our second week discussing the life of George Bernard Shaw as well as his most famous piece, Pygmalion.  Last week, we introduced this Nobel prize winning author, as well as gave some background as to his life, personality, and controversial views.  We discussed the Greek myth, Pygmalion from which Shaw took the title.  We also introduced the characters as we meet them in Act 1.  Today, our goal is to get through acts 2 and 3 which will take us through the climax of the play.  I hadn’t realized the climax was in the 3rd Act by watching the movie or play production; I’d always thought of it as the ball or garden party like in the movie My Fair Lady.  I also didn’t know how dogmatic Shaw was about everyone wanting to change his ending not just of the play but even more so for the movie production that won him an Oscar for Best Screen Play. He has particularly choice words to say for it, as only he can choose them.   He, like Higgins, in Pygmalion is a loveable often foul-mouthed bully at times.   Charles Poore commented on this in the New York Times on March 23 of 1949, “The Greatness of George Bernard Shaw has often been obscured by his own blinding and enthusiastic appreciation of it.”    Wow!  That sounds exactly like something Shaw would say about himself.  The way Shaw took this obnoxious prophet persona called GBS and made it into a global brand GBS.  Without it he might have just an obscure Irish music critic, failed novelist, semi-successful playwright.  With it, he became legendary.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter - Episode 5 - The Revelation And Conclusion! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter - Episode 4 - Do Hester and Dimmesdale surrender to love? Find out in this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne - Episode 3 - The Narcissism of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Scarlet Letter Episode - Nathaniel Hawthorne -Episode 2 - We meet Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth and little Pearl! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Scarlet Letter Episode #1 - Meet Hawthorn, the Puritans and the first scaffold scene. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Bishop - Pink Dog - The Iconic Work Of One Of America’s Favorite Poets! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phillis Wheatley - Poet of the Revolutionary Era - ”His Excellency General Washington” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Alchemist Episode #4 - Magical Realism, The 7 Rules, And becoming the wind! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Alchemist - Episode #3 - Journey to the oasis! - Personal legends, omens.....and sheep! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Alchemist - Episode #2 - Learn the rules of the universe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The introduction to the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Meet the author, Paulo Coelho and get introduced to his most famous work Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 4 - Symbolism, Romanticism, Nihilism And A Dissonant Ending! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver. We’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our final episode in our four-part series of Kate Chopin’s masterpiece The Awakening. There is a lot layered in such a short book. In episode 1, we discuss Chopin’s life, we introduce the concept of “local color” and we arrive on the colorful shores of a summer resort village in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Episode 2 we spend time on Grand Isle. We meet Edna, Adele, Mr. Pontellier, Robert Lebrun and Madame Reisz. We watch Edna awaken to an inner awareness she had never understood before, and we see this awakening occur through a physical sensuality she has never experienced before. She learns to swim. Edna Pontellier leaves Grand Isle a very different person than how she arrived at the beginning of her summer. Episode 3 we start with chapter 18 as Edna arrives back home in New Orleans. Nothing would be the same. She cannot conform to the roles she has previously played. She does not fit into the culture; she doesn’t want to anymore. She abandons almost all that she had previously identified with and experiments with different lifestyles: the arts, the horse races, men, ultimately she decides to leave the ritzy Esplanade street and take up residence in what she calls her Pigeon House just around the corner. Today, we begin with chapter 26 and we follow Edna’s progression through the end of the book. Stylistically Chopin wrote what we call a realistic novel. The story, the settings, the characters truthfully represent the real world. Grand Isle really exists and the resort there existed in the way she described it. The same is true for Esplanade Street. The details are accurate as Chopin represents the reality the great city of New Orleans at the turn of the century. The French language, the customs, the way people behave, the races, the music, even the Song, “Ah, si tu savais”…is a real song. All of these things reflect reality. However, as we get farther to the end of the novel, and as the reader gets more submerged into Edna’s perspective, things get more and more romanticized. Objects that seemed liked just objects at the beginning are now understood to be metaphorical and are symbolic. We notice that objects are repeating and evolving- they are motifs. In other words, the objects are still what they have always been, but they have taken on to mean MORE than just what they originally meant. We understand things to be symbols in two ways. The first way is whey the author spends an inordinate amount of time describing something that maybe isn’t THAT important otherwise. A second way is when we notice something to keep showing up over and over again. Here’s one example There is music in the beginning. It’s described in detail, but notice just how much music there is in this book. Notice how much time is devoted to describing it. There is music in the middle and there is music at the end. It means something, but of course it’s up to us to draw our own conclusions as to what. The birds work the same way. There are birds on the first page, they come back in the middle and there is a bird on the last page. It means something. Food and meals are often symbolic. Meals are archetypal symbols for fellowship. Chopin use meals as a way to sort track what’s going on with Edna and her relationships throughout the story. Following the symbols helps us understand the universality of the story. The biggest symbol is the sea, and by the end of the book it takes on mythic proportions. The sea, as we pointed out in the beginning is personified. It’s alive. But by the end, if we look carefully, we see in the description that the ocean is described as a serpent- uh ohh. That’s a Biblical symbol- but even in the Bible a serpent is not just one thing. But it’s not just the Bible that that is alluded here in these ocean references. Edna as called Venus, and Venus emerges from the sea. What is that about? Although everything is still realistic- there are no superheroes or magic or pirates or fairies of any kind, there symbols somehow feel allegorical; is Edna even a real person or is she a type? I know that’s a little hyperbolic, but not by much. Today as we end our discussion, I’d like to see this book as indeed political; there certainly is that side of it, but that is just the surface. It goes beyond that to ask questions that are personal. But before we can do that, we must first address the political. Chopin was, by her very essence, a woman in the vein of what Europeans of her day called the “New Women” of the fin de siècle. Garry, Chopin, was a well-read French speaker and reader very attune to the political, social and literary movements of her day, but we are not- although I will say, I’ve learned a lot about new women by watching them evolve in Downton Abbey, but

Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 3 - Edna Pontellier Battles The Forces Without Only To Meet The Forces Within! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our third episode discussing Kate Chopin’s controversial novella, The Awakening. Week 1 we introduced Chopin, her life and the book itself. We talked about what a stir it made during her lifetime ultimately resulting in it being forgotten and then rediscovered midway through the 20th century. Last week, we spent all of our time on the vacation resort island of Grand Isle. We met Mr. ad Mrs. Pontellier, as well as the two women who represent got Edna, our protagonist, two alternating lifestyles. Edna Pontellier, we were quick to learn, is not a happily married woman. Her husband is outwardly kind to her, but readers are told outright that love and mutual respect was never part of the arrangement between these two. Edna is indulged by Mr. Pontellier, for sure. He gives her anything she wants in terms of money or material, but in exchange, she is his ornament, an expensive hobby, a pet even- something to be prized- or as Ibsen would describe it- a beautiful doll for his doll house. The story starts in the summer at the vacation resort town of Grand Isle, Louisiana. While vacationing on the island, Edna Pontellier experiences what Chopin terms “the awakening”. She awakens to the understanding that she is not a pet or a doll in the doll house, and just like Nora in the The Doll’s House, she decides she really doesn’t want to be one anymore. No, I guess if that were the only thing to this story, we’d have to say, Sorry Kate, Ibsen beat you by about 20 years. In Ibsen’s story, Nora awakens when her husband, Torvald, turns on her over money. That’s a good point, what awakens Edna in this book is not a marital crisis over money. It is a crisis that awakens her, and it totally informs how she views her marriage, but it is a crisis concerning her husband at all that is the catalyst. She is awakened to her own humanity by discovering her own sensuality. I want to highlight that this awakening isn’t overtly sexually provoked. No man comes in and seduces Edna; she does not go off with a wild vacation crew. She is left vulnerable, if you want to think about it that way, because of loveless marriage, but she is sensually and emotionally provoked through three very different relationships- all of which affect her physically as well as emotionally. The first is with a Creole woman, Adele Ratigntole, one with a younger Creole man, Robert LeBrun, and the third with the provocative music of Madame Reisz. Experiences with these three awaken something in Edna that encourages maybe even forces her to rebel- rebel against her husband, against the culture, against the person she has always been, against the roles she has played, against everything that she has ever known. The problem is- rebellion only takes you so far. You may know what you DON’T want, but does that help you understand what you DO? And this is Edna’s problem. Where do we go from here? And so, in chapter 17, we return with the Pontellier’s to their home in New Orleans. And, as we have suggested before, New Orleans is not like any other city in America, and it is in these cultural distinctives of Creole life at the turn of the century that Chopin situates our protagonist. But before we can understand some of the universal and psychological struggles Chopin so carefully sketches for us, we need to understand a little of the culture of this time period and this unusual place. Garry, tell us a little about this world. What is so special about Esplanade Street? Well, one need only Google tourism New Orleans and a description of Esplanade street will be in the first lists of articles you run into. Let me read the opening sentence from the travel website Neworleans.com One of the quietest, most scenic and historic streets in New Orleans, Esplanade Avenue is a hidden treasure running through the heart of the city. From its beginning at the foot of the Mississippi River levee to its terminus at the entrance of City Park, Esplanade is a slow pace thoroughfare with quiet ambiance and local charm. According to this same website, Esplanade Street, during the days of Chopin, functioned as “millionaire row”- which, of course is why the Pontelliers live there. It actually forms the border between the French Quarter and the less exclusive Faubourg Marigny. At the turn of the last century it was grand and it was populated by wealthy creoles who were building enormous mansions meant to compete with the mansions of the “Americans” on St. Charles Avenue. “The Americans”? Yes, that was the term for the non-Creole white people. The ones that descended from the British or came into New Orleans from other parts of the US. Esplanade Street was life at its most grand- there is no suffering like you might find

Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 2 - Edna Pontellier Defies All Explanations! HI, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our second episode in our four part series discussing the world of Kate Chopin. Last week we introduced our author and what is generally considered her masterpiece, the novella, The Awakening. Today we will continue discussing this book as we meet Edna and mosey around the Creole world of Victorian Louisiana on the vacation island of Grand Isle. This book is like Camus’ The Stranger in that it is incredibly complicated but deceptively simple looking. It has been misunderstood since the minute it was published, and it’s still misunderstood. Critics have claimed it’s a champion of the women’s movement; a challenge to the patriarchy, an expose on depression, a discussion of narcissism, an exploration of female sexuality- and certainly it can be looked at through each of these lens without any difficulty at all and there are things to say there. And yet, Chopin cryptically told one critic in response to her book nothing along any ideological lines. This is how she chose to frame her book, and I never and I quote, “dreamed of Edna making such a mess of things and working out her own damnation as she did.” What does that even mean? Exactly, it’s a consciously and deliberately messy book. It is NOT best read as an ideological book of any kind- no matter if your prejudices lie for or against her apparent causes. It certainly makes it easier to read if you’re looking to make it a political statement, and when I was first introduced to it, that’s how I was taught to read it, but I have since decided to reject easy interpretations of great literature in general primarily because that makes something great immediately uninteresting. And this book is definitely NOT uninteresting. So, if we’re not to read it about being about politics, the patriarchy, oppression or that sort of thing, how should we understand it? Isn’t that the million dollar question? What is so compelling about Edna Pontellier- and she has been compelling even maddening for the last 120 years. I don’t find her necessarily a likeable person, are we supposed to? At first I wondered if it was designed so that men are supposed to not like her or maybe not like themselves by looking at what’s happened to her, but do women generally find her likeable? I also don’t see how to avoid seeing gender as an important component of this book. Oh I agree, you can’t help but see gender and you’re definitely supposed to. It’s about a woman- it’s about being a woman- but is there anything more complicated than a woman? That’s a loaded question!! Do you honestly think you can bait me into answer that? Ha! Wise man! In all serious, it’s about being human, but from a women’s perspective- and that can’t be reduced to any single set of definable variables. That’s what’s messy about it. It’s about a woman in the Victorian era at the turn of the century- the particulars of the challenges women faced that that particular political moment in US history- the woman question, as they referred to it in those days, but that’s just our starting point- the setting, so to speak- there are more interesting parts of Edna and her awakening than just resolving the contextual economic, sexual or matrimonial roles in society. Beyond that, let’s just look at the term “the awakening”. It's kind of a strange term to use in a book where the protagonist spends an unusually large amoung of her time asleep. I’m not sure I’ve seen a protagonist sleep as much as Edna in any book, except maybe Sleeping Beauty or Rip Van Wrinkle. And yet, the title begs a question. What is an awakening, or at least what is ’”The Awakening”? as Edna is to experience it. The first part of the book which we are going to talk about today- chapters 1-16 IS her awakening. For her, it’s kind of a gradual experience that happens to her over a summer. Chopin first defines it in chapter 6, it’s described as coming into one’s own humanity – to recognize one’s relations as an individual to the world within and about. You know that’s a great definition of what it means to grow up really- to find one’s agency in the world. Chopin insightfully connects someone’s internal awakening with their sexual awakening. This awareness of how you are a sexual being and as such interact with other beings as sexual beings- both of the same sex as well as the opposite sex. Chopin illustrates this many ways and, and I would go far as to say seems to use sexual agency as an expression of agency of a general kind. Yes, and what does that mean? How should we define agency, as in human agency? What do you mean when you use that term? I know I asked a question that could be a long answer, but in just a few words. Agency, in general, refers to our capability as humans to influence our own functioning. I

Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 1 - Meet The Author, Discover Local Color And Feminism! I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love lit Podcast. This episode we begin a journey to a very unique American location to discuss a very American author. Kate Chopin, was born in St Louis but her heritage is more associated with Louisiana than with Missouri as she is from an originally American people group, the Louisianan Creole’s. Christy, I know, you lived a part of your life in Louisiana, and your dad’s family is from Louisiana. As we discuss Kate Chopin and her unusual and ill-received novel The Awakening, I think a great place to start our discussion, especially for those who may not be familiar with American geography, is with the Pelican State itself. What makes Louisiana so unusual than the rest of the United States, and why does that matter when we read a book like The Awakening. Well, there are so many things that people think of when the think of Louisiana- Louisianan distinctive include Mardi Gras, crawfish bowls, jazz music, bayous, The French Quarter of New Orleans and its beignets. The list is cultural distinctives is long. But, just for a general reference, Louisiana is part of the American South. Now, it might seem that the states that constitute the South are kind of all the same- and in some respects that’s true. Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, and the rest of them, … after all, they all succeeded from the Union during the Civil War, they all had slaves, they all have had to one degree or another racial tension over the last two hundred years, and, of course, to bring it to modern-day, they all are deeply entrenched in a tradition of American football, barbeque, shot guns, sweet tea, the Bible and a general admiration of good manners that include addressing each other as mr. mrs, yes mam and no sir. Ha! Yes, that IS the South. I remember moving down here and being frustrated that I could never find anywhere that served tea without sugar- and when they say sweet tea down here- I’m talking one step away from maple syrup. I like it!!! People do and feel strongly about it. In fact a lot of people have a lot have strong feelings about this part of the United States. Some love the South; others hate it. It’s a part of the United States that is historical, by American standards, although laughably young compared to other parts of the world, and controversial- to this very day. Yes, yet having said that, once you move here, it doesn’t take you long to realize that The South is not one cohesive unit. Every state is very different. Florida was colonized by the Spanish- and has strong ties to places such as Cuba to this day. Virginia was the seat of government and is still central to the heart of American politics. The horse-racing people of Kentucky are very different from their cotton-growing neighbors in Mississippi. There are many many cultural distinctives that are both old and deep. Which brings us to the great state of Louisiana- Louisiana, especially South Louisiana, in some ways has more in common with the Caribbean islands than it does with other parts of the United States. My daddy was born in Spring Hill, Louisiana and raised in Bastrop Louisiana which are in North Louisiana- far from the coast but the people of north Louisiana share many commonalities with their Cajun and Creole brothers. I have early memories of magnolia trees, cypress trees, bayous, shrimp gumbo, and, of my Uncle Lanny taking us in the middle of the night out with his hound dogs to go coon hunting- as in racoon hunting. So, for the record, these are things you don’t see in other parts of the United States. Indeed, they don’t have bayous and gumbo anywhere else- and although they do have racoons in other places and likely hunt and eat them, I don’t know. The whole government of Louisiana is different and its visible. They have parishes instead of counties. The law is based on French law, not British law which affects everything. It is predominantly Catholic not Protestant, hence Mardi Gras, which is what they call Carnival in Brazil but which we don’t celebrate in other part of the US. But what interests us for this book is the ethnic origins of the people indigenous to the region. The rural part of the state has been dominated by a group we call Cajuns. Cajuns are Roman Catholic French Canadians, or at least their descendents were. They were run out of the Captured French Colony called Acadia in North Eastern Canada- it’s actually be termed “the Acadian diaspora”. Acadia was in the maritime provinces up on the Atlantic side, near the US state of Maine. That part of Canada was very British hence the obvious antagonism. Well, The word Acadians kind of morphed into Cajuns over the years. That’s one people group. But we also have another distinctively Louisianan

Foo Fighters - Lyrics That Camus Would Call The Antidote Of Absurdity! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I am Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. You have heard Christy say, over dozens of times if you’ve listened to a lot of our episodes that we’re here to discuss books. Having said that, the word “books” is being used as a synecdoche- to use a literary word- in other words, books is a word we’re using to symbolize something bigger of which books is just a part- and that something bigger is this concept of words. Words that have moved the world and have moved us. And so, in that spirit, this week, we’re pausing from looking at traditional text and looking at music lyrics, specifically rock lyrics, specifically the phenomena that is Foo Fighters and their music. And let me just add, for Garry, this is an exciting change of pace. He’s been a guitar-head since childhood. He’s a rock and roll and has been since, as a young teenager he saved up his money to buy his first amp. Tell us that story, Garry…this is for all the rock-n-roll heads who share a similar experience. The story….. And if you are like me, until I met Garry I had no idea that playing the guitar is akin to jumping down Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole. To parody Freud, sometimes a guitar is not just a guitar- No, for me the guitar was the gateway instrument into a whole new world of Rock and it was the way that I discovered a bigger world other than the small town I grew up in.…and I will add, not just me. David Grohl, who started the band Foo Fighters, in 1995 talks about hearing the Album The Record by the band Fear and wanting to become a musician. In fact, if you listen to Grohl’s ac Well, you say ___________, It’s still a bit of a rabbit hole- I mean just in terms of gear, for those of us who didn’t know, you can be a Gibson person, a telecaster person, a stratacaster person, a Gretch person- just to name a few of the kinds of electric guitars, nevermind the amps, the pedals, the boards, the pick ups, the tones- and that’s not even the music side of it- just the tech of blasting music on an electrical guitar- think of Michael J Fox in Back to the Future. But having said that- once you put all those elements together, and if you do so in a genius sort of way, you will get a ticket to transcend into this other realm called Rock and Roll. Today, and this stat is only an American stat, I don’t have the numbers worldwide, but today Rock is still the preferred genre of 56% of the American population, surpassing pop, country and rap- which I found surprising. Rock albums still account for the majority of all vinyl music sales- although they do not surpass rap or country when it comes to streaming services- that might tell you something about demographics. But in a world with so many things that divide us, Foo Fighter unite audiences which range over 4 generations and across all nation-states, rock and roll is a powerful unifier. Yes, and the uncontested leading rock band in the world in 2022 is The Foo Fighters. And how do we determine that? Well we can look at awards, they have won 12 grammies for one thing, including Best Album 4 times. But awards are not an awesome metric to measure human impact- especially for Rock. But there are others. Since David Grohl started his one man band in Seattle in 1994, They have released 9 albums, gone on 9 worldwide tours which each lasted over a year- just the 2017 tour from the album “Concrete and Gold” consisted of 113 shows on five continents grossing $114 million. They have sold out the famed Wembley stadium in London- not once but twice, oh and it sold out in 24 hours. That stadium holds 86,000 people. Another big hint as to the enormity of their impact from that same tour was the performance at Glastonbury, when over 150,000 people were documented singing in unison the lyrics to their song “Best of You”. Their top five songs, just on Spotify, which is only one and not even the largest of streaming services have over 2.5 billion downloads- and that is just on Spotify. They have 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify. In 2021 they were inducted into the rock and Roll hall of fame, the first year they were eligible. There is no overstating the influence, the passion, the commitment and connection that this group of men, led by Dave Grohl, has had on over 4 generations of humans of all ages, races, and gender from all over the world these last 25 years. Literally hundreds of millions have been touched by their music both in person and over the sound ways. And so today, we would like to look at the history and the music of this powerful force of positivity, and it has been a force of positivity. How has this group connected and improved the lives of so many? There are hundreds of millions of personal examples from fans, but here’s a famous one. In 1995, David Letterman, who at the time was a famous late night come

Albert Camus - The Stranger - Episode 3 - The Absurdity Of A Happy Ending??? Hi, I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. Today we finish up our three part series on Albert Camus’ class novella L’Etranger- translated in English to either The Stranger or The Outsider depending on which side of the Atlantic ocean you reside. We talked extensively about problems with translation when we discussed Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey but it’s a subject that comes up anytime someone seeks to translate anything. How much of any translation is affected by the personal interpretation of the translator? Even in a book written so deliberately simple in its construction that most French 3 students can read it in French, the translation of this book has seen its share of controversy starting with the title, but extending to page after page. Let me give you an example from the first page and ending with the last page which we’ll discuss in full today. That famous first line that reads, “Aujourd’hui, maman est morte,”- aujourd-hui means today- est morte means is dead. That sounds pretty straightforward. But the problem is how you translate that second word- some translators translated it Mother; but others say if you do that you throw the entire book off- arguing it’s not today mother died. It’s today Mommy is dead. But maman isn’t exactly mommy, either- that’s too baby-ish- but it’s an English word with tenderness and mother is too sterile. Also, notice how we’ve also changed the ORDER of the words in English- and in a book so intent on using words so sparingly and deliberately do we miss the true impact of that first line by saying mother died versus mommy is dead? Do you know what I have to say? What? It’s just absurd!!! Yes, indeed, it’s all absurd! So absurd!! And yet it matters- which is the definition of absurd. Well, I have a controversy to bring up in regard to mis-understanding and mis-representing Camus. Oh really. What is it? In 1976, the English rock band The Cure released it’s very first single and it was titled, “Killing an Arab”. The intent of the single was to reference and honor Camus’s novel. I want to read the lyrics and see, after reading part 1 of the novel, if you see the connection songwriter Robert Smith was making with Camus. Standing on the beach With a gun in my hand Staring at the sea Staring at the sand Staring down the barrel At the Arab on the ground I can see his open mouth But I hear no sound I'm alive I'm dead I'm the stranger Killing an Arab I can turn And walk away Or I can fire the gun Staring at the sky Staring at the sun Whichever I chose It amounts to the same Absolutely nothing Well, from a literary perspective, it’s a fairly straightforward musical homage to not just the story The Stranger but it expresses Camus’ vision of the absurd- the indifference of the universe in the face of humanity. I think so too; however, it was not universally well-received. The Cure were labeled as racist and have sometimes chosen to sing the song with revised lyrics of “Kissing an Arab”. Hmmmm, to be honest, as I reread the those words with no context, even though, it’s a direct reference for sure, it most certainly would be misunderstood to anyone who hasn’t read the book The Stranger- which I’ll speak for Americans, but I don’t think most Americans have, to be honest. No doubt. In fact, if you were to read just the title “Killing an Arab” on a Spotify or Apple song suggestion today, you likely would be emotionally triggered, especially if you are Middle-Eastern or have friends or professional acquaintances that are, which, today, most of us do. I don’t think it’s even arguable. And so, it has been The Cure’s most controversial song for the last fifty years. So much so, It has been widely dropped from radio playlists. It’s been rebranded under the title Standing on a Beach which has helped, also it often contains a sleeve sticker. The sticker reads: “The song ‘Killing an Arab’ has absolutely no racist overtones whatsoever. It is a song which decries the existence of all prejudice and consequent violence. The Cure condemn its use in furthering anti-Arab feeling.” So, although it has had this controversial, for those of us who love music, The Cure is what introduced me to The Stranger. So it’s been a mixed reception, but honestly starting in the sixties but and even to this day, there is quite a bit of existentialism especially in Punk Rock and New Wave music- another example would be The Doors and their Song Five to One which literally says, “no one gets out alive” or Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana which starts out with “Load up on guns, bring your friends- it’s fun to los eand to pretend”. Yeah, I have to be honest, I don’t know almost anything about either of those bands either, although I have heard of both of them, I’m not that disconnected to the music scene. We

