BiblioFiles: A CenterForLit Podcast about Great Books, Great Ideas, and the Great Conversation

Here it is, Bradbury’s masterpiece! The Center For Lit crew is blown away by the novel’s eerie predictions of current technologies, its stern diagnosis of today’s cultural tendencies, and finally by the sheer beauty of the thing. Fahrenheit 451 emerges as far more than a defense of books; it’s an apology for humane culture that actually strikes a hopeful note. Believe it or not, we come away encouraged that all is not lost.

Well, we didn’t see that coming! In this episode, the crew discusses a lesser known story by the author of Fahrenheit 451, and we end up surprised by where it takes us. Bradbury’s presentation of a post-apocalyptic world decimated by nuclear war delivers an expected elegy for lost civilization, but stops short of condemning technology in the process. In fact, AI’s role in the story invites us to a conversation about the beauty and necessity of art.

The Center For Lit crew returns with a brand new season where we tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time: artificial intelligence. We quickly discover that the issue is not particularly new; thinkers and writers have been mulling it over for years, and we’ve got some great stories to show for their efforts.

In this episode, we discuss Isaac Asimov’s classic meditation on artificial intelligence and identify the basic questions that will guide us throughout the season. Hold on tight, it’s going to be a great ride!

Become a paid subscriber to access bonus episodes for this season, including discussions of Ready Player One, Prey, and Klara and the Sun!

You’ve heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein. You’ve heard of Bernstein and Sondheim. But have you heard of Forrester and Andrews?!

In this episode the CenterForLit crew is joined by Adam’s good friend Scott Forrester to talk about Missy’s favorite stage play: Creator.

Creator is one of many musicals on which Adam and Scott have collaborated since their heyday in the theater department at Hillsdale College. It is an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that explores what might have happened if Victor Frankenstein had given in to the Creature’s request for a bride.

Adam and Scott discuss the joys of artistic collaboration in a way that may inspire your young artists to enjoy their own dramaturgical interests no matter how large their audience!

Be sure to stay tuned until the end to listen to one of the musical numbers from Creator: “There’s a Charm on the Woods.”

CenterForLit’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

CenterForLit Director Adam Andrews explains what you can expect from the CenterForLit Podcast Network going forward.

In summary:

* The BiblioFiles archives and previous How to Eat an Elephant seasons will be available to paid Substack subscribers.

* Our free podcast will feature a slight change of format, focusing on roundtable discussions with the CenterForLit crew on wide ranging topics of literary relevance.

* Paid subscribers will have full access to all future topical seasons - including our upcoming season on AI.

* A huge thank you to everyone who has faithfully listened to and supported our shows over the last decade. We are so grateful to you for making our conversations possible!

CenterForLit’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

For our season finale we’re reflecting on how far we’ve come since Medea. We offer our final thoughts on the difference between written literature and dramatic performance, identify trends in theater history, and take a little time to be silly before we call it quits.

In this episode each member of the CenterForLit crew takes turns casting one of the plays we’ve discussed. Then we imagine hypothetical conversations between two characters we’ve met this season. Finally we reveal favorite plays that we didn’t get a chance to discuss in anticipation of talking about them in our bonus episodes for paid Substack subscribers!

⁠⁠⁠Buy the books we're discussing this season and support BiblioFiles!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

CenterForLit’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Aaron Andrews is returning to the show today to talk about Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot with the rest of the crew. We debate whether or not there is any room for hope in this strange play, and wonder about the nature of its humor and sparse structure.

Do you see any continuity between absurdism and Greek drama? Has anything about the way we think about theatre today stayed the same? What’s changed? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Learn about CenterForLit's brand new Referral Program.

⁠⁠⁠Buy the books we're discussing this season and support BiblioFiles!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

CenterForLit’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Today we're wading deep into the fog of Modernism with a discussion of Eugene O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night (1956). Ian and Megan sit down in this episode to talk about the difference between self-consciously textual plays and novels, the modernist view of the purpose of art, and the value of reading depressing entries in the Great Conversation.

Learn about CenterForLit's brand new Referral Program.

⁠⁠⁠Buy the books we're discussing this season and support BiblioFiles!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow our Substack and join the conversation.⁠⁠⁠

Today we're tackling the movement toward Realism in the theater with a discussion of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 stage play, Hedda Gabler. This one caused a stir among the CenterForLit crew members, which instigated a big, juicy conversation about Ibsen's purpose in portraying such an unlikable character in Hedda.

⁠Learn more about CenterForLit's Online Academy. ⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Buy the books we're discussing this season and support BiblioFiles!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow our Substack and join the conversation.⁠⁠

This week Ian and Emily are talking about what happened to the theater after Shakespeare. They follow the trends of comedy and tragedy, Renaissance and Reformation, Enlightenment and Puritanism. Then, as an illustration of the period's offerings, they look at Joseph Addison's influential tragedy, Cato.

Learn more about CenterForLit's Online Academy. ⁠⁠

⁠⁠Buy the books we're discussing this season and support BiblioFiles!⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow our Substack and join the conversation.⁠