The Inklings Variety Hour

Happy New Year! Kora Burton rejoins Chris to discuss Tolkien's last fairy (or is it faerie?) story, " Smith of Wootton Major " (1967).  Smith of Wootton Major is a short story, a parable about the nature of what Tolkien called “fayery” or “Faerie,” an evocative fairy tale in its own right, as well as a melancholy meditation on the loss of artistic capacity.  Though told simply enough for children...

From the Old Winyards: It's Time for the Feast of Good Children (to which not many are invited). ___________________________________ Kora Burton joins Chris to discuss Tolkien's last fairy (or is it faerie?) story, " Smith of Wootton Major ."   Smith of Wootton Major (1967) is Tolkien’s last work of fiction and was begun as part of an Introduction to an edition of George MacDonald’s The Golden Key...

Chris is joined by Angela Teal and Marena Bleech of In the Burrow Books to discuss Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows! More episode description to come! In the meantime, enjoy!

Original Description: O.G. Host Anika Smith rejoins the podcast to interview Chris and his beautiful and omnicompetent wife, Glencora, about their new Christmas resource book, Twelve Tide .  Part of what we're trying to do with this book is make Christmas less a single-morning present binge preceded by anxiety and followed by anticlimax--and more a season of twelve days of giving, feasting, and le...

Author Jonathan Geltner and newcomer James Lapeyre join Chris to discuss the question that has doubtless kept all of us awake in the pre-dawn hours: Who was more of a Romantic: C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien? Yes, the stakes have never been higher. We also talk generally about how the Inklings' view of their own roles overlapped with (and were influenced by) those of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-c...

Apologies for the audio quality on this one! It's the very first podcast Anika and I recorded, along with my wife, Glencora! It dates from 2018, when audio was much rougher. I'm sure you remember. Cleaned up what I could. Minimal swearing, too. I thought I'd post it in preparation for the C.S. Lewis Reading Day livestream.  You can find it here: C. S. Lewis Reading Day 2024 - Pints With Jack  

Join me (and a few other Lewis podcast hosts) on the Pints with Jack C.S. Lewis Reading Day Livestream. You can find it here: C. S. Lewis Reading Day 2024 - Pints With Jack Thanks, as always, to Pints with Jack, for their generosity and initiative! 

Sorry for the late Saturday upload! Another classic in the War in Heaven series. Welcome back!  In this final episode covering Charles Williams' spiritual thriller, War in Heaven, we discuss the conclusion of the book!  What does Charles Williams have in common with J.K. Rowling?  Is Gregory the Satanist the secret protagonist of this book?  And finally, what do you do if a priest falls down dead...

From the past! Original description: This is part four of our five-part discussion of War in Heaven , Charles' Williams' modern take on the Holy Graal Quest.  In the chapters we discuss this week, Gregory Persimmons drives Barbara Rackstraw insane using "the ointment," in order to obtain both the Graal and Barbara and Lionel's son, Adrian.  The guardians of the Graal willingly trade the Graal for...

If you already listened to this, my apologies!  I think my releasing it the afternoon before Halloween (rather than the week before) meant that it wasn't on many people's radar.  I'm quite proud of it (and worked hard on it), so I'm re-releasing. I know it's not Halloween anymore, but, hey--it's also not Christmas, and you don't see that deterring most businesses from playing Bing Crosby.  

Another classic from the vaults.  Original description:  This week, we're covering Part III of Charles Williams' supernatural thriller, War in Heaven, in which the good guys (The Archdeacon, Kenneth Mornington, and the Duke) steal the Graal back from Gregory Persimmons, who desires to use it for his own dark purposes.  They then must pray to prevent the Graal from being magically disintegrated fro...

Cryptids in Narnia! Parody of the excellent Camp Monsters podcast. Happy Halloween! inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com  

Another dip back into the old vaults for the second episode covering War in Heaven. Original shownotes:  We begin this second part of our series on War in Heaven with the Archdeacon's words to the Holy Graal (yes, that's how it's spelled).  We end as a Georgia thunderstorm knocks out the Internet.  In between, we discuss Chapters 4-8 of Charles Williams' supernatural thriller. You can find War in...

J.D. Peabody joins Chris once again, this time to talk about the third and (for now) final installment of his Inkwell Chronicles series: Operation Bungaree.   Here's the link to the book from JD's page .   We've still got a lot of episodes for Season 4. Thanks for the very kind five-star reviews! At the moment, it's all I can do to juggle my teaching load and editing/releasing twice a month, but p...

Here's another Saturday rerun. Original shownotes here: This is the first of a series of conversations on Charles Williams' 1930 novel, War in Heaven, in which the Holy Graal (yes, that's how it's spelled here) is discovered in a tiny church in the English countryside.  Hijinks and shenanigans ensue, along with a heavy dose of black magic, car chases, and ecumenism.  You'll also find out whether t...

An old favorite: This week, we follow up on our discussion of Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories" by applying some of his ideas to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  We're trying to assess whether (despite Tolkien's low view of it), Lewis' children's tale actually works as a Tolkienian "Fairy Story."  Works mentioned include: On Fairy Stories The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe The Black Bull of N...

Jonathan Geltner and Søri Higgins join Chris to discuss Arthurian Torso --a collection of Charles Williams' Arthuriana (his poems and a non-fiction book) edited by C.S. Lewis. We'll be discussing and reading a few favorite poems and marveling at what Williams managed to achieve. Stick around for some broad-brush critical history of Arthurian myth in general and speculation as to whether the fantas...

Another episode from the vaults. Here's the original episode description:  Join Anika, Meagan, and Chris for the second half of our discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories."  Among other things, we talk about the nature of originality, the way that stories re-enchant and recover reality for us, the nature of true escapism and modernity, the Gift of Illuvatar and whether anyone actua...

Recovered from the deeps of time...  

It's been too long since we've done podcasts on Tolkien. I thought I'd record a fairly off-the-cuff episode on Hobbit birthdays in light of Bilbo's and Frodo's shared birthday, September 22. I'm reading part of Tolkien's Letter 214, which is in response to A.C. Nunn (and never sent), who points out the discrepancy between Gollum expecting a birthday present and Hobbits giving presents on their bir...

Blast from the Icy past! Original shownotes: The third and final installment of our conversation on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe enters some interesting territory as Chris, Anika, and Meagan explore Lewis's (inadvertent?) use of Aslan-as-Trickster imagery, proper Narnian politics, and kangaroos. Also witness the precise moment in which the trio realizes that Lewis may have ruined their ch...

Don W. King joins Chris to talk about Ruth Pitter's Perelandra Spenserian Stanzas! More episode description to come!

Another nostalgic Saturday rerun episode! Original shownotes:  Return to Narnia for the second part of our (three-part) discussion on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Find out the intrepid trio's thoughts on such questions as: Why shouldn't we be too hard on Edmund? How exactly does Father Christmas fit into this story, anyway? Why is it so important to remember to wipe your sword? Works ref...

Søri Higgins joins me to discuss her new class on short stories, opening tomorrow.  Along the way, we discuss other things as well, which I don't have time to mention here.  But you'll like it.  I promise.   Find out more about Sori's class here : ONLINE CLASS: The Architecture of a Short Story | The Oddest Inkling (wordpress.com)    

Thought I'd rerun some of these old episodes on Saturdays. Enjoy!   Original shownotes: Chris, Anika, and Meagan introduce themselves and the podcast before promptly stepping through that magical wardrobe in the first (yes, first) of C. S. Lewis's Narnia chronicles. Why are robins trustworthy? Was Lewis wrong about his preferred reading order for the Narnia books? Will the hosts be able to overcom...