Literary Nomads
80 episodes — Page 2 of 2
Kipling’s “If” and Irony-Hunting
Where do we find irony, anyway? And how? An answer in an offer of cheese.
Dorian Gray and Difficult Conversations
Where do we find people to talk to about our reading? And what do we say when we find them?
Reading and Living in Uncertainty
What do we mean by uncertainty in reading? And why do we have to look for it?
What I Carry With Me
What questions do we carry with us as we leave Marvell's famous poem?
Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 4
Who is the speaker in this poem? Who the audience? Who the Marvell?
Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 3
We trace Marvell's poetry back to its perhaps distressing roots.
Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 2
What did Marvell know and how did he use it? We look at the sexism in the poem and discover how this provocation is hardly unique in the carpe diem tradition.
Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” – Part 1
What do we do with--how do we read--can we make us of--a classic and famous metaphysical poem which is also misogynistic?
Not My Text! Irony and Ducking Accountability
We consider who is accountable for the text: author, character, or reader, and how writers build a narrative distance in texts to allow irony and meaning to operate (and shirking a bit of accountability).
An Introduction and Irony
What is Literary Nomads, anyway? And what does that have to do with Radiohead, Godzilla, professorial assault, and irony?
Unwoven Interview #3: Poet Kelly Porter
The final of three full interviews from the book launch of my poetry book Unwoven. Here, poet Kelly Porter and I discuss how consciously writers might think about structure.
Unwoven Interview #2: Teacher Sarah Rusinowski
The second of three full interviews from the book launch of my poetry book Unwoven. Here, teacher Sarah Rusinowski considers classroom applications for the book.
Unwoven Interview #1: Dr. Jessica Manuel
The first of three full interviews from the book launch of my poetry book Unwoven. Here, Dr. Jessica Manuel digs at some of the themes and motivations for the book.
Trailer: Literary Nomads
The Waywords Podcast is reborn as Literary Nomads: Wider explorations, broader embraces of reading, and (im)practical thinking!
Waypoint – The Shadow
A Winter Solstice story of 1907, when four women begin to tell stories around the fire. . . .
Waypoint – The Ghost and the Bone-Setter
A Winter Solstice tale by an old Irish storyteller, maybe even believable . . .
Waypoint – “The Doll” by Daphne du Maurier
A Winter Solstice tale of a peculiar kind of terror, this story was recently discovered (2011) among a collection of du Maurier's works completed around the age of 21. This story has mature themes.
Pearson’s Archetypes
Carol Pearson's work following Carl Jung offers us a way to transform our understanding of our own lives, and also how we read the narratives we have so long been taught. I review her strategies for using the archetypes and review her online assessment tool, the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator.
Waypoint: Theophile Gautier’s “Clarimonde”
A reading of "Clarimonde," an appropriately creepy story befitting the tradition of Winter Solstice ghost stories. This story in French is titled "La Morte Amoureuse."
Van Gogh – Immersive Exhibits – Episode 4
How do digital art experiences change our reading of original works? Should they be considered a new genre to read?
The Original
Why do we defend a canonical "original?" Where does such an idea come from? We discuss what we mean to place a text with authority and visit The Lord of the Rings and "Fur Elise" along the way.
Adichie – “Tomorrow is Too Far” – Episode 3
How does one read a story which creates its own rules? What else should we ever do? A sociological look at Adichie's intersectionality.
False Consciousness – Authoring Good and Evil
A discussion of our urge to simplify our thinking and reading, including its impact of misinterpretation and loss of compassion.
Anonymous – “Fowles in the Frith” – Episode 2
How do we determine the meaning of a work which has no author? And what responsibility is there in authoring our own interpretation? We examine the potential meanings of this poem, dig at length into the different ideas of medieval authorship, and find we may have not have wandered yet that far, at all.
Intentional Fowls and Fallacies
A discussion of the Intentional Fallacy in determining meaning. Are the early theorists right that all of the meaning is in the text alone? Is the author irrelevant? What does that mean for me as a reader?
WayPoint: Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”
WayPoint: A reading of Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market." wondering how her work might respond to Chopin, how she anticipates the role of author and reader.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” – Episode 1
Where do we place the tragedy in Kate Chopin's short story? Is it in the protagonist's failure to escape or her failure to believe she can?
Irony and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
An introduction or review to the concept of irony in literature, helpful to those who want to better understand the "twist" ending to the story.
Reading of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
A reading of the short story in anticipation of our first full episode on the Kate Chopin short. story. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully.”
The Waywords Podcast Trailer
Join me, Steve Chisnell, as we find and lose meaning across modern and classic tales, through ancient and distant verse, atop everything in our many cultures which might be read.