Literate Sleep

Tonight I’ll read an excerpt from Edmund White’s recently published The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir. Edmund is a close friend of mine, and my favorite page in this book is the dedication page, which reads: To Rick Whitaker. Be advised that you will hear some vivid descriptions of gay sex, so if you wish not to fall asleep with such stuff in your head, you might want to skip this episode. Most of my friends will undoubtedly listen to it repeatedly. But if you’re OK with gay sex, I invite you to close your eyes, calm yourself down, relax completely, and let yourself be taken away, while I read to you, for a peaceful night of rejuvenating, healthy, deep sleep. I’ll read from The Loves of My Life for about half an hour. By the time I’ve finished, I expect you’ll be either wide awake and ordering a copy of the book, or sound asleep: Literate sleep.  

This podcast is intended to help you fall asleep. Do not listen to it while driving. It’s best to listen while lying in bed, as comfortable as you can get, and without the likelihood of being interrupted until it’s time to wake up. 

I’m Rick Whitaker, and this is Literate Sleep, where I read from literary texts that I hope you will enjoy hearing without being concerned about their endings. 

Tonight’s reading is devoted to my own selection of poems by Emily Dickinson, one of the major American poets. I invite you to close your eyes, calm yourself down, relax completely, and let yourself be taken away, while I read to you, for a peaceful night of rejuvenating, healthy, deep sleep. I’ll read Dickinson’s poems for about 45 minutes. By the time I’ve finished I expect you’ll be sound asleep: Literate sleep. 

Tonight’s reading is devoted to the great comic writer Samuel Beckett, who was born April 13, 1906. I’ll read three of his short stories, starting with the longest of them, a story called “Enough.” Now I invite you to close your eyes, calm yourself down, relax completely, and let yourself be taken away while I read to you for a peaceful night of rejuvenating, healthy, deep sleep. After reading the three stories, I’ll read a biographical note about Samuel Beckett. But I expect you’ll be sound asleep by then. Literate sleep.  

Tonight’s reading is devoted to the American poet Maya Angelou (1928-2014). First I’ll read a selection of her poems, then an interview she gave in 2013. After reading the interview, I’ll read a biographical note about Dr. Angelou. But I expect you’ll be sound asleep by then. Literate sleep.  

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This podcast is intended to help you fall asleep. Do not listen to it while driving. It’s best to listen while lying in bed, as comfortable as you can get, and without the likelihood of being interrupted until it’s time to wake up.

This is the first episode of Literate Sleep. I’ll read from literary texts that I hope you will enjoy hearing without being concerned about their endings. These are not cliffhangers. There is no promise of climax, epiphany, or resolution. But they’re music to my ears and, I hope, to yours. To hear a page of James Joyce’s famously unreadable novel Finnegans Wake while drifting off to sleep is, for me, nocturnal heaven. Among the other writers I have in mind for Literate Sleep are, for instance, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Richard Howard, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ronald Firbank, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Marcel Proust, William James, Walter Pater, Edith Hamilton, David Markson, Thomas Lynch, and so on. As a reader with a severe allergy to boredom, I will always strive to put you to sleep with texts that will not bore you. But they will lull you, pacify you, and induce you to sweet dreams. So settle in, close your eyes, calm yourself down, relax completely, and let yourself be taken away while I read to you for a peaceful night of healthy, restorative sleep.

I begin with a 1913 story by the Swiss writer Robert Walser. Born April 15 (coincidentally, also my birthday), 1878, Walser was a dropout from school at 14. He wandered around Europe precariously, his mental health always spotty, but at the same time, he produced essays, stories, and novels now considered classics of modern European literature. In his 50s he retired to a sanatorium where, he said, he went “not to write, but to be mad.” His story "Kleist in Thun" (1913), read here in its entirety, is set in the pretty Swiss lakeside resort town of Thun and features the German poet Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), known as one of the pre-eminent Romantic, demonic geniuses. He committed suicide at the age of 34. The episode concludes with a brief excerpt from Finnegans Wake by Walser's contemporary James Joyce. But I expect you’ll be sound asleep by then. Literate sleep.  

--Rick Whitaker