Albert Camus - The Stranger - Episode 2 - The Consequences Of Meaninglessness!Hi, I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I am Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is episode 2 in our three part series in the first work of Albert Camus’ great cycle of Absurdity- the novella, l”etranger or the Stranger also called The Outsider. Last week we began discussing Camus’ life, his homeland Algeria, and the events- both political and personal that made him in many ways his own outsider. We also introduced the idea that is forever associated with Camus in literary as well as philosophical circles and that is concept of the absurd. We tried to flesh out a little bit of what that feels like, the world the way Camus would have us understand it. We tried to introduce it as a feeling more than an idea- although obviously it is both. We started with famous first line, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” It’s absurd!! Today..maybe yesterday!!! It’s absurd! And the even more important idea…”I don’t know”. This itself launches us into a world from which some of us may never return- the world of the absurd, the world of Meursault, our absurd hero. Ha! Hopefully we will fare slightly better than Meursault who I’ll tell you right now, is not famous because of the awesomeness of his outcome. He is NOT Forrest Gump who by no design of his own winds up in the White House or making millions in the shrimp industry- although, I will say, there is something absurd about Forrest Gump. Christy, this is an absurd tangent I KNOW!! Absurd is a thread I could keeping pulling, but I won’t. Instead we will pull back into the rational world because today we want to start by giving a shout out to a friend of the podcast, a man who lives far from the world of the absurd (most days, anyway), Mr. Matt Francev. Matt teaches AP Lit and Honors English at Whittier High School in Whittier California. His brother Dr. Peter Francev is editor of the Albert Camus Society, and a true scholar whose body of academic work focuses on the entirety of Camus’ writings- of which the cycle of the absurd is just the beginning. Anyway, Matt reached out to us a couple of months ago, gosh I guess it was right before Christmas and asked us to feature Camus and the familiar classic The Stranger, and so we have. Matt, this series is for you. We hope we do right by an old friend of the Francev family as we do what Camus himself might not like for us to do- paradoxically- and that is attempt to break down into manageable bite-sized pieces this overwhelming experience of living the absurd. Christy, before we do that, I do want to point out something cool about where Matt is investing his life and career. Whittier, California, is only about fifteen miles south of LA. That area itself is an incredibly diverse working class community- but what is unusual about the high school there is that it has - an eclectic yet notable list of alumni. Two names on that list many recognize is Former President Richard Nixon, but also, totally outside the world of politics, John Lasseter, the creator of Pixar. And if that wasn’t interesting enough for your average high school, perhaps even more notably is that the school itself was the setting for Hill Valley High School – that would be the high school Michael J Fox’s parents attended in his breakout movie, Back to the Future. How fun is that? So fun, I wonder how many times they’ve played Johnny B Good on the stage in the auditorium!!! HA! I wonder what the real auditorium even looks like. Anyway, Thanks Matt, for reaching out and sharing a little of your world with us. Today, our goal is to finish out our discussion of part 1 of this novel. Christy, last week you told us we should very wait in anxious expectation for an episode filled with boredom and meaninglessness- and especially there at the beginning we meet that expectation. Chapter 2 is not filled with action that could be described as riveting. No, not a whole lot happens in chapter 2, if you’re looking for plot, and not a whole lot happens if you’re looking for deep character or thematic development. Basically…Not a whole lot happens. NO, it starts with the day after Maman’s funeral, and We meet Marie- who will become something of a girlfriend to Meursault. Camus descriptions draw particular attention to Marie’s breasts, but these descriptions are vulgar not suggestive really. This is not your typical romantic description from a harlequin romance, not that I’ve ever read any of those. It clearly ends with sex but not with passion. Sex, of course, at its minimum is an expression of excitement- even crude sit-coms go that far. Many times, when stories feature sex, authors are expressing deep emotions. Relationship sex is the ultimate expression of intimacy and something, we, as humans, attach deep meaning to- but not for our absurd hero, Meursault. For Meursault, he meets a woman,

Albert Camus - The Stranger - Episode 1 -Introduction To Absurdity!I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. Today we begin a three part series on Albert Camus’ mostly widely translated and perhaps even read book, “L’Estranger”- which in English has been translated “The Outsider” as well as “The Stranger”- both apply and apply well, which we’ll talk about more in episode three. The initial critical reception to the novel was mixed but after WW2 as well as an aggressive marketing campaign for its first English translation, the book took off. It was a critical success as well as a commercial one. Camus’ book today is translated in over 60 languages and has sold over 6 million copies. It's a favorite with teenagers as well, although, I will say, most wouldn’t care to tell you all about the absurdism or existentialism in the text. They just relate to it. It’s easy to read. In fact, a lot of high school French students will read it in the original French for the very obvious reason that they can- the language is itself deliberately simplified to the most basic of verb tenses. Camus wrote for everyone not just for everyone to read but to express the condition of every individual who engages the world, and although the language is simple, the book is not…in fact, it’s intimidating. Well, it is intimidating not just because it asks questions that are difficult, but because it doesn’t allow you to answer questions with anything like a cliché or a simple answer- in fact, for Camus to do so is to commit philosophical suicide- it is to give up on life itself- to become the Meursault of part one- to not be the protagonist of our own lives- so to speak. But in all of its grimness on the surface, Camus is not a dark guy. Literally or metaphorically- his favorite symbol, at least in this book, is ironically, the sun. He wouldn’t like the word “hopeful” because that goes against his world view, but he might like the phrase- defiant against darkness. I agree with that, but before we get into the paradox which is the thinking and writing of Camus, let’s talk a little about this man who managed to be the second youngest man to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and that was in 1957. As an aside, who was the youngest. Rudyard Kipling did it in 1907 at the age of 41. Camus was 44 years old, and seems to me, was more surprised than anybody that he won. He comes across as embarrassed to have earned it, and very humbly said if he’d had a vote as to who got the award, he wouldn’t even have given it to himself. He would have given it to a different writer. I love the fact, that He also immediately wrote a letter to one of his elementary school teacher sback in Algeria, with this to say, “ “When I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was of you,” The name of the teacher, by the way, by way of a shout out was Monsieur Germain. “Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small poor child that I was, without your teaching and example, none of all this would have happened.” As a teacher I find that so very endearing. It’s what every teacher would love to hear some day from a student who made good, not just one that won the Nobel prize for literature. Well, of course. Anyway, I mention he was from Algeria because that is an important detail in understanding him as a person, and although arguable in many critical circles, we contend is something helpful to know when understanding a person’s worldview and work. Some would call that rhetorical context. Yes, I think they would. Anyway, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, if you go by total area. True, but it’s large by world standards as well. It’s the tenth largest country in the world. It’s the world’s largest Arab country. It’s in North Africa. Tunisia (where part of Star Wars was filmed) is on one side and (Morocco where Casablanca was set) is on the other side. Let me add that “Casablanca” was released two years after Camus published The Stranger if that gives you any visual context. Garry, tell us a little bit about the place Camus called home, where The Stranger is set, and the place that held Camus’ heart his entire life. Of course, Algeria, historically, has an extremely long and rich history dating remarkably to 200,000 bc, but I’m guessing you’re not interested that far back. Yeah, I’d say that would pretty much eclipse Camus, Homer, Sophocles or pretty much anything we’ve ever featured, let’s go with modern history. Of course. As you would expect, as with every other part of Africa, Algeria experienced European colonialism. By 1848, nearly all of Algeria was French. And just like we saw with the American experience, many Europeans who were having trouble in Europe or looking for a place to find upward mobility looked to migrate to this new colony- and why not, if you were a struggling French man or woman. Algeria is beaut

Agatha Christie - The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd - Episode 2 - Agatha Christies Masterpiece of Whodunit! HI, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love lit podcast. This is our second and final episode discussing Christie’s breakout novel, the one critics claim is her very best, The Murder or Roger Ackroyd. Last week, we talked about the book in terms of it being a formal detective novel- a murder of manners as I read one critic describe the genre. We discussed the conventions of the style. We also introduced her most famous and beloved character, Hercule Poirot, and you left us, Christy, with a teaser saying you wanted to get back to the story of Christie, as in Agatha Christie and Poirot’s relationship before we finish by spoiling for everyone who hasn’t read it yet, who did kill Roger Ackroyd. So, Christy, and it is slightly confusing- calling you Christy and then her being Dame Christie. But even still,, here’s the question to start with, Did Christie really hate Poirot? He made Christie quite a bit of money over the years. How could she hate a character that had been so good to her? Yes, I truly think she came to. The first reason I feel confident making this claim is that she wrote an essay titled “Why I got Fed up with Poirot”- Well, that certainly conveys at minimum a slight frustration. Yes- the title is a little catchy. I read the essay, and the first reason is simple, makes a lot of sense if you thnk about it. She was just saddled with him- she didn’t know when she made him up that she was going to closer to him than most husbands and she made him deliberately annoying to be around. Some of her final words in that essay were advice to future writers and she says this, “I would give one piece of advice to young detective writers: be very careful what central character you create- you may have him with you’re a very long time.” HA! So basically, his eccentricities the ones people find hilariously annoying just got on her last nerves over time. She said once that he was a “detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep”. Which is, of course, a nasty way of saying some of the same things she’s said about him in her books, but often in her books she uses gentler terms. He IS annoying- that’s part of the schtick. He DOES brag and constantly reminds his suspects that he always uncovers their lies. Even in this book, up to the very end, he gloats and brags on himself from the beginning to end. Oh for sure! And since she wrote him in 33 novels, two plays and over 50 short stories. I can only imagine he was with her, at least in the back of her mind, always. If he’s not like a husband, he’s certainly like her child, maybe that’s the right metaphor. But I do think it went even beyond her being annoyed with him, as a character. Poirot, in very obvious ways, limited her as a writer. In that same essay she also said this, “ My own Hercule Poirot is often somewhat of an embarrassment to me – not in himself, but in the calling of his life. Would anyone go and ‘consult’ him? One feels not. So, it seems as if it bothered her that he wasn’t as realistic as she would have written him, maybe later in life? I think it’s something along those lines. He was a great schtick, but there was schtick element to it, in many ways. He didn’t allow her to develop her writing or even her thematic ideas- he was just too silly. Her great- grandson, James Pritchard spoke to this to the BBC. He said that in her own words she wanted to “exorcise herself of him” but he was her- and again in her own words- “bread and butter”. He was of immense commercial importance to her, if not of great creative importance in some ways. According to Pritchard she had so many other ideas for books that weren’t appropriate for Poirot, but her agents and publishers would come back and remind her he was his most popular character. And so, there was the conundrum…although I have to admit, I’d love to have a problem like that. Yes, I think many of us would, although I can kind of see where she’s coming from. We hear actors from time to time express ideas similar that. Famously, I remember George Reeves, who was the original Superman, complained all the way until his strange and mysterious suicide that he just hated always being Superman. Or more recently, one example that comes to mind might be Daniel Ratcliffe who noticeably has worked incredibly hard to demonstrate that he is not just Harry Potter, but a versatile actor. What I find interesting about Christie’s relationship with Poirot is that she was loyal or maybe even jealous of him. Explain that. She took great pains not to let anyone else have him. During WW2, Christie, like many patriotic British celebrities chose to stay was in London during the Blitz. In other words, not taking advantage of the privilege of wealth and fame to ride the war out in America or some other safe destinatio

