The Inklings Variety Hour

Well, the glass coffin spaceship is sitting there in front of him, giving him that look, but Chris isn't ready to leave Perelandra just yet. In this episode, he ropes Christiana Hale, author of Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide to C.S. Lewis' Ransom Trilogy , into coming on the show to discuss contemplation, enjoyment, poetry, literary allusions, myth, and the figure of Ransom as Martial prophet. He...

Thanks to all who have left reviews and feedback! Due to a very busy schedule (with school starting, etc.), I can no longer afford to edit/publish this podcast more than twice a month.  This may change if we pick up more listeners, so keep the positive reviews coming and share with your friends!  Charlie Carter (Thinklings Podcast) and Joseph Weigel (Men with Chests Podcast) join Chris to talk abo...

Thanks to all who have left reviews and feedback! Due to a very busy schedule, I can no longer afford to edit/publish this podcast more than twice a month. This may change if we pick up more listeners, so keep the positive reviews coming and share with your friends!   Joseph Weigel, of the Men with Chests podcast, joins Chris to talk about the fight between Ransom and the Un-man in Perelandra.   M...

If you like this podcast, please give it a five-star review on iTunes and share it with your friends.  If you have questions, comments, or advice, email Chris at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com If you want, feel free to follow us on Instagram: @inklingsvarietyhour   Charlie Carter from the Thinklings podcast and Joseph Weigel from Men with Chests rejoin Chris to talk about Perelandra, Chapters 8-11...

Charlie Carter from the Thinklings Podcast, and Joseph Weigel, from Men With Chests, join me to talk about Chapters 4-8 of Perelandra.  We do a lot of reading on this episode--we certainly enjoyed ourselves, anyway!  Enjoy the conversations between Ransom and the Green Lady, as well as Ransom and Weston (shudder). Among other things, we discuss: The human desire to have things over again, and whet...

I hope you enjoy this, the first of a few (I think about five) episodes on Perelandra, commonly considered the best of Lewis' Ransom Trilogy books.  It's late, so I won't say much here, except: Joseph Weigel, of the Men with Chests podcast is my guest. He's great, and his podcast is well worth checking out. Share, rate, and follow this podcast if you like what you hear. Instagram is @inklingsvarie...

Charlie Carter from the Thinklings podcast talks with Chris about the rest of Owen Barfield's dystopian novella, Night Operation.  More description to come.  5/30: Owen A. Barfield, grandson of Owen Barfield, was kind enough to listen to this episode, and put forward his own interpretation of the parachutes--that they represent "Ethers," by which he means "Warmth, Light, Sound, Life". While you ar...

An unpublished imitation of Gerard Manley Hopkins' style about the "On Earth as it is" part of the "Our Father." Charles Williams makes an astute theological point, promotes G.M. Hopkins, and benefits from imitating his style. Win-win-win. Can somebody say "Exchange"? Some helpful sources for this one: The Third Inkling The Oddest Inkling

"Dance like no one is understanding your bizarre esoteric philosophy." Find this and other fitness tips on this episode, when we finally get into Owen Barfield. In this episode, I talk with Charlie Carter from the Thinklings podcast about Owen Barfield's ideas and the way they play out in the first part of Barfield's dystopian novella, "Night Operation."    Apologies to Gina Dalfonzo for temporari...

This is long and late, but I wanted to do part of Tolkien's translation of Sir Orfeo, followed by a few ideas, followed by an awkward reading of the original Middle English.  Forgive my poor audio (working out of office), as well as my poor reading of Middle English.  When I do it well, it is very difficult for modern English speakers to understand, which isn't ideal for a podcast.  I tried to spl...

If there's one scholar whose work captures the spirit of what this podcast tries to do, it's Diana Glyer, author of The Company They Keep , Bandersnatch , and The Major and the Missionary . She joins Chris to talk about what we can learn from the Inklings' approach to writing in community. This was a rich discussion, and I hope you get a lot from it. Diana and I discuss the following: Creativity,...

