Talk Write

In today’s episode, I take a look at the iconic beginning of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and discuss what makes it so luminous. “Ulysses” is often credited with having a famous opening, but it’s worthwhile unpacking everything that Joyce is doing. How does the Irish sea symbolize a dead mother? How does he use rhythm and syntax to rhyme and pair his lines. Join me in today’s discussion! Get full acces...

In today’s reading, I take a look at the turbocharged beginning of David Mitchell’s 2001 novel, Number9dream. Although not as highly regarded as some of his other work, Mitchell’s early novel still shows the trademarks of the master’s fireworking style: humor, clipped pacing, gorgeous details, quickcut characterization, and so much more! Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack....

A few weeks ago, I talked about what made the beginning of Dickens’s Bleak House so outstanding. Continuing on with this theme, today I take a look at Vladimir Nabokov’s demonic fairytale, Lolita. Everybody knows its euphonic opening line (light of my life, fire of my loins) but what else is Nabokov doing here? Join me and we’ll find out together! Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter...

In today’s video, I look at a piece of travel writing by Robert Twigger and discuss its mythological implications. Whether we admit it or not, mythic patterns are the grammar of our worldviews and are found not just in literature, but anywhere we encounter narrative. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In this series, I’ll be looking at some opening pages and talking about what makes them so great. Today, I’m beginning with Dickens’s “Bleak House.” It’s an opening I’ve covered before on my podcast, but there’s still so much to talk about. In twopages, Dickens not only manages to create one of the most unforgettable images of London fog, he does so while combining character, theme, and even plot,...

Among Shakespeare’s least-read works are his early, long poems: Venus and Adonis (1593), and The Rape of Lucrece (1594), and “The Phoenix and the Turtle” (1601). The last poem remains deeply enigmatic. What can it teach us today? And what sort of light does it shed on the rest of Shakespeare’s work? Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In 2025 I got to reread one of my all-time favorites, "War and Peace." While it's widely considered the gold standard for lengthy, 'classic' novels, this title can often discourage would-be readers from this work, which, while long, never drags. Here, I give you one of my favorite scenes that occurs midway through book one. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to 2026! But before we celebrate too hard, it’s important to reflect on what a new year actually is. Are we going to keep repeating the same cycles we always have? Are we going to go on making the same mistakes? Or are we going to recognize that Christmas is the date that marks the revolution in our hearts, and New Years an opportunity to set that change in place? GK Chesterton has a choic...

In this video, I talk about T.S. Eliot’s 1927 poem, “The Journey of the Magi.” Dashed off in just forty-five minutes, Eliot’s poem looks at the Christmas miracle from the perspective of the Magi, now grown old and full of years. In the midst of the Christmas season, we can forget that the Birth was not just the beginning of a new world, but the ending of the old. What must it be like, Eliot asks,...

In this video, I talk about how Keats manages to find enchantment everywhere he looks: in nature, old books, the songs of birds, or here, on a Greek vessel which he’d read about in a magazine. Enchantment, however, is never a simple matter with Keats, who knows well that the spells Fancy draws can be fatal as well as fruitful. Be that as it may, Keats recognizes that enchantment, like beauty, fill...

Today, I talk about one of John Keats’s most famous poems. In “Ode to a Nightingale,” the great poet creates not just an evocative description of a spellbinding song; he goes on a journey in which, bespelled by beauty, he falls into death and dissolution and is ultimately reborn. But how is this two-hundred-year-old poem still so powerful? Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substac...