Agatha Christie - The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd - Episode 1 - Meet The Author That Made The Whodunit What It Is Today! I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. For the next two episodes, we are going to discuss an author who for me flies under the radar when we think of literary icons. When you look at the lists of the world’s greatest writers and/or novels, she’s never on then. Yet, she has sold more books than any other novelist in the world- bar none. Her books collectively in terms of sales rank only after The Holy Bible and the works of William Shakespeare, totally over 2.3 billion copies sold. Those kinds of numbers we only talk about when we’re talking about Amazon, Google or the National Debt of entire countries. HA! So true. She is also the author of the single longest running play ever to play in London’s West End. The name of that play, The Mousetrap, opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when all stage performances were discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Performances of The Mousetrap restarted on March 17, 2021, as soon as state restrictions were lifted. In case, you haven’t figured out who we’re talking about yet, today we’re discussing the Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Christie. It really and truly is impressive how enormous of a body of work that Mrs. Christie has AND how influential her work has become. For clarification, why do we say Dame Agatha Christie. Of course, Dame is the feminine equivalent of Sir, it’s a honorific title, in her case, she received an Order of Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1971 from Queen Elizabeth II. Oh wow, that sounds very impressive however, at the same time, people, far less successful- non-recipients of Commander titles from Queen Elizabeth I might add, scoff at her and her work. Many claim she’s not to be taken seriously, her work isn’t sophisticated, it’s clichéd, yada-yada-yada…They say this in spite of all the big numbers. Garry, beyond the big 2.3 billion in sales, quantify for us in other ways what the data reveals about Dame Christie. Sure, first there’s the amount of works she produced. She famously wrote 66 detective novels, 14 collections of short stories (that’s 150 short stories) as well as over 30 plays. The most famous, we already mentioned, The Mousetrap. But there are other numbers to consider, beyond just how much she produced. Because of the long running status of The Mousetrap, her name has been in the newspapers of the West End every day without fail with the exception of 2020 since 1952 (btw, just in case you are doing the math on the performances, that number is over 25,000 of the Mousetrap- and that is just in London’s West End). . She tried to retire at the age of 75, but her books were selling so well, she said she’d give it five more years. She actually wrote until one year before her death at age 86. Less famously she wrote six semi-autobiographical, bitter-sweet novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Interestingly enough, it took 20 years for the world to uncover the identity of Mary Westmacott as being the detective icon Agatha Christie. That is a funny fact to me, I guess she thought it would ruin her reputation to write sappy books?. I haven’t read them, but her daughter Rosalind Hicks had this to say about her mother’s romantic books. "They are not ‘love stories’ in the general sense of the term, and they certainly have no happy endings. They are, I believe, about love in some of its most powerful and destructive forms." They were moderately successful in their own right , even without her name of the cover, and Christie was said to be proud of that accomplishment, but obviously romance wasn’t her forte. Beyond just the quantity of work she produced, the amount of it we’ve consumed as a planet is also incredible. Today her books are translated in over 100 languages, 48 million, at least have watched her movies, including I might add the one that is out right now, Death on the Nile Here's a. numbers fun-fact, in 1948 she became. the first crime writer to have 100,000 copies of ten of her titles published by Penguin on the same day in what is called - A Penguin Million Oh wow- I guess that’s like going platinum of something in the music industry. I’d say that’s a platinum in a day- usually the term going platinum refers to selling a million over the course of a life time- a single day is crazy.. In terms of dollars, I tried to find a good figure, but I don’t really know. At the time of her death, it’s estimated she was worth $600 million, but she had incorporated her work in a business, of course, which of course lives on chaired and managed by Agatha Christie's great grandson James Prichard. To me, it’s an amazing resume, and I’m not a literary person, so obviously I’m looking at this differently, but I don’t see how anyone could realistically contes

Homer - The Odyssey - Episode 5 - Home And Penelope Reunited! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. Today we conclude our discussion over the Odyssey, the timeless 24 books that introduced us to so many monsters and legends, but, of course, it goes without saying, we’ve just scratched the surface in understanding how all of this has influenced our world. In fact, even as we claim to be on the last episode, we’re still just a little over halfway through the story itself. Our task today is to fly through the rest of the books in 45 minutes give or take a few. Can we do it? We’ll give it a try. Obviously there is no way to discuss everything that could be said or even has been said about Homer himself, these books and all the themes so cleverly weaved. We’ve chosen to hit the points thematically which stand out the most and of course- that leads us to the all-important Greek idea of WEAVING. Oh yes, the woman and their weaving. Christy, how good of a weaver are you? Well, you know the answer to that- I have no idea how to weave, spin or even sew. I can sew on a button. You know my mother and both of my grandmothers were amazing seamstresses. My mom even competed in 4H in sewing competitions at Boones Creek High School in Gray, Tennessee. And your sisters Barbara and Deanna are amazing seamstresses. But not me. And of course, sewing is not weaving. In my mind, although this is nowhere near historical fact, over time weaving has simplified itself to sewing because we don’t have to make our own cloth, and now sewing has become ordering off of Amazon because now most of us don’t sew. Instead we push buttons …. on a phones. HA! Well, first of all that analysis of the disintegration from weaving to ordering on Amazon is somewhat deliberately ridiculous, but if you’re going to go there, don’t take away from the talent of finding the sale and couponing. There’s an art to that. I guess so, but back to the ancient Greeks, it’s easy to overlook if you’re not paying attention to the female characters really, but Homer places an enormous emphasis on weaving throughout the Odyssey, even the goddesses weave- Circe and we’ll see here at the end- Athena herself. It clearly indicates how interwoven (if I may use this term) weaving was to the idea of womanhood. Tell us a little bit about how important weaving was in Ancient Greece. For sure….spinning and weaving were incredibly important in the expectations for women during this time period. The was a definite and strong connection between a woman’s ability to weave and her desirability as a woman. Even depictions of goddesses that we see today on ancient art work are often depictions of the goddess weaving. Athena, btw, was the goddess of women’s handicrafts, so of course, weaving and spinning were important elements of her cult. In fact, weaving a robe for the statue of Athena, was a part of the very important Panathenaic festival in Athens at the Acropolis. In the archeological digs found in Greece archeologists have found all kinds of tools used in spinning and weaving. There is evidence of looms and textiles and strong evidence linking the female contribution in terms of textiles to economic trading at a domestic level as well as a commercial industry. It’s interesting to understand that women of all social classes were weaving- from the lowest slaves to the highest noble women like we saw in Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. Girls would learn to work wool and weave and would spend a big portion of their time on their “trousseau”. A trousseau is a collection of all the garments, soft furnishings, beddings, and clothes that a girl would produce during her childhood and would represent her contribution to her marriage. Yikes, again, I’d be a world of hurt. I can’t imagine what my trousseau would look like. But even without knowing that insight about weaving, it doesn’t take much to see that clothes are a big part of the all important recognition scenes that are basically what these last books are about- It’s an interesting element of the story to notice how clothes are used by Homer to designate identity. But before we do that, I wanted to weave in an anecdote, since we’re on the subject the weaving and mythology. Let’s take a second to talk about Arachne and Athena. Arachne as in where we get the word arachnophobia- fear of spiders. Yep, so the story goes that Arachne was a girl in Ancient Greece who was so good as weaving and spinning that she went around telling people she was a better weaver than Athena. Well, obviously this made Athena mad , so Athena challenged her to a weaving dual. They set up their looms in the same room and wove all day and into the night. When they finished, they compared their artifacts. Well, Athena had woven a scene of all the gods and goddess on Mt. Olympus sitting together doing good deeds for humanity. Arachne wove a

Homer - The Odyssey - Episode 4 - The Importance Of "Oikos" And Why Odysseus Pursues It! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our third episode in our discussion of this influential classic, however else you might like to call it. In the first episode we started our discussion introducing just a few of the issues surrounding Homer, the poet himself, the Mycenean people and the semi-mythical age in which the story is set. Both of which are full of mystery. Archeology just does not fully answer questions like if Homer was a real person, or even if Ithaca existed. So, we are left with complicated pieces of a strange large game of sudoku, if you want to look at it as a puzzle. We tried to clearly portray that the Homeric poems are not historical accounts but creative pieces. This of course becomes very obvious in the chapters about the wanderings. Six-headed monsters and glamorous witches are obviously imaginative. But even the parts that seem to reflect “real life”, they still cannot possibly represent the reality of the Bronze age or the Dark age. Homer didn’t know those realities. We did suggest that there likely was a Trojan war of some sorts, and perhaps King Agamemnon was a real person, but that’s just about as far as we can extrapolate with any certainty. So, the Odyssey, nor the Iliad for that matter, was NOT trying to be a paint a picture of the current society of the period, but they do reflect the values and in episodes 2 and 3 we looked at a few of these values. So true- In the second episode, we tried to give an overview and a discussion of books 1-4, the Telemachy. That coming of age story where Telemachus, who was a baby when Odysseus left, arrives at a moment where he wants to embrace adulthood- or manhood as they called it. And yet, for Telemachus, as for every other teenager that has lived on this planet, that transition is not smooth. He’s awkward, he’s confrontational with his mother, he cries in public, but ultimately he leaves home and takes chances in the outside world. And although, he doesn’t come back a hero, he does develop or maybe grow up a little as we see in his homecoming in chapter 15. He learns what a “real man” is, to use their term. He learns how to talk to adults and practice proper xenia. He sees relationships between men and women that are functional and relationships that are dysfunctional. We even see him at the end of the Telemachy, asserting some agency by giving shelter to a homeless man himself. And of course, last episode, we spent almost the entire time talking about Xenia, or hospitality. We talked about the examples of good xenia, like we saw in the Telemachy, but we also saw examples of bad xenia, most notably, in book nine through both the character of Polyphemus but even Odysseus really. We finished last episode leaving the island of the winds or Aeolia and arriving at the house of Circe. Christy, this is not the first woman we have met in the Odyssey, but she is one of your favorites, so before we get to Circe and why you seem to like her, as a woman, what do you see in general how we should understand these female characters? Or should men and women see these characters similarly. Ha! Well, that’s an interesting question to raise, as today we look at the role of gender in the book as well as in ancient Greek life. But we must remember that gender roles are not isolated things. They are not simple things as we clearly see in these wandering chapters. We also have to be honest with ourselves and admit that when we read texts from other cultures, we have trouble understanding what things mean in the broader context of society as a whole. Even something as seemingly straightforward as sexism cannot be just read into a text, although there’s a temptation to do just that. One aspect of this narrative that I find fascinating is that Homer in the Odyssey does explore the very raw and honest reality that no matter how patriarchial you may think a society is. What do you mean by that? Sure, so, if you want to, you could say this this is simply an old story about a man who leaves his family to fight for another man’s woman because she’s the most beautiful woman in the world and his friend wants his woman back back, so he dumps his own wife and son for twenty years, then wanders around sleeping with a bunch of evil women who are all madly in love with him until he finally comes back to an objectified wife who has been perfectly faithful. This said hero swoops in, kills all the bad guys and lives happily ever after. That’s a brazen really uninteresting story, especially for women, especially for modern educated women. But we know highly educated modern women DO like the Odyssey, as well as other classics, and how do we know that- currently over half of students who study and teach classical studies are highly educated modern women. B