Another of Lewis' "Adam" poems.  This time, with monsters. Apologies for my unchancy pronunciation of "wind." Just pretend he's playing the "winding horn," which was invented by Jubal, the half-troll.

Friend of the show and Inklings scholar Sørina Higgins joins Chris for a brief but substantive discussion about the Inklings as creative writers. This is a shorter episode, as I didn't have much time to edit (on vacation with family). Among other things, we discuss: Sørina's writing consultancy service, which you can find here The Inklings and Atmosphere (or "Donegality") The relationship between...

One of my new favorite poems by Lewis. For some reason, he's really good at writing about planets as well as myth...hmm... You can find it in Poems . Not sure where else.

Part two of our "all the right books"/summer reading series. As always, please do give us a five-star review on iTunes if you like this podcast. J.D. Peabody joins Chris once again to talk about the state of Christian middle-grade publishing.  You can find his article/interview for Christianity Today on the same subject here .  It is well worth reading. Among other things, we discuss: Current chan...

Chris has G. Connor Salter back on the show to discuss Tom Bombadil in Rings of Power, as well as Tom Bombadil more generally. See you Tuesday!

J.R.R. Tolkien was a pretty good nonsense poet. You can find this poem in the chapter "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" in The Fellowship of the Ring, as well as in Tales from the Perilous Realm. It was originally printed on its own in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Enjoy!

(Apple won't post all the shownotes to this because of limited space; feel free to click on the show website below for more recommendations. Meanwhile, I'll frontload the stuff with links.) When a character in Narnia has "read all the wrong books," you know they're in for a difficult time. But spending time in Narnia does a lot to compensate for a bad literary diet. What, though, about our kids, w...

Poetry Thursday will be back next week!  Today, we have our normal show, which was displaced by the Pop-Up Pop Rings of Power Teaser Reaction Tuesday. Here's an article Connor wrote for "A Pilgrim in Narnia" that compares the themes of Nightmare Alley with those of Lewis' work. Connor Salter joins Chris to discuss Bill Gresham, Joy's first husband, and the movie Nightmare Alley , based on Gresham'...

The teaser for season two of the "Rings of Power" has Chris in an unusually curmudgeonly mood, doubting whether there is indeed a reason for this season.  Luckily, he is visited today by three spirits who know more about the show and the lore behind it than he does. Can Sørina Higgins , Connor Salter , and Jordan Key cause him to believe in Tolkien adaptations again? Or will he drag them down with...

Sorry for the late upload! This is a fairly rambly meditation on C.S. Lewis' "The Future of Forestry."  Also, intellectual and political history painted with a very, very broad brush. Edgy! (Or maybe just careless.) The views expressed here (which are solely Chris's and might be wrong as many of them were formulated while writing), please do write in at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com ! I'd love to...

If you're enjoying this podcast, please leave us a six-star review! Failing that, you can always leave a five-star one. Also, I'd love to hear from you!  inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com . Also, I'm on Instagram: @inklingsvarietyhour Chris is joined by actor Jason Will to discuss Charles Williams' nativity play, The House by the Stable, recently staged by the Acacia Theater Company with Grab and Grac...

Comin' at you from "The Ring Goes South," in The Fellowship of the Ring.  Enjoy, and sorry about the poor audio quality!

This week, Chris is joined by Eric Geddes, longtime friend of the show, to talk about George MacDonald's bizarre-yet-beautiful fairy story, "The Golden Key."  Feel free to read it first, or listen to it on Librivox: Part 1 , Part 2 We talk about the following: George MacDonald's life The "plot" (or lack thereof--hang in there!) of "The Golden Key" Parallels with C.S. Lewis' work (especially The Pr...

Lewis' poem in memory of Charles Williams. Quotations come from The Making of C.S. Lewis, by Harry Lee Poe, and Collected Letters, vol. 2, edited by Walter Hooper. Thanks again to Sørina Higgins for her excellent reading!