Island Idylls

Can you know Truth, with a capital T? Is uncertainty a necessary condition of our existence? After studying the canon of Robert Louis Stevenson, Barry argues the famous writer would have said “no” to the first question and “yes” to the second.

Good writing is not escapism, it’s engagement with life’s deepest questions.

But how do we know Stevenson is right? And can we privilege his materialistic worldview over and against, say, the theistic worldview of the Shema? “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might?” This is one of the “small” questions tackled in this episode!

Episode 26 dives into the history of the short story, the role Robert Louis Stevenson played, and how modernism changed how so many people read and understand life.

Heads up, in episode 27 we’ll be talking about Truman Capote and his short story, “A Christmas Memory.”

It’s chilly outside so why not warm up to a brand new season of Island Idylls! If you’re new to the podcast, Barry is a retired English professor with a Jewish background and agnostic faith. He calls Hawaii home. Aaron, his son, is an evangelical pastor who live in Atlanta. The two share a love for reading which is what this podcast is all about.

Season two of Island Idylls ends with a bang: one of history’s greatest novels, Anna Karenina. It has everything: marriage, adultery, tragedy, and an anguished search for the meaning of life.

Barry and Aaron debate everything from the reality of Anna’s choices to the significance of Levin’s leap of faith. What is religion? What is happiness? Why does any of it matter? Good literature is a launching pad to good conversations and Anna Karenina does not disappoint.

Famous especially for two grand novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy is an author with which every serious reader must reckon.

In their latest podcast, Barry and Aaron introduce you to this giant of Russian literature. What made his writing great? Why has he endured the test of time? What did he want his art to do?

That last question may be the most interesting. Should a piece of literature mature your understanding or should it seek to fundamentally change who you are and how you live?

As America is embroiled in conversations about race, we go back in time to discuss two twentieth-century writers, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin. These aren’t the first to describe the black experience in the United States, but these artists have opened many people’s eyes to some of the indignities faced by African-Americans over the years.

Barry and Aaron discuss Ellison’s Invisible Man, the significance of Baldwin, the influence of Richard Wright, and how these books inform our understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement today.

One of America’s greatest authors is Edith Wharton, the first female-winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Barry and Aaron discuss her life and one of her most famous books, Ethan Frome.

Please, please, please: read this book (it’s barely 100 pages!) before you listen to this episode. Really, we mean it. You’ll thank us. Trust us.

When you are ready, listen to this episode and listen in as Barry and Aaron discuss whether we should agree with naturalist writers like Wharton--that we at the whim of an uncaring universe or whether we have the ability to pursue moral decisions that can change our circumstances.

It’s an important and engaging conversation. Enjoy!

Barry and Aaron pick up a conversation they began in Episode 11 on what makes good writing. In that episode, they hung around 30,000 feet. In this episode, they drop down to a lower level and work through some basic tips to good writing.

Writing isn’t for everybody, that’s for sure! Nonetheless, those who want to write better will be helped by a little instruction.

Do you have a second to talk about the meaning of life?

Albert Camus did. His last book, The Fall, gets to the heart of it.

This Nobel prize winning author lost his dad to WWI, grew up in Algeria, worked with the resistance in WWII France, and wrote most of his works in the shadow of the Holocaust.

Why are we here? What is life all about? If life doesn’t have meaning, should we just give it all up, buy a Winnebago, and roam North America listening to Bob Dylan CDs? Dylan said the answer is blowin’ in the wind. Camus might have agreed, but he put it differently, the answer is within you.

Camus died in a car accident at the young age of 47. In the midst of a global pandemic, Barry and Aaron take a few minutes to talk and debate the question of life’s ultimate meaning.

In this episode, Aaron and Barry trade seats as Barry interviews his son about his new book, Character Matters: Shepherding in the Fruit of the Spirit.

Barry is a Jewish, agnostic, literature professor. Aaron is an evangelical, Baptist, pastor. Let’s just say Barry isn’t the target for Aaron’s book about how Christians can grow to be more like Christ!

The questions in this episode touch on everything from Aaron’s venture into ministry, the definition of godliness, whether non-Christians can be sanctified, and what Calvinism might have to do with any of this.

It’s a fascinating conversation between a father and son who disagree in love. Listen in.

You have it all: a beautiful wife and two healthy children. Your friends adore you, your colleagues respect you, and you never, ever have to worry about money. You have everything.

Unfortunately, under the surface, life is very different. Your wife is deeply, deeply troubled. Your children are unusually detached. Your friends regularly give you terrible counsel. Your job security depends on your wife’s family wealth.

Welcome to what may be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best book, Tender is the Night. He published it in 1934 after he’d experienced both great success and surprising failure. These are the words of a man chastened by the world.

In this episode of Island Idylls, Barry and Aaron are back at it, discussing the life of the rich, the difficulties of marriage, and the sad reality that happiness is never found easily.