Homer - The Odyssey - Episode 3 - Odysseus And The Cyclops Don't See Eye To Eye! I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our third episode covering Homer’s Odyssey, and Christy, are we finally getting to Odysseus this week? Yes- We finally meet our title character- it was an odyssey. Pun pun- Oh my- here we go…. I know, and we get to see wordplay this week as well- although word play through translation is not exactly the same but the Greeks did a lot of it, and not just in the Odyssey, so it’s nice to get just a little taste. How interesting. I know, it really is. Homer, even though writing in verse that has meter, does not rhyme, but he does use word play- which may or may not be called a pun- but it does play around with the meaning and sounds of different words. In episode 1 we discussed a lot of the historical context both of the period in which the story is set, but also of the mysterious writer, the supposed blind bard, we have always called Homer. I did notice we do finally get to mee the blind bard of the Odyssey, the one the ancients think might be based on our poet, but I’m not sure I would have even paid much attention to that character if we hadn’t talked about Demodocus being the model for Homer, previously. No, I agree. I wouldn’t have either. It’s kind of an interesting literary concept, at one point there is a bard telling a story about a bard telling a story and then there’s the story- so a story within a story within a story- talk about complicated. Yeah- let’s just move on. In episode 2, we discussed Telemachus and his coming of age story that we call the Telemachy- or books 1-4. In that portion of the story, we learned that swarms of suitors have overrun the family home back in Ithaca while Odysseus is away. Telemachus’ mother, Odysseus’s wife, Penelope is being pressured to pick one of these suitors to be her husband, an act which would give the selected suitor a claim to be king or chieftain of Ithaca, perhaps even a contested heir to her fortune, leaving Telemachus’ life in extreme danger. We saw that Penelope tricked the suitors by claiming she would marry one of them after she weaved a funeral shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes. During the day she would weave, but at night she would unravel her work. For three years this worked until one of her ladies’ maids gave her up. It is at this point that we enter the story of Telemachus. Athena visits him, first in the shape of an old friend of Odyssseus’, Mentes, but then into another man named Mentor. She encourages Telemachus to take charge of his own future- to go out in the world and try to find out what has happened to his father by visiting his father’s old war buddies. Telemachus listens to Athena and visits two places: Pylos and Sparta. Here he learns very little, honestly, about what happened to his father, but what we do see is Telemachus coming into his own. We see his confidence and sense of self develop to the point that he seems quite a different person as he journeys back home ready to confront the very dangerous challenge of taking control over his own home or really retaking a kingdom that has been taken away from him. Yes- and today we will see where Odysseus has been this whole time. The goal today is to get through book 9, maybe start book ten, which is kind of a chronological boomerang really. We start book 5 twenty years after Odysseus has left home. Calypso is forced to release him which she does. Poseidon is outraged and reacts. Garry let’s read Poseidon’s response. “I’ll give that man his swamping fill of trouble!” With that he rammed the clouds together- both hands clutching his trident- churned the waves into chaos, whipping all the gales from every quarter, shrouding over in thunderheads the earth and sea at once- and night swept down from the sky- East and South Winds clashed and the raging West and North, spring from the heavens, roiled heaving breakers up- and Odysseus’ knees quaked, his spirit too; numb with fear he spoke to his own great heart: “Wretched man- what becomes of me now, at last? And of course the answer is- you’re not to die yet. The gods will see to it. He is shipwrecked and then found naked on the beach by Nausicaa, the daughter of King Alcinous ruler of the incredibly gracious and skilled Phaeacian’s. And of course, it is through these people, we see an incredible example of what the Greeks call Xenia and basically how Homer defines what it means in this world to be a good person. In the Homeric world, or perhaps the ancient Greek world, if we can generalize, what makes a person good or bad is not the same as we think of today. So, Garry, just to get us started, as a concept, what is Xenia. Well, it’s a concept of hospitality that is an extremely complex and developed social institution in the ancient Greek world. If we break the word down- the word xenos- t

Homer - The Odyssey - Episode 2 - Telemachus Begins The Journey To Manhood And Finding Odysseus! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re her to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to love lit podcast. Today is our second episode covering the first and perhaps foremost author in what is often described as the Western Canon- Homer and his famous epic, The Odyssey. Last week, we discussed a little of the historical context surrounding the mysterious origins of the story- the Bronze age, the Myceneans and the Trojan war. But besides the origins of the stories, we also discussed the origins of Homer himself, if there was such a man. It is thought that Homer lived 400 years after the timeframe of the settings of the stories he tells in his epics. His version of The Odyssey was solidified in or around 750 BCE. Tradition claims he was a blind bard who began this famous tale invoking the muse who had shared it with him, and within his stories the religion and cultural heritage of the Greeks has not only been preserved and passed down, but the tales have influenced the writing, thinking and worldviews of innumerable cultures around the world. Like most first book episodes, however, in episode 1 we didn’t get far into the story itself, we stayed in the opening of book 1. At the beginning of book 1, we meet Homer himself invoking the Muse to tell us Odysseus’ story. But then, the skies are opened before us and we are swiftly taken upward to the mighty Mt Olympus where we are privileged with a glimpse inside a discussion between the gods where Zeus brings up Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, avenging his father’s murder by killing his own mother and her lover after they plotted and killed him on his return from Troy. We are reminded by Zeus himself that men tend to blame the gods for everything that happens to them, but that there are many things that happen to us that are indeed our own fault. Zeus talks about the case of Agamemnon’s son avenging his death as an example. Following this, Athena brings up the case of Odysseus, the mortal she likes. She requests Zeus’ permission and help to help bring Odysseus home, even though he has foolishly angered Zeus’ brother, Poseidon, god of the sea, by blinding one of his sons, the cyclops, Polyphemus. The Odyssey really has quite a complicated set up in some ways, and this week’s episode which will cover the Telemachy is really more set up before we even meet the namesake main character, Odysseus in book 5. There is a lot going on, there are a lot of Greek characters, a lot of backstory to explain why things are the way they are. Certainly a lot of intrigue and treachery has already taken place before we meet Odysseus on Ogygia’s island, and we learn a lot of this context in the Telemachy. True- the Telemachy or the first four books in the epic centers around Telemachus- and that is the name of Odysseus’ son. Odysseus’ wife is named Penelope, and they had a son right before he had to leave against his will for the Trojan War. The Odyssey opens with the story of Odysseus’ son, but here in the Telemachy we also meet Penelope. We meet Eurycleia. She’s a slave who has been a nurse for both Odysseus. We meet Mentor. It starts about a month before Odysseus arrives back in his homeland after his absences of 20 years. In these first four books, we learn that Ithaca is in total chaos. There is no leadership, no code of morality, no enforcer of the rules. There has not been a assembly of the community in twenty years. After the first four books of the Telemachy , the story switches over to Odysseus’ captivity in book 5, where Hermes arrives at Ogygia and tells Calypso she must let Odysseus get home explaining to the reluctant nympyh that it is not his fate to stay with her forever. The story of Odysseus’ difficult journey from Calypso’s island is from books 5-9- the stories about his journey over the last 10 years are told in the context of a flashback. In chapter 15, we resume the Telemachy, with Telemachus arriving back home, and then in Book 16 Telemachus and Odysseus reunite and from there the story takes a totally different direction as these two seek to restore order and justice to Ithaca. So, yes, it’s slightly complicated. But what do we expect from an epic!!! I think it’s likely that if you were Greek listening to this story being sung by Homer, himself, you already knew the stories at least in part, so the complicated plot line and characters weren’t confusing like they can be for us today. But even today, so many of us are familiar with many of these story lines from different places. For example, just the name mentor- I’ve heard that word used all my life, but I didn’t know Mentor was the name of a man in the Odyssey who mentored Telemachus. There’s a lot of references in pop culture to a lot that we’re reading- from the various gods that show up in movies, or monsters that have found their way in video games, or even ju

Homer - The Odyssey - Episode 1 - Greek Gods, Greek Heroes And One of The Oldest Epic Poems Of All Time! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This week we embark on a seafaring adventure across the seas and through time to the ancient world of the Greeks to meet someone who some have said is the greatest poet to have ever lived- Homer- and his second epic- The Odyssey. To be honest, I think I agree with that assessment. That’s high praise. How does one get to that level? I know. It really is. I guess, one way of looking at it may be attrition- how many poets do we still read from 3000 years ago. That’s not a large club. We certainly don’t have anyone in the English language canon that is competitive, but it’s more than Homer basically invented the coming of age novel with the Telemachaie; he invented the flawed hero, as I choose to understand Odysseus. In many ways, his epics, although they are poems, are pre-runners to modern day novels. They are pre-cursors to fantasy. Heck, even the success of the Marvel movies to me suggest a thinly veiled nod to Homer. What is Superman or Wonder Woman if not demi-gods? Well, if I may weigh in, although I don’t feel even remotely qualified to suggest someone is the greatest poet to have ever lived, but what impresses me the most is the level of psychological and archetypal insights into the nature of man that crosses through culture. Of course, I’ve heard of a lot of the characters and several of the stories, but I was impressed by how relatable Odysseus is. And although so many of his adventures at sea are fantastical- they feel like hyperbolic expressions of what I go through- For example, what is Scylla and Charybdis if not being caught between a rock and a hard place? Another thing that fascinates me is the order he wrote them in- at least the order as we think them- the first one, The Iliad, and then some years later, as an older man, The Odyssey. That’s also psychologically interesting- The Iliad has its version of a hero- Achilles is idealistic, proud in large and obvious way, self-righteous, vindictive even. It’s young man’s idea of heroism versus The Odyssey and its version of heroism- a much more nuanced. He also gets revenge, but it’s slow and not very reactionary- he plots, he lies, he bides his time- things we learn by life beating the hound out of us. I think that is well said. Studying Homer for me is also very intimidating historically. There is so much history and culture- beyond just the language differences just between my world and Homer’s- 2600 years- give or take. The language is different. The culture is different. The geography and the religion are literally worlds and worlds away, and I’m not very confident I can understand the context. And if that weren’t scary enough, when you realize that Homer may have been describing events that may have preceded him by perhaps another 400- 1000 years or so, depending on who you believe- I just get lost in the math. I might as well be saying, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”. It’s foreign and mysterious. Lizzy asked me today as I was sitting on my computer reading some research on the Mycenaens what book I was working on and I said, “Research for ‘Homer’s The Odyssey’” – to which she replied, “Sounds boring.” And Lizzy listens to our podcasts!! But on the screen of my computer were broken pieces of pottery and archeological data, not super-man and wonderwoman. Ha! Well, if you can’t guilt-trip your family members into listening to you, even if you are boring, what hope do you have? But, I totally understand where she’s coming from, over the years, I’ve taught a lot of history from US to Europe to World, and the Ancient World, and I love it. I will admit, though, even though a lot can be fascinating with the ancients, there’s no doubt the farther back in time you go, it can be very difficult to conceptualize. It is also a lot more guesswork. Ancient Greece feels far away because it IS far away, and often we don’t know what we’re looking at when we see it. I hate to keep coming back to the arrogance of the present, but we really have to guard against looking at ancient peoples as primitive thinkers just because their technologies were not advanced. I mean, honestly, which of us could survive one week on an island? I think Survivor has proven that that’s not happening. Ha! Those people always lose so much weight! Survivor also proves that the most cunning and deceptive you are- Odysseus style, the more likely you are to survive, but getting back to the historical side of it. Did the Trojan war really happen? And if it did, what was it? That’s a great question. For years and years, even centuries- the greatest minds said no. If Troy existed, we would know it. And just for context, in case you are unfamiliar with the story, the story goes that there was a woman, today we