As the days darken and the temperatures cool, it’s worth visiting one of the most famous autumn poems of all time. Keats wrote this poem in 1819: an extremely prolific year which saw the writing of some of the most beautiful lyric poems of all time. Who needs Spring when you have October? Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

As the days darken and the temperatures cool, it’s worth visiting one of the most famous autumn poems of all time. Keats wrote this poem in 1819: an extremely prolific year which saw the writing of some of the most beautiful lyric poems of all time. Who needs Spring when you have October? Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s reading, we come at last to the end of the journey. Dante has experienced “the three lives of the spirit.” Having passed through the torments of Inferno and Purgatory and seen literally everything between Heaven and Hell, Dante is at last prepared for his final vision. In this ecstatic world of dizzying heights, he beholds Father, Son, and Spirit as a vast circle of one circumference an...

In today’s reading, Saint Bernard guides Dante through the heavenly mysteries of the Divine Rose. In this heavenly tapestry, all opposites are united: those who proclaimed Christ before His Incarnation, and those who believed in Him after; the Hebrew women of the Nation of Israel, and the Apostles who spread His Word afterwards. After unveiling the mystery of infant baptism and salvation, Bernard...

In today’s reading, Dante, enraptured by this vision of heaven, turns to express his wonder to Beatrice, only to find that she has gone, translated higher up into the Divine Rose, with her place taken by Saint Bernard (1090-1153). However, rather than bewail her loss as he did the loss of Vergil almost thirty cantos ago, Dante offers up to her a prayer of gratitude, for which he receives one of he...

In today’s reading, Dante gets his first look at the Divine Empyrean: the reality of all realities. Having ascended through all nine levels of Heaven, he comes to the Garden of Paradise. But things are still not in their final form: to see the light without blemish, he must drink deeply from the waters of Paradise (recall the river Lethe in Purgatory, Canto 28), at which point the garden expands i...

In today’s reading, Beatrice continues her explanation of the angels. We are blessed in proportion that we hunger and thirst for God. No angel envies its neighbor their proximity to God, for all receive love in the same measure that they desire love. Having articulated this, Beatrice then decries the modern tendency of religious leaders to forego the truth of Scripture in favor of their personal i...

In today’s reading, Dante is given a vision of God himself, surrounded by his nine choirs of angels. God is pure, radiant light, and the angels surround him like Saturn’s rings, each ring moving faster the closer it is to the center. Beatrice explains the divine physics at work: the closer we are to God, the more alive with His love we become. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.sub...

In today’s reading, Dante has finally passed all three virtue tests and is ready to move into the Empyrean…but not before Saint Peter has a final say about the current papacy. Turning literally with righteous indignation, the first pope lets loose all holy ire in a (not quite final) rage against the corruption of holy offices. This heard, Dante looks again to Beatrice, and leaps into the final cir...

In today’s reading, Dante completes the last of his three examinations on the theological virtues. Having answered correctly, his blindness is stripped away, revealing a fourth light: his forefather, Adam. Dante’s questions about Eden, the Fall, and the First Language all get settled as he prepares to ascend further from the Fixed Stars and into the Empyrean. Get full access to Talk Write at brand...

In today’s reading, having gotten Saint Peter’s dance of approval, Dante ascends to the next examination. Hope, in which he is lectured by Saint James, is not mere optimism, but a powerful force that enables us to overcome darkness, despair, and depression: everything Dante faced when exiled. As in his last exam, Dante passes with flying colors, although the sudden appearance of a ray of light lea...

In today’s reading, Dante meets the first of his three examiners. Saint Peter asks Dante what he knows about faith and in what he puts his faith. In true, dry scholastic method, Dante lays out his case perfectly: the ideal pupil. In exhaltation, Saint Peter dances thrice around the student. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s reading, Dante, having passed through the realms of the contemplatives, enjoys the full radiance of Beatrice’s smile. Given a rapturous vision of Christ Triumphant, he is now ready to mount even higher. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s reading, Dante meets St Benedict, prince of the contemplatives. As ever, Benedict has some choice words for the state of the monasteries now. Having met the contemplatives and passed through all seven heavenly spheres, Dante is now ready to move into the fixed stars, but not before he spares a final, pitying glance on the “dirty threshing floor” of the earth. Get full access to Talk Wri...