The Bookening

This episode is a second episode about Martin Dressler. Things that happen include:

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IT'S WHAT EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR THE WHOLE YEAR, OUR DISCUSSION OF MARTIN DRESSLER BY STEVEN MILLHAUSER, WAHOOOOOOO!!!! That's right, our heroes are talking Steven Millhauser, that poet of the uncanny creeping at the edges of the mundane (he' s not actually a poet). This is one of Nathan's favorite books we read this year ... BUT SHOULD IT BE???????? Over the next couple weeks, our heroes intend to find out.

Our heroes are awesome (00:00)

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Our heroes and friend Andrew conclude their epic discussion of the one and only Ray Bradbury

In this episode our heroes discuss the short stories of Ray Bradbury with their pal Andrew Henry. Andrew has 10890591805098 good insights on Ray Bradbury (example: Bradbury was really good at describing smells) and 150815180 good insights on fiction and writing in general. So, if you do the math, what that means is: whether you like Ray Bradbury or don't like Ray Bradbury, this is a good episode for you to listen to. Actually our heroes talk directly to a listener who isn't a huge Bradbury fan, so even if you don't like Bradbury, this one's for you. So stop reading this and listen to it.

Things that happen in this episode: Halloween puns! (00:00) The depiction of EVIL (06:00). Daddy issues. (28:00).

Fun fact: per some random article by the Imaginative Conservative, SWTWC touches on the following (from a list of the 102 Great Ideas that Mortimer Adler says a great novel can touch upon): Beauty, Being, Cause, Chance, Change, Citizen, Courage, Custom and Convention, Desire, Duty, Emotion, Eternity, Evolution, Experience, Family, Fate, God, Good and Evil, Habit, Happiness, Honor, Immortality, Judgment, Knowledge, Law, Life and Death, Love, Man, Memory and Imagination, Mind, Nature, Opinion, Opposition, Philosophy, Pleasure and Pain, Prudence, Punishment, Reasoning, Relation, Religion, Senses, Sign and Symbol, Sin, Soul, Temperance, Theology, Time, Truth, Virtue and Vice, Will, Wisdom, and World.

Eat your heart our, Marilynne Robinson!

In this episode our heroes have an extended discussion of Ray Bradbury's style in Something Wicked This Way Comes. It's archaic, it's overwrought, it's hyperbolic ... AND THEY LOVE IT! (See what we did there?????) That part begins at 17:53, Time-Code Fans! Before that, our heroes discuss their (in Nathan's case, copious) Bradbury baggage, beginning at 6:00. Before that, there are various shenanigans, screaming, a children's poem about mauling people, etc., you know how this show works.

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Our fear-oes begin their extra spooky Halloween series on Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Brandon Chast-fiend offers some much needed context on Bradbury's life (7:52), even including a die-scription of the "slush" pile from which short stories were selected by magazines like the New Gore-ker in those days (17:45). Our heroes admit to mixed feeling about Scare-en-heit 451 (20:00), discuss whether Bradbury was really a die-ence fiction writer (24:15). Chast-fiend gives us a run-down on said genre (33:15). Nathan gives us a run-down on the pulps and horror at the time. (40:45). Meanwhile Jake Mentzkiller keeps threatening to lie down on the floor and go to sleep if a certain other fear-o won't stop it with the Halloween puns.

Our heroes continue to discuss GK Chesterton, including what makes him great (2:40), the famous quote he never said (13:00), and why nobody should try to rip off his style (14:00). This expands into a discussion of style and creativity in general, but, as usual, our heroes bring it all home with aplomb. Also just for kicks they play an audio clip of Chesterton (48:18).

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Our heroes express their love for the Prince of Paradox himself, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, while also tackling some thorny questions such as whether Chesterton was a racist (pretty much) and if his fiction is any good (not according to at least one grouchy podcaster).

Next week more Chesterton and then Something Wicked This Way Comes.

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Sometimes a man sets out to write a good episode description for an episode of The Bookening about My Antonia and he just doesn't have it in him. Not that it's a bad episode or a bad book, mind you. But sometimes even the best podcast episodes about the best books don't really inspire one to write a good podcast blurb. Life is weird like that. Deal with it.

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