There's strong evidence that this episode is Peak Silly for this Daddy-Daughter team. Blame it on fatigue, blame it on my voice acting struggles-- The Cook gets 3 female voices before I realize the character's male-- blame it on a rambunctiously grumpy daughter who picks fights with pillows. All of the above honestly makes this episode one of my favorites.

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The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

Lydia felt very sick while we were recording this one. She was almost inaudible for a lot of it, finally prompting me to play with the "Amplify" effect in Audacity. There's a learning curve, but I think the podcast as a whole's going to be improved as a result.

This was months ago. The Lyd's feeling just fine now. :-)

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The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

Lydia was pukey-sick for this episode, and I think my delivery reflects some of the stress I was feeling. Sorry about that. Lydia delivers an amazing impersonation of What If World's former president, J.F. Cat, though!

This short chapter contains a surprisingly progressive argument in favor of Believing Children. I like it quite a lot. Irene has the advantage of being a Princess, of course, which works out in her favor. Lydia and I are currently reading Roald Dahl's Matilda, which is great, but the combination makes me feel sad for all the children who don't have genius or power working in their favor in bad situations.

We all love our kids. Sometimes they're exasperating, but so are we. Let's be kind to smaller people.

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The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

Hey! Back to our regularly scheduled postings this week! We recorded this back on Saint Patrick's Day, giving you a pretty good idea of how long it was before I actually started posting vs when we started recording.

Another chapter where MacDonald has some long discussions about faith and moves the plot forward at the end as an afterthought. While I really enjoyed the previous chapter's writing, even as a Christian I think MacDonald's pro-faith argument here is disingenuous. It seems very character based, and if 2019's taught me anything, it's that people are terrible judges of character. Of course, on the pro-side Irene's appearance in the mines was basically a miracle. Curdie should be prepared to believe some extraordinary stuff from that weird little girl.

Lydia surprised me with a shout-out to What If World this week. Mister Eric's work is fabulous and it's well-deserved.

Leave us a message if you're having fun.

The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

Not only do we get another Lydia stuffie-- Hershey-- joining us this episode, we also get some of MacDonald's best writing. Here are a few quotes:

"Seeing is not believing. It is only seeing."

"It would be at least as bad to not believe him as it was for him not to believe her."

"We are all anxious to be understood... but there is one other thing necessary. To understand other people."

"It faded like poetry in a dream..."

As a somewhat skeptical dude-of-faith, I kinda love all of the above. It's very relevant to America, 2019.

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The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

There's a lot to unpack in this extra long episode, what with Lydia surprising me with Mister Crocodile and some fairly deep discussions. This is McDonald's hardest stance on faith yet, with Irene being the person who believes, and Curdie playing the rationalist. I'm happy that he seems sympathetic to both positions, at the very least.

Leave us a message if you're having fun: https://anchor.fm/matthew-z-wood2/message

The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

We switch back to the Princess Irene's perspective, and her magic ring gets her into subterranean trouble in this episode. Irene's very young, so it's not surprising she's frightened past the point of tears. Even so, she's also a hero, as we'll soon see.

Lydia couldn't stop stirring her Sleepytime tea in this episode. Sorry about the clinks, y'all. I like that she had so many questions-- it's good to have a young listener right in the room with me.

Leave us a message if you're having fun: https://anchor.fm/matthew-z-wood2/message

The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

Curdie remains in the Goblin royal family's trap and we get a good idea of how nasty they can be in this chapter. Parental advisory: intimations of cannibalism and use of the pejorative "Harelip" continue in this chapter. Also, my singing is hilariously bad this time. McDonald intentionally makes some of Curdie's improvised rhymes forced, and more power to him, but it makes it hard to keep up sometimes.

Dang, I love how Lydia doesn't want me to do any introductions. She's got this, y'all!

The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

I think 'clue' is a mining term mentioned earlier in the book. Or maybe I'm thinking of 'gang?' Anyway, Curdie digs deep and strikes a rich vein of goblin in this chapter! Also, caveat emptor! Lots more terrible singing and perhaps the worst goblin accents ever are featured in this chapter!

This chapter contains my first and hopefully only disclaimer. MacDonald introduces the goblin prince in this chapter, and names him Harelip. It's an insulting name for people with cleft palates. I think it's supposed to be funny, but it's a nasty move. For the benefit of younger listeners I'm emphasizing that it's wrong to make fun of people for the way they look or sound. This isn't a Christian podcast per se, but MacDonald was a Christian writer. The hypocrisy stings more as a result.

The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.

Another short chapter, re-introducing Irene's King-Poppa and finally discussing the whereabouts of the Princess' mother.

Also, if you've ever wondered which one is the daddy and which is the daughter, Miss Sassy Pants Lydia turns up and can answer a lot of questions in the this vein! Bon appetit!

The sources for our text are the cyber-scribes at gutenberg.org;   Our theme song is Jimbo’s Lullaby by Claude Debussy performed by the Riverside Wind Consort via musopen.org. Pleasant dreams.