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I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I am Garry Shriver. This is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our second episode discussing the bard of democracy, the great Walt Whitman. Today we will feature one of his four poems honoring President Abraham Lincoln, but in order to understand why Whitman and many of us admire this great man, we want to revisit the original 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass and listen to some of Whitman’s observations of African Americans and slavery. Christy, let’s start this episode by reading and discussing two extracts from “I sing the Body Electric” , the ones where Whitman describes an African man and then an African woman at auction. A man’s body at auction, (For before the war I often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale,) I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business. Gentlemen look on this wonder, Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for it, For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years without one animal or plant, For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily roll’d. In this head the all-baffling brain, In it and below it the makings of heroes. Examine these limbs, red, black, or white, they are cunning in tendon and nerve, They shall be stript that you may see them. Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition, Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant backbone and neck, flesh not flabby, good-sized arms and legs, And wonders within there yet. Within there runs blood, The same old blood! the same red-running blood! There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, reachings, aspirations, (Do you think they are not there because they are not express’d in parlors and lecture-rooms?) This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns, In him the start of populous states and rich republics, Of him countless immortal lives with countless embodiments and enjoyments. How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries? (Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace back through the centuries?) 8 A woman’s body at auction, She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers, She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers. Have you ever loved the body of a woman? Have you ever loved the body of a man? Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all in all nations and times all over the earth? If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred, And the glory and sweet of a man is the token of manhood untainted, And in man or woman a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is more beautiful than the most beautiful face. Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool that corrupted her own live body? For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves. Whitman was raised a New York democrat, but his sympathies were with the Free Soil party that condemned the extension of slavery as a sin against God and a crime against man. The Republican party would not exist until 1854, and Lincoln would be their presidential candidate in the election of 1860. Of course, bear in mind, that the issues of those days are different than the issues of today, so the party names shouldn’t be taken to represent modern day politics. For Whitman it was undeniable for anyone with eyeballs that all men are born human and that implies certain things regardless if they are born free or slave- of any race, creed or gender. It is obvious to a man so aware of the physical body, that we are of the same atom- the magnificence of the body proclaims our humanity- and ironically where on earth could this magnificence be most easily seen than at a slave auction like what he witnessed during his New Orleans days. In all of its ruthless degradation it ironically showcased the magnificence of the human body. It’s why Whitman could say, almost sarcastically- I am a better salesman of slaves than the auctioneer-I know and understand the beauty and value of what you are selling and you don’t- you fool. Whitman was the poet of the democratic soul- we are after all leaves of grass, but he was also the poet of the body- that physical form we are all chained to. For Whitman, to be a human was to understand and be okay with one’s physical body- and it is a holy thing. Our souls inhabit a sanctified space on earth- that of the body- be it man or woman- the pigmentation of flesh was just one of many individual and unique features- for Whitman our bodies is the starting point for equality- we are all wedded to one. It doesn’t seem radical to us now, but at that time in history- even talking about the body like that was revolutionary- almost vulgar- Whitman democratically equates the man with the woman with the black with the white. In 1855, this was not self-evident anywhere else in the United States of America or really anywhere on planet earth. By 18

Walt Whitman - Leaves Of Grass - The Poetry Of Young America! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This episode and next, we tackle one of the most intimidating poets in the American Canon- Walt Whitman. He is the generally accepted and almost uncontested greatest contribution America has made to the great canon of World Literature- the ones comprised of those that really intimidate- William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Gustave Flaubert, Vladimir Nabokov, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Ovid, Goethe, Neitche-, Dante- people like that- there are not too many Americans that make that list. And he does intimidate me- truly. And honestly he baffles me. The things he says seem easy to understand except I don’t actually understand them. They are beautiful and interesting but also uncomfortable. People love his writing and always have, but he’s also very offensive- and he offends all equally- the prude and the religious, but also the secular and intellectual- he offends the socialist as well as the capitalist. Name an identity- he references it and somewhat dismantles it. Primarily because he absolutely rejects group identities as we think of them today- even in terms of nations but in every sense. To use his words, “I am large; I contains multitudes” that’s a paraphrase from my favorite selection of his work which we’ll read today. For me he’s such a curious person in part because of the time he emerged in what was called then the American experiment- and I honestly think his perspective has a lot to do from this unique time period, of course this is not different than how I feel about all of the writers we discuss. But being born in 1819, the United States of America is only 36 years older than he is. His parents were present during the Revolutionary War and have a real respect for what people were trying to do here, and how unusual and fragile democratic government actually was or really is. We, at least we here in the United States, live with the feeling that this country just always has been- that democracy just happens. That elections are just things that have always happened. Most students today in this country don’t even think about it. Democracy is the normal order in how things occur; equality and liberty are just virtues that everyone agrees are important- by one definition or another. But None of this was reality and common understanding in 1819 in almost any part of the planet Earth. And most of the world looked at the United States with contempt- a bunch of non-educated hillbillies living in some weird schemata that wouldn’t stand the test of time. There was no culture in this country, by international standards. We had no great art, no history to speak of, we weren’t writing great philosophies or composing great music. We had not produced a Voltaire, or a Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We had no Catherine the Great or Cosimo De Medici sponsoring great artistic ventures. And so enters Walt Whitman- to which he would say, and did say- whoopdeedoo Europe- you are correct- we have none of that, and I celebrate that we don’t. I want to begin with this famous poem by Whitman. Of course, it’s from Leaves of Grass which we’ll introduce in a second, but if you are reading the Death bed edition which is the one I have- again I’ll explain all that later, it’s in the beginning, that very first part called “Inscriptions”. Let me read Whitman’s famous words on America. I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs. Garry, I want to hear your first thoughts when you read this poem. Let me start by saying, notice how celebratory it is. America is singing carols- not dirges- and the song of the American is the song of hard work- not the Vienna Philharmonic- which by the way was founded in 1842. America was not building art, as commonly understood- we were building lives- free lives- lives where people lived with the choices they made, but they got to make their own choices. This is very different than anywhere else- places more cultured, more sophisticated, more idealized. We don’t have serfs working for great lords or

Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Sonnets Of The Portuguese - Plus A Great Love Story! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our second week in a two part series discussing one of English Language literature’s most romantic couples- the poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Last week, we introduced Robert Browning and his notable dramatic monologue My Last Duchess which gives voice to a twisted psychopath. We talked a little bit about Robert Browning’s life, but not too much. This week we’ll return to his story as well as introduce his remarkable wife and her poetry, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Christy, am I correct when I say that during their lifetimes, she was famous and he was the Mr. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, so to speak? Also, am I also correct that the man who wrote about the most twisted love relationship in British poetry also arguably had one of the most famous personal love stories! You are correct on both accounts- although, in his defense, in regard to the second fiddle Robert played to Elizabeth during her life, history has elevated him over the years. And been less kind to her, am I right about that? For a while-you’re right- the world turned on Elizabeth, or EBB, as she signed her things. Wait= stop there- EBB for Elizabeth Barrett Browning? She went by that? Well, she had a family nickname BA, but in her professional life-Yes- she signed everything EBB but there is a story. When she was single she was Elizabeth Barrett Barrett- so, she started that before she got married. When she got married, she kept up the EBB- it avoided all the normal name confusion women deal with when they marry later in life and have the hassle of changing identities. In her case, sticking with thethe initials just made it easy. That worked out. I agree- Anyway- back to your point that history was RUDE to her. There was a period of about 100 years where people really criticized put her down. Virginia Wolfe, specifically, wrote what to me is a cruel essay about EBB’s most accomplished piece of poetry, a long epic novel in poem form called Aurora Leigh. Wolfe is very condescending for many reasons, but from my perspective, Wolfe just didn’t like poetry very much, and Aurora leigh is an epic poem. So, EBB, for about a 100 years drifted along on the coat tails of her husband, ironically, whose reputation gained ground over that same period of time. It was this giant reversal after death. Huh- I guess it’s a good thing they were both gone- that could have brought some marital complications! So true, but maybe they would have laughed. When they were alive, Robert Browning once said that the only way he could get a publisher to look at his work was if he promised he’d get Elizabeth to print something with them. Today, though, over two hundred years later, we can all be relieved to know, history has decided to let them rest together in peace. They are both viewed in high regard in their own rights. The Wolfe crowd has settled down, and we can see EBB with a more balanced perspective, especially her work Aurora Leigh- something notable but more than we can really handle in one episode- I did want to mention because it was EBB’s masterpiece- and something that is quite original- if you like her stuff or if you like epic poetry, you should check it out. No one has really done an epic poem about a female hero like her either before or since, at least that I know anything about. When it came out It was extremely popular, as well as quite scandalous. It’s a plot driven story, and Marian Erle, a heroine in the stories, gets raped, has a child, refuses to hide the fact that it was a product of rape and does not take a proposal in marriage that would redeem her reputation as a fallen woman, so to speak. It has been said that women read it secretly under their sheets so as not to be discovered, and EBB loved that. Let me just tell you, that might scandalize readers even todayOh my, I’d say that’s a very different hero than Odysseus or Gilgamesh, and I can see why Aurora Leigh was so popular so quickly not just in Britain but in America- in fact,. I read it hadsomewhere that they printed over 20 editions before the end of the 19th century. But, let’s back up and get a little of the back story on this scandalous Victorian celebrity. Okay- boring stuff first. EBB was born on March 6, 1806, the eldest of TWELVE children to very prominent people. Her father’s family, the Barrett’s owned thousands of acres of sugar plantation in Jamaica plus all the slaves that went with that. The Barrett’s had gobs of money. Her early years were happy, and for a while she lived in a fairy land. Her father built this incredibly lavish estate, and she had free reign to roam at will, and that’s exactly what she did. In one sense, her family was progressive. They encouraged and even supported her studying, and she did

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I am Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This week and next we will have two poetry supplements. After talking about one of the worst romances in literature- we will switch to one of literature’s greatest love stories- the romance of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning- although you would never guess it after reading the poem we are doing today- My Last Duchess- a very twisted poem. You know, Christy, now that I think about it, there’s not really a lot of great love stories that we’ve read. So many of them end poorly- Romeo and Juliet comes to mind- but even the real life stories aren’t all that awesome. I can’t say I’m all that impressed with the love story of Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley. No, I should think not. I wouldn’t think Petrarch or Lauuuura define true love either- although Petrarch sure got a lot of mileage out of their non-relationship. No, Hester and Dimmesdale didn’t end well. Or William Butler Yeats and Maud Gonne Now that you mention it, whether we’re talking about characters or writers- there’s quite a bit of tragedy involved. You’re right- but of course, doesn’t great love tragedies produce great art- look no farther than the new hit song by Selena Gomez about her disasterous relationship with Justin Bieber. “Lose You to Love Me” debuted at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 23 weeks- hittint it number one. And it was number 1 on Itunes as well. Of course, Justin Bieber has milked that relationship or should I say, all of their break ups over the years, as well. Well, xometimes things do go right- there’s hope for the Noras and Torvalds out there. HA! So, let’s introduce at least one love story that went right…Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Except, if you want to know the love-story part, you’ll have to stick around for one more episode. We’re going to start with this episode by discussing Robert Browning and his most nefarious villiian in “My Last Duchess” and then we’ll look at Elizabeth and her infectious love sonnets- and that’s when we’ll get into their personal story. Great, so Robert Browning, what I find unusual about Robert Browning is that there is nothing unusual about Robert Browning. I’m so used to all of these British poets and their colorful lives, but he’s kind of a non-scandalous person, well- if you don’t count the part about his elopement with Elizabeth, of course. Indeed, and that is just how he liked it- perhaps a man of his time. Let me back us by introducing him as part of the Victorian Age- that glorious period of English history where Britain held the position of world leadership- I guess somewhat like we think of as belonging to the United States today. Just for clarification- The Victorian period is considered somewhere around 1837-1900. Oh yes- I should have said that. Not talking about literature, Garry, what stands out about this period of time. Well, there’s a lot- it was an incredible period and Queen Victoria was incredibly popular. When you say Victorian England, a lot comes to mind- both good and bad- but the first thing that comes to my mind, and please bear in mind that I’m American, so there’s the disclaimer- we’re always talking about impressions from this side of the Atlantic, but the first thing that comes to mind is just the incredible amount of material progress- there was unequaled production of goods- England was well on the front end of the Industrial Revolution. There was a lot of innovation, a growing middle class- but then again on the flip side- with that there’s all the social problems that go with material progress. Things that we think of Charles Dickens writing novels about- street children, dirty pollution from coal- the sort of things we’ve talking about in other episodes like when we talked about where the Bronte sisters grew up or William Blake’s Chimney Sweepers- and these problems are the things that lots of people but specifically a lot of writers were concerned about and commenting on. John Ruskin famously said, “that the real test of a community is not how much wealth it is producing but what kind of people it is producing” and of course he’s right about that. It was something that would take years to sort out- finding the moral balance between production and exploitation- something every society wrestles with and always will. Well, the Brownings, surprisingly, weren’t really a part of that protest movement, to be honest- and the reason I say that is because for a big chunk of time, in fact, their entire married life, they lived in Italy. Didn’t Ibsen live in Italy, and Keats lived in Italy- Italy seems to be responsible for a lot of great English language writing. Ironically, that’s true. Well, getting to the Brownings, Robert Browning grew up in Camberwell, at the time, a suburb of London. He was the only son of a fairly affluent family. He was the product pri

