Structured Rambling

In films and novels, writers often write the hero as someone like themselves. In this Rambling episode, Paul looks at a few writers who are heroes. Sometimes they're the Hemingway type--an action hero with a typewriter, but usually they're just a regular person caught up in events. 

Viking Stuff! (well, Anglo-Saxon stuff)

The starting place of English literature. An epic poem difficult to translate and even harder to adapt.

Paul Talks Beowulf. The poem, it's themes, its characters and monsters, its influence. As well, Paul discusses some noteworthy (not always good!) film and novel versions. 

Donaldson, E. Talbot. Beowulf: A New Prose Translation. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1966.

Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

Tolkien, J.R.R. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary. London, Harper Collins, 2014.

Paul freakin' finished War and Peace!

(It's a happy coincidence that this episode is being released on MLK Jr. Day in the US!)

To Kill a Mockingbird is Harper Lee's 1960 masterpiece and has remained noteworthy and controversial for its entire history. It's never been out of print, is taught in schools across North America, and in Paul's opinion is one of the books everyone must read.

Its heroes and villains are simple to see and understand, its themes clear. And yet, because it is told from the point of view of Scout Finch, a young girl, there is still so much that is unexplained and implied.

In this episode, Paul looks at how the motif of light in darkness is used in several key scenes and in relation to some of the key characters, including Scout, Atticus, Jem, and of course Boo Radley.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central, 1982.  

Paul talks about some of his favourite reads of the past year, as well as some of the most significant albums he heard. 

A walk through a troubling year with a back and forth between books and music.

You can view the full Booklist here:

 https://vikingpaul.blogspot.com/2021/01/booklist-2020.html

Paul discusses four (+ 1 bonus) of the most successful pure science fiction films of the past decade and what each of them sprang from and means.

Gravity by Alfonso Cuaron
Interstellar by Chirstopher Nolan
Arrival by Denis Villeneuve
Ad Astra by James Gray
(and special bonus The Midnight Sky by George Clooney)

In John Steinbeck's Great Depression novel Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4 is dedicated to the interaction of four marginalized characters: a man-child with superhuman strength, an old man with one hand, a black man with a crooked spine, and a woman in an unhappy marriage. This episode is a microcosm of the book's overall themes. 

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin, 1993. 

Not exactly as ambitious as it sounds, but Paul talks about the importance of the bible generally as a text, and how it's often hard for non-believers to get around the whole matter of faith thing. Discussion about the contradictory interpretation of both Testaments together occurs as well. 

The inspiration for this comes in the form of a reference Paul makes to the book The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, recommended by Paul's good friend Carley. Thanks Carley.

Jacobs, A.J. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007

In honour of Remembrance Day, Paul looks at some of the philosophical passages in the great World War 1 novel All Quiet on the Western Front by  Remarque.

Remarque, Erich Marie. All Quiet on the Western Front. Toronto: Balantine Books, 1982

"In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, read by Leonard Cohen. Courtesy Legion Magazine's YouTube channel. 

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is a great book and a nerd's delight, but the first two books of it--which comprise Fellowship--really are a sequel that shouldn't have worked. A short children's fantasy gets followed by a thousand pages that essentially retcons your memories and makes them something else.

As a sequel to The Hobbit, Fellowship is a mess. Fortunately, it was so much more than just a sequel. 

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. London: Harper Collins. 2010.