Episode 18: "The Vulture" by Samuel Johnson

Today on The Literary Life podcast, we begin a new series of episodes on The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling with our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks! After sharing their commonplace quotes, each of them talks about their own reading histories with Rudyard Kipling’s work. Thomas gives us some biographical information about Kipling and sets up the literary period in which he wrote. They then begin talking about the structure and form of this book as it is set up as a series of short stories as beast fables. Angelina shares some of the mythic and fairy tale elements she noticed while reading this first story, “Mowgli’s Brothers.” They also discuss some of the challenges we face reading stories written in a different time and place without imposing our current views on all the literature of the period. Check out this year’s Back to School Online Conference, “Educating the Freeborn,” over at MorningTimeforMoms.com to get registered and hear all of this year’s amazing speakers! To view the full show notes for this episode complete with book links, quotes, and today's poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/285.

15 Juli 1h 26min

This week on The Literary Life, we bring you an episode from deep in the archives in which Cindy and Angelina discussed Katherine Mansfield’s short story “The Garden Party.” After a great chat over their commonplace quotes, Angelina and Cindy dig into this week’s story. They start with how Cindy found this story and the connections she was making to Little Women. Angelina gives a brief biographical sketch of Katherine Mansfield and highlights how Mansfield’s own illness and death give us insight into how she deals with death in this story. Angelina walks us through how she looks at the use of figurative language and images, such as the Garden of Eden. They also touch on “The Garden Party” having the same structure of moving toward a moment of epiphany that we saw in “Araby.”  Cindy brings up the disconnect between the world of the women at home and the working people outside the home, as well as between the classes in this story. They talk about the importance of Laura’s new hat as a symbol of one type of person she can become. Another image that Angelina and Cindy take a look at is the descent from the garden into darkness. They discuss the parallels from the beginning of the story and the end of the story, as well as Laura’s movement from innocence to experience, from blindness to sight. To view the full show notes for this episode, complete with commonplace quotes, book links, and this week's poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/284.

8 Juli 1h 17min

This week on The Literary Life Podcast, Angelina and Thomas are once again joined Dr. Jason Baxter, author of Why Literature Still Matters. In this episode, our hosts sit down with Dr. Baxter for a chat about a wide variety of topics, including teaching the old books, reading poetry to understand it, the delight of teaching students at HHL, their hot takes on hot takes, making reading recommendations, and translating Dante, and so much more. We will be back next week with a "best of" episode covering Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Garden Party," and after that we begin a fun new series on The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. To view the full show notes for this episode, please visit our website at https://theliterary.life/283.

1 Juli 1h 32min

This week on The Literary Life, Angelina and Thomas wrap up our encore series on J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter: Book 1. Angelina and Thomas begin the episode with some thoughts on their Aristotelian approach to literature as seen in this series of episodes. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they dive into their discussion of the last few chapters of the book. Some of the ideas they consider are how the entire plot is a series of symbols, alchemy and the allegory of the soul, and the figure of the “wildman” in the literary tradition. They also go over the characters of the centaurs, the significance of the unicorn, more references to Greek mythology, how Harry exemplifies the “chest” of the well-ordered man, and the great importance of the philosopher’s stone as a Christ symbol.  Visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com for classes with Angelina, Thomas, and other members of their teaching team. To view the full show notes for this episode, including commonplace quotes, book links, and today's poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/282.

24 Juni 2h 2min

Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast and our series on J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter: Book 1. After sharing some thoughts on detective fiction as it relates to Rowling, our hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks discuss chapters 8-12. Some of the ideas they share are the following: Homeric echos and classical allusions in this book, the identity quest, the significance of characters’ names, the four houses and the bestiary, the three parts of the soul, the Christian influence on Rowling’s stories. Angelina also seeks to teach something about symbolism and structure of literature and art as seen through the Harry Potter books.  Visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com for updates on classes with Angelina, Thomas, and other members of their teaching team. To view the full show notes for this episode including book links, quotes and today's poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/281.

17 Juni 1h 51min

This week we are back with the second part of our remix of Angelina and Thomas’ podcast series on Harry Potter: Book 1 by J. K. Rowling. This week we are covering chapters 3-7. Angelina opens the book discussion with an overview of the literary motifs used by Rowling in the Harry Potter books to help modern readers better understand these kinds of stories. One of the motifs she highlights is the identity quest and how we see Harry on a journey of the soul. She also shares some thoughts on the fairy tale “magic” of these stories in contrast to actual witchcraft as well as the symbolism used to show us that this is a fairy world. Thomas and Angelina talk about the characters we meet in these chapters, including the symbolism of some of their names. Other ideas discussed in this episode include the importance of alchemy, the Gothic literary tradition, the layers of the quest, the rise of the fantasy genre, and so much more! Visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com for updates on classes with Angelina, Thomas, and other members of their teaching team. To view the full show notes for this episode, please visit https://theliterary.life/280.

10 Juni 1h 36min

On today’s episode on The Literary Life podcast, we bring you a special re-mix of our popular series on Harry Potter: Book 1 by J. K. Rowling, with hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. After sharing a little on their own backgrounds as teachers and their commonplace quotations for the week, Angelina and Thomas open the book discussion with some introductory information on this book and series. They address the controversy surrounding these books in Christian circles. For our previous episode on magic, listen to our Best of Series Episode 168: Wizards, Witches and Magic, Oh My! Angelina sets up this series with some background on children’s publishing in the 1990s, the why there are differences in the British and American editions, the basis for this book in the classic literary tradition, the form and structure of stories. They also share some thoughts on these first couple of chapters. Join us again next week for chapters 3-7!  Visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com for updates on classes with Angelina, Thomas, and other members of their teaching team.  To view the full show notes for this episode, including links to books mentioned, today's commonplace quotes, and poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/279.

3 Juni 1h 32min

On this week’s episode of The Literary Life, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks chat with their student Natalia Testa about her literary life. She is a rising homeschool junior living in Houston, Texas. She enjoys researching obscure manuscripts, classical languages and all things Lord Peter Wimsey. Angelina kicks off the conversation asking about Natalia’s childhood reading memories and how she became interested in ancient history and literature. They also discuss how the research bug bit Natalia, as well as her thoughts about reading books that seem “above” a child’s level. Other topics of conversation is how Natalia found Dorothy Sayers and fell in love with detective novels, how she started taking classes with House of Humane Letters, and how she deals with a reading slump. Please visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com to check out all the past and upcoming classes, conferences, and webinars mentioned in this episode. To view the full show notes for this episode, complete with poems, quotes, and book links, please visit https://theliterary.life/278.

27 Maj 1h 29min