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 4 - The Clash Of Cultures Ends Tragically Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our fourth and final episode discussing Chinua Achebe’s groundbreaking novel Things Fall Apart. In episode one we discussed the country of Nigeria, the history, the cultural context, Achebe’s life, the poem from which the book got its name and a little of the life of Okonkwo- our hero in the story. In the second episode we explored the first seven chapters of the novel and talked briefly about the book that inspired Achebe to write it, Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness. Last episode we got into more controversial territory as we broached issues of gender as expressed by Achebe. This week, in case gender wasn’t controversial enough, we will focus on colonialism, religion and father/son relationships- Good Lord- Achebe is merciless!!! He’s killing us with controversy. Killing us- haha- irony!!! Is that foreshadowing? It’s true, but some how he does it so sweetly and can be confrontational without being offensive. I really love to listen to Achebe lectures. His voice is comforting. Achebe conveys hope when he talks- especially in his later years, he really does, and I encourage anyone to just google some of his lectures and listen to him. I’ll put some links on our website. By virtue of his birthplace and age, he confronted issues fifty years ago that today are common problems all of planet earth. By being born a child of two cultures and two distinct religions, by living in a country plagued with colonialism, civil war, racism and corruption, his perspective from lived experience has credibility, and on that note I do want to draw attention to a contemporary Nigerian author of our day who follows in the same vein as her mentor- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie first came to my attention through a friend who told her about her TedTalk “The Danger of a Single Story”. Adichie, just like Achebe understands that things are more than just one thing- that balance must be the goal- and she speaks to our generation about how to apply these things today. I’m going to link her TedTalk to our website as well. So, let’ begin talking about religion and the introduction of Christianity into the Nigerian landscape which is where we left off last week. Last week, we were still in part 2 of TWA, Okonkwo was still in his mother’s land. Today we finish part 2 as well as discuss the most important ideas of part 3. We finished with chapter 15 and the incident of the white man entering into Abame, being killed there by locals encouraged by the oracle and then slaughtered en masse by the full force of the colonial army. And the pattern is established: The missionaries come first, but after them comes government in that order or as it says in chapter 18, “The white man had not only brought a religion but also a government.” By chapter 16, we are referencing the white man, but not by missionaries building hospitals or even teaching in schools, but as soldiers. It doesn’t take long for one to follow the other. We are also led to understand some of the things about Christianity that appealed to the native people. It’s the second year of Okonkwo’s exile and Obierika comes back to Mbanta to visit, but this time when he talks about the white man, it’s about the white man coming to Umuofia, and not just that, it seems Okonkwo’s own son has converted to Christianity and had been one of the missionaries to visit the clan. Obierika was shocked. Yes, and this again is where we see Achebe hitting on universal issues and setting them in a context that is foreign to most of us. Okonkwo’s issue with his son is more than just an example of colonial intrusion. Why is Nyowe an early adopter of Christianity? In large part, the only people converting to Christianity were the what they called efulefu- or worthless people- people that were on the absolute bottom of the Igbo social system. In fact, this was one of the reasons the clan permitted Christianity- they were collecting all the garbage the clan really didn’t want and were living in the Evil Forest, a place no one wanted to be. Here Achebe also explains that Igbo society had a class system, and not everyone was flourishing under it. Those who were rejected by that system were the first to accept the new system that elevated their worth. If you’re an efulefu or an osu, which literally means outcast, that makes sense. But Nyowe isn’t efulefu? His father has two titles. Achebe answers this question very subtly for his audience by again using the narrative technique of gently letting us slip into Nwoye’s mind- remember we call that indirect discourse. Let’s read the passage where the missionaries are talking about Jesus Christ and what exactly led Nwoye to convert to this new faith. Read page 145-147 Now let me read what Okonkwo thought of hi

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 3 - Religion, Gender Issues, The Importance Of Balance And Chapter 13 - The Heart Of The Book! I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our third episode in our four part series on Chinua Achebe’s stunningly complex little novel, Things Fall Apart. In episode one, we looked at Nigeria the country itself, the historical context of the book, Achebe’s life, and also the poem Achebe used for the title of his book. In episode two, we got into a couple of the cultural features Achebe highlights in part one of the book as well as begin discussing chapters 1-7. We are quick to notice that although, this is a story about a man, a very relatable man, that could be from anywhere and struggles with issues that plague us all, Achebe situates him in a cultural context that is uniquely Igbo. So, who are the Igbo? What do they value? These are things we learn organically as we read the story. But this week, as we look at getting through the rest of part one as well as most of part two of the novel, the word I want to highlight is the word complex because like every other great piece of art, when you first engage this book you don’t understand the art of it. This story feels natural, almost simple- the artist in Achebe makes the story feel easy and natural; what we don’t realize is how intentional and complicated all that is to do. It kind of reminds me of Swedish Rock. Are you really going to compare Achebe to Swedish Rock. I am, so disclosure- Christy and I watched this Netflix series called This is Pop. I’m a musician, although not a famous one, but I love learning the stories of great music. Anyway, what the host Jay McCarrol talks about, in this particular episode, one of your favorite bands- Christy-Abba. And it’s a phenomenon-= how does this little band from a little country change the musical landscape for millions around the entire globe..and actually it’s more than just Abba. Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC would all be obsolete without the work of Swedes Denniz Pop and Max Martin. But here’s the connection, when you listen to a song like “Waterloo”- it feels simple and easy. The listener just thinks, ohh I really like that. It stands out- why, out of thousands of songs- do some stand out? And how do the same writers do that over and over again? How do they do it? What does Max Martin know that the rest of us don’t. He’s got some trick up his sleeve. So does Achebe? How does his book stand out? Ha! Fair enough, of course, you had me at Abba, and today what we are going to talk about, among other things, some of the fascinating tricks, if you want to call them that or techniques, Achebe uses to make that human connection with all of us. And I think structure is a great place to start because it’s something that often flies under the radar- but the structure of this novel is very deliberate. Last episode we ended by reading the end of chapter 7 of the novel, one of the most important chapters of the book. It’s emotional; it’s important in terms of plot development. It’s important in terms of character development, but let’s notice where it’s placed. There are 13 chapters in part one- and chapter 7 is at the slap dab middle six chapters before- six chapters after. It’s at the heart of the first section. When we get to chapter 13 we see another big plot point. It’s the end of the first section, but it’s also the very middle point of the book- the book has 25 chapters- there are twelve before chapter 13 and 12 after it. It’s the heart of the entire book, and it is where we see Okonkwo commit a feminine crime, an accidental murder and is forced to flee. Why is an accidental murder at the heart of the book? What about this event takes us to one of the most important themes of this entire book? Why is so much attention drawn to the fact that this is a feminine crime? What does crime even have gender? Why is there such a thing as a masculine and femine crime? Achebe, of course, when asked a similar question answered using an Igbo parable- “Wherever Something stands. Something Else will stand beside it.” The idea that life is not one thing- life is duality. This duality applies to everything not just issues of gender- but gender issues may help us understand dualities- but it’s application as it pertains to issues of gender is of central importance and a focus in this book. Achebe draws particular attention to man’s need for balance between the male and female principles. He highlights through Okonkwo’s extremism the difficulty all of us have- in one way or another-in finding this balance- being okay with who we are- and to support this theme- Achebe has created balance in the very physical aspect of the how the book is laid out. Just one of those cool things- structure supporting meaning. It’s one of those subtle things artists do that we don’

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 2 - The Clash Of Cultures, Foreshadowing, Irony And Rage! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our second episode in our four part series discussing the great Nigerian work Things Fall Apart and its author, Chinua Achebe. Last week, we looked at the historical context of Nigerian history- pre-colonial up to the colonial period. We looked, albeit briefly at the life of Achebe himself, how the book got published, and a little bit about the poem that inspired the title. We also introduced the great tragic hero of the novel, Okonkwo. Today, we are going to continue exploring Igboland as we look at some of the cultural traditions that are important to the story, we are going to look at little bit at the structure of the book and hopefully, we will discuss all the way through chapter 7. Did I miss anything, Christy? I think that’s it, but you never know, we may go down a tangent. There are so many things we could talk about that would be culturally relevant to understanding this work. I heard Dr. Achebe do a question and answer session for the BBC one time and a girl asked a question that stood out to me. She said something like this, I am an aspiring writer and it is obvious that you have written a story about the unique particulars of your culture, but you also write about universal things that apply to all people. I think I know how to write about my own experiences, but how do I write about the universal? His answer was interesting to me because I thought- oooh, I need to write down this tip, maybe I could also write a great world renowned novel. He said this and I paraphrase, “You can’t. You can only write about your reality, and if it take on universal qualities it is because the work took on a life of its own.” The poor little girl was likely disappointed in the answer because he couldn’t give her a formula. I’m sure she was, but haven’t we talked about this so often before? And of course musicians are the same way, a writer writes about what he knows and somehow I as a reader or a listener can identify with him/her- their reality touches me, although the setting may be totally different, somehow their world is also my reality. This is what Achebe wanted to communicate more than anything- the story of the Igbo is a human story- the reality of us all is present in Igboland. The relationships in the fictional Igbo community of Umuofia and Mbanta between groups with different pigmentation, between genders and between individuals are complex. And that is really one of the great advantages of novels as opposed to just lectures on culture or history, through novelistic discourse the author is not just telling us information, or explaining rules or models of social and political orders, we are getting someone’s unique perspective on them- an understanding of them. One example that makes me wonder is- What is it like to live in a polygamous society? The gender politics in this book are unapologetically masculine. Achebe doesn’t apologize for that; he isn’t sanctioning it really either as a preferred mode of existence. It’s just the reality. The story is told in the third person omniscient perspective. Things were the way they were. Well, in the case of the Igbo people specifically, it was important to Achebe for the world to understand the unique and deep cultural roots inherent in the way of life in this part of the the world. This is what the Europeans refused to see and understand when they arrived in Africa. The people of this land were not savages simply because they didn’t live or speak like European peoples. There was a culture, a deep culture, with a complex religious tradition, moral values, social structures, political structures, and meaningful recorded histories. As is so often the case with highly educated people even today, there was an arrogance of superiority to which Achebe responds- Just because you don’t see or understand something, doesn’t mean you are not looking straight at it. Goodness, I totally understand that. My very first teaching job right after college was teaching English to business men in Japan. I worked for a company called Interac in the town of Shizuoka. Anyway, after I first moved there, I looked around and saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken, a mall, a Denny’s restaurant, and I remember thinking. wow- well this place is just like the US just in a different language. A year later, I remembering that thought and thinking about how foolish it was. The culture of the United States and the culture of Japan are extremely different and the differences are historical, deep and multi-faceted. When I left Japan after living there only one year, I remember thinking, the only thing I really knew about Japan is that I don’t know almost anything about Japan. The main lesson I had learned over the year was humility. I had

