Human Voices Wake Us

In the first installment of The Art of the Opening Page, here is an excerpt from Neil Postman's 1985 book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business."

Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business/dp/014303653X/

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected]. I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

Readings of two passages from Franz Kafka's "The Trial": the fable known as "Before the Law," and the concluding scene, where Josef K. is executed.

The readings are taken from the recent translation of "The Trial," by Breon Mitchell: https://www.amazon.com/Trial-Translation-Restored-Schocken-Library/dp/0805209999

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected]. I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

A reading of Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage," on the last night of Meriwether Lewis's life, in October of 1809. Unlike his more famous companion, William Clark, Lewis suffered from what we today would call depression, and this passage is one of the saddest I know. Ambrose has remarked that he wept while writing it, and it was hard to keep myself from doing the same while reading it. I should note the mistake I made when introducing the passage: this scene takes place not three days, but three years, after Lewis and Clark's return, but I haven't the heart to read this aloud again. 

Buy Ambrose's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Undaunted-Courage-Meriwether-Jefferson-American/dp/0684826976

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected]. I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

A reading of six poems from the "Last Poems" of Robinson Jeffers: The poems are "Explosion," "Vulture," "''The polar ice-caps are melting, the mountain glaciers,'" "'As the eye fails through age or disease,'" "'It nearly cancels my fear of death, my dearest said,'" "'I am seventy-four years old and suddenly all my strength.'"

Buy "The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers" here: https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Poetry-Robinson-Jeffers/dp/0804741085/

All of the poems read here come from Jeffers's "Last Poems," the entirety of which is in Volume 3 of The Collected Poems of Robinson Jeffers: https://www.sup.org/books/series/?series=The%20Collected%20Poetry%20of%20Robinson%20Jeffers

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected]. I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

A reading from the poet W. S. Merwin’s memoir, “The Mays of Ventadorn,” where he recalls meeting Ezra Pound in 1949, back when Pound was already legendary and infamous, and Merwin was just starting out. 

Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0792265386/ 

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected]. I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

A reading of five poems from my (as yet unpublished) book, "School of Night." Each circle around the strange feeling of being awake and alone at night, and the creativity and paranoia that can result.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

Readings of two love poems by W. B. Yeats: the early poem, "The Song of Wandering Aengus," and one of his very last poems, "Politics." Both still break the heart, despite the vast distance in time and style between the two.

Buy the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats here: https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-William-Butler-1996-09-09/dp/B01LP2T9AS

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected]. 

I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.