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 1 - Meet Nigeria's Most Famous Author , Teacher and Philosopher! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. I am very excited this series on Nigerian author Chinua Achebe and his first groundbreaking book- Things Fall Apart first published in 1958. There are not many books that have had the kind of positive worldwide impact that this book has had, and the reasons are numerous. The reasons are numerous. I first met Dr. Achebe’s work late as an adult. I was teaching English at Bolton High School here in Memphis, and we had just started the IB program or the International Baccalaureate program, a college prep curriculum acknowledged around the world. In the IB program students must read works from English language writers from around the entire English speaking world, not just from the UK or the US which is what had been traditional for me up to that point in my education even as a teacher. His was the first book I read from an African writer, and it was impactful for so many reasons, some personal, others academic. I became like many readers of his work, all of a sudden aware of new way of thinking about Africa or aware of a way I had perhaps thought about Africa, albeit completely unawares. I have mentioned before that my parents were missionaries and I was raised mostly in Brazil, but for a time we lived in Zimbabwe, Africa. My time in Zimbabwe was my first experience with the continent of Africa. My time in Africa had made a strong impression on me. We lived in a missionary compound in what they called back then “the bush” which means we didn’t live in a village or a town; we just lived in the interior. I had never seen a place like the interior of Zimbabwe. We lived about 30 minutes away from the town of Gweru. The first essay I wrote in college was called, “The African Sunset” and it was about how overwhelming just the physical landscape was. As a 13 year old girl, I would run down the twin-stripped back road for a couple of miles every day. I still remember many times on my way home, I would look out across the Savannah and just stare at the beautiful sky- the many colors against the savannah. Since those days, I’ve always loved Africa. But Christy, Nigeria is not Zimbabwe nor located anywhere near it on the African continent- correct? That is absolutely correct- and what a horrible misconception for people that think of Africa as one place- nothing could be farther from the truth. And you are also absolutely correct in assuming that the landscapes of Zimbabwe are NOT the landscapes of Nigeria- just as the landscapes of Tennessee are not the landscapes of Florida or Minnesota. There are 54 independent countries in Africa. Compare that to North America where we only have 23. Nigeria is in West Africa- it is farther north as well- although you have to remember- much Africa is in the Southern Hemisphere. Nigeria is in the Northern hemisphere, like the United States of Europe, but Zimbabwe is in the Southern Hemisphere- it’s also farther away from the equator than Nigeria so it has a much more moderate climate than Nigeria. Another big difference is that Nigeria is on the coast while Zimbabwe is totally landlocked. Exactly, if you think of Africa like an upside down capital L, think of Nigeria at the bend next to the Atlantic ocean, where as Zimbabwe is way down at the bottom- the second country to the bottom from South Africa. They are far from each other, but I will say Nigeria, like Zimbabwe has savannahs with all of the amazing wildlife like elephants, hippopotamuses, crocodiles and cheetahs!! Nigeria just has more variety of climates than Zimbabwe does including a tropical forest that has gorillas. Another difference from our reality here in North America and an even more complex reality than climate and biodiversity is language. While the majority of people in North America speak either English, French or Spanish as their first and heart language. That is not the case in Africa. In Africa, there are more than 2000 distinct languages. Africa has a third of the world’s languages with less than a seventh of the world’s population. Of course Arabic is the most widely spoken language in Africa, but after Arabic, English is the second most widely spoken language. However, what we need to understand is that English is often not a person’s first language. Many times African students will learn one language at home as in the case of Achebe, that would be Igbo, but English is the language of school and commerce- it’s what we call a trade language. It is not the language of indigenous stories, of traditional music, of the people. An important point, English has become a trade language for a lot of the world. Even though over 1.5 billion people on planet earth speak English, only 400 million speak it as a first language. That’s why, even in Brazi

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Episode 4 - TheEnd Of All Kinds Of Dreams! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our fourth and final episode on this little book of constant surprises. We have talked about turns of phrases, irony, the colors, more irony, motifs of the eyes, water and baptism, dust, cars, references to time- and did I mention irony- Are you trying to say that Fitzgerald sees a lot of irony in the world? That things just aren’t what they are pretend or appear to be? I think I want to point out he uses a lot of irony- it just goes on and on. Last week, we also talked about how tightly constructed and deliberate everything is- someone even used the word- geometric- everything fits together. I also can see why you call it poetry- the phrases are often strange, but enjoyable to read. And you’ll love this, Christy, I’m not sure how it all went down- but a lot of Fitzgerald’s metaphors were lifted right out of Zelda’s letters. She was the metaphor master-maker of the family it seems!!! I know- I’ve read that stuff too, although It seems she wasn’t salty about him using her lines- she thought of it as collaboration more than plagiarism- who knows- at this point, I don’t guess it matters. But the metaphors- and there is an endless number of them- really are delightful- and make me smile- they really do – like what we’re going to read today when he says, “Then he kissed her. At his lips’touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. What does that even mean? So strange- you have to really visualize something impossible to even begin to get the idea, but even then you’re a little confused- this godlike event of creating Gatsby- became vulnerable man when Gatsby fell for Daisy- or maybe when Fitzgerald fell for Zelda- however far you want to take the metaphor but why do people like hearing it like that? Actually-There is neuroscience about that, and next week when we talk about T.S. Eliot we should talk a little about the neuroscience about why some words are just fun to listen to- that’s worth geeking out a little bit on- and Eliot is kind of like that too. He is, and I’ll look forward to hearing about that- I have to admit, I know next to nothing about neuroscience. This week, though, we are going to have to wrecklessly fly with Daisy and watch her turn Gatsby’s cream colored circus wagon’s into a death car. There is still so much to say, and I know we don’t have time to talk about everything- we’ve skipped so much already- but you will be happy to know- Garry that we will end where we began with a bit of history and yet another reference to the American Dream- but this time- I’ll not complain about it for one thing it is not the dream according to Thomas Jefferson, but according to Benjamin Franklin. Well, that explains your change of attitude- you have a crush on him! I do- he’s my favorite founding father, and one of these days, we’ll do a series on his autobiography- but until then we will just reference him- like we will here. Last episode we delved into the life and times of the young Daisy Fay who I affectionately called the Ice Queen- and then her relationship to Gatsby- I made the case that there is one sense in that Daisy and Gatsby are almost dopplegangers- one is the male- the other female of kind of the same person-. We talked about their connection in Louisville- their dreams but how the different circumstances of their lives, as well as they choices they made develop separately over the last five years and take them to very different places- even if they physically are just across the bay from each other. Even so, today, I want to start with a focus on Gatsby’s origin story- but before we do, let’s remember that this is a book about two men- we started episode 1 with that idea and I want to come back to it- even though it’s called The Great Gatsby- it’s not just Gatsby- some argue- not even mostly -and while we compared Gatsby to Daisy last week- we can also compare Gatsby to Nick- both are searchers-- both are from the Middle West. One achieves awareness- the other…well….does not. This is a story about Nick- he’s the character we are supposed to see ourselves in. However, Nick’s role in the story is kind of interesting in that he really has two personas =- Persona 1 or Nick 1 tells the story- as a detached historian talking to us about events that happened to him in the summer two years ago- he recalls his New York summer from a place of understanding- it’s reflective- and all from the safety of the Middle West- but then there’s Nick 2 -the participant in the story- he’s a star struck 29 year old who’s bored with life back home, who’s enchanted with the East- with the possibilities that New York offers- he wants a part of the fast life- he’s ready for the the modern world- and the non-olfactory money they hand out

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Episode 3 - Find Out Why Chapter 5 Is Fitzgerald's Favorite Chapter!Hi, I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to love lit podcast. This is our third episode featuring what some people consider to be THE Great American Novel, and after two weeks of symbolism and irony and politics and layers and layers of imagery and meaning, I am starting to see why people are so fascinated with this book. It’s so dense. There are so many ways to read it, and I guess that’s what’s kind of fun about it. I liked reading it for the story, and I loved the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, although I know there are so many hard core Robert Redford fans out there that have taken me to task for that. But, as I’ve read it this time, I’ve really enjoyed reading it for the political commentary. I loved the discussion of the values of Thomas Jefferson and all the distortions or really perversions of the American Dream. An idea that we mentioned and will come back to- although like I said, I don’t really like the term- American Dream because it seems to me to imply the notion of possibility or self- improvement on the basis hard work, personal sacrifice and merit as uniquely American, which is most definitely is NOT. Well, I won’t disagree with that. Of course, that’s the dream of all the world. We can look at the life of Paulo Neruda and his hope for Chile for an example we’ve featured on the podcast as well as Julia de Borges although very differently expressed. But from a political standpoint, what Fitzgerald criticizes is less the idea itself, as I told you, he’s a Thomas Jefferson fan as well, but, he challenges this myth that there is a place on earth that is free from the corruption innate in the human heart- that the United States of America is such a place. Regardless of the system of checks and balances inherent in any system, it is an illusion to believe that those who make it to the top of the social, economic and political worlds escape the damaging mercenary temptations inherent in those positions- whether they are born there or whether they build their wealth themselves- and, as I see it, as we read through this book- we see very clearly the lines blurring between right and wrong- legitimate and illegitimate- reality versus illusion and ultimately even good vs evil, if you want to see it in those terms. And he does it so artfully. He uses colors, and cars and geography and symbols of all sorts and throws all of these into a glamorous setting of his day. The original readers saw this book as being modeled after their own modern moment. This story, if it were set today, would include characters modeled after Kanye West, Tom Brady, Beyonce, and Bill DiBlasio, the music would likely be rap music- the technology would likely include tik tok, iphones, and Zoom. In fact, if you really want to make a good comparison, F. Scott Fitzgerald was sort of the Shonda Rhimes of his day. If you don’t know who that is, Shonda Rhimes, may be the most accomplished television producer and author of our day. She is the head writer, creator and executive producer of shows everyone knows: Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, How to Get away with Murder and Scandal. She wrote Crossroads the debut film of Britney Spears , her most recent being Bridgerton. And Fitzgerald was like that. Between 1919 and 1934 he made $400,000 mostly from short stories- think of that like tv episodes. His work was fun, popular and glamorous, like Shonda Rhimes, so when the Great Gatsby came out- it wasn’t taken as the serious work of literature he meant it to me- and if you don’t get the meaning, the story in many ways falls flat. One newspaper called it, ““Fitzgerald’s latest a dud” Ruth Hale of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, “Find me one chemical trace of magic, life, irony romance or mysticism in all of The Great Gatsby, and I will bind myself to read one Scott Fitzgerald book a week for the rest of my life.” Ouch, that sounds like one of those Edgar Allen Poe Reviews. Well, it does, and the money speaks for itself. He only made $7000 from the two printings of the book combined. He himself knew it was a masterpiece and believed that all the way til his death. He set out to write, using his own words, ‘something new, something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.” And he absolutely did every bit of that. In fact that was one of the things the critics didn’t like about it- it was too geometric to be a great novel- in their estimation. What does that mean? How can you be geometric? Well, things in this book are just too tight- there is even one theory that he modeled the entire thing after a vaudeville show (which normally has 9 acts- and he has 9 chapters)- but in each act there’s a theme modeled after what the corresponding Act would be if it were a vaudeville show. Do you think there is any validity

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