The Bookening

Monsters, mothers, dragons, oh my!

Our heroes plunge boldly into the poem that have been the inspiration for every video game ever made, what with the multiple levels (Heorot Hall, The Haunted Marsh, etc), each one ending in a big monster fight. 

They (spoiler) love the Seamus Heanny version, but find themselves in the unenviable position of doing bloody (but respectful, we hope) battle with the Douglas Wilson version.

It's get-down-to-brass-tax time. What is the deal with the crummy last 19515905890 chapters of_ Huck Finn_? Why does the last section go on so long? Why is Tom allowed to be such a brat? Why doesn't Jim have any self-respect at all? Why doesn't Huck, for that reason? What happened to Huck's big epiphany? Where's the big point about racism or southern society or whatever? 

What the heck was Mark Twain thinking? 

_I have written 400 pages on it—therefore it is very nearly half done. It is Huck Finn's Autobiography. I like it only tolerably well, as far as I have got, & may possibly ... burn the MS when it is done—_Mark Twain in a letter to William Dean Howells

In part 2 of our series on Huckleberry Finn, our heroes begin a journey down the river with Huck. But first they have no other choice but to address the controversy surrounding the novel. So the address the controversy surrounding the novel. Then they discuss the novel. They say wise/smart/entertaining things about it.

Etc.

It is with heavy hearts that our heroes reconvene to discuss Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. What was once the glorious trio of Nathan, Jake, and Brandon is now the sad, pathetic, useless duo of just Nathan and Brandon. 
For alas, Jake lies moldering in the ground, shot by a stray bullet from Brandon's gun.
Without Jake's heart, without Jake's wit, without Jake's wisdom, how will our remaining heroes discuss one of the liveliest, funniest, saddest, all-around-greatest American novels this side of the Mississippi?  
Listen on to find out ...
Next month, Francis Bacon's Macbeth. 

Yes, it's part two of our testosterone-soaked series on For Whom the Bell Tolls, this time with 100% more rants about sex! Also rants about discernment, rants about Old People, rants about Kids Today—this episode is just full of rants. 
But how could it not be, given that our wise and noble heroes begin the episode by talking about Maria, certainly the most problematic character they've encountered in their literary ramblings thus far. Is she a symbol of Spain, or a vehicle for the romance of the moment, or just a lazy misogynist wish-fulfillment character? Or D) all of the above? 
Our heroes must deal with all of that and more. And then they have to deal with the fact that this book contains, like, sex scenes and stuff. Should they have read this book? Should you have read this book? Should anybody read any books? What's a Christian to do??!?!?!?

In 1941, the Pulitzer Board convened to decide what work they were going to honor with their prestigious prize for fiction—and it didn’t take long for the entire group to come to an enthusiastic decision for Ernest Hemingway’s bestseller _For Whom The Bell Tolls. _

But by the time the meeting came to its bitter end, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction was going to … nobody. What happened?

Apparently, Nicholas Murray Butler happened. He was the President of Columbia University (which administers the Pulitzer) and he was NOT okay with the prize going to an “offensive and lascivious book” like FWTBT. How dare the committee even think about sullying the University’s name by associating it with Hemingway’s book?

It ended in deadlock and defeat, no Pulitzer for any writer of fiction that year, and none for Papa Hemingway until _The Old Man and the Sea _in 1953.

The real question this raises is whether there is a Pulitzer Prize for Podcasting. And if there is, when will our heroes of The Bookening win it? Will it be for this—their brave foray into Ernest Hemingway’s _For Whom The Bell Tolls? _Is the book an offensive, lascivious piece of macho garbage? Or a sweeping meditation of death and sacrifice? Just who exactly does the bell toll for, and why don’t they answer?

Never fear, our heroes are on hand to ponder these very questions in the most macho way possible—Rugged, Red-Blooded Jake Mentzel, Brawny Brandon Chasteen, and Exceedingly Masculine Nathan Alberson.

Could this be the manliest episode of The Bookening yet??????????!?!?

The Pelican huh?

War and what? 

The Immortal who of Stratford upon what?

This is part 2, the nerdier part, of our series wherein our heroes recount their Top Five Childhood Books. Except really we're coming out of childhood now, as we finish our discussion of the books that played a formative part in molding and shaping our heroes. 

Yeah. Not much more to say about it then that. Listen to it if you like things that are awesome.

The Little House stories ...

Narnia ...

Goosebumps?!?! 

What do these three things have to do with each other?

Well, they are clearly all series of books. That's for sure.

Also, they are all books that may or may not appear on Nathan, Jake, or Brandon's respective lists of their Top Five Favorite Books from Childhood.

That's right, our heroes are taking us on an autobiographical journey through their own pasts, revealing the stories and books that molded them into the upstanding gentlemen the are today.

You'll find out which story horrified Young Nathan so badly that he spent the next many years of his life trying to recreate the experience. You'll meet young Jake the Jock (Undercover Nerd-in-Training).  And you'll be introduced to Young Brandon, a nerd who was ... not so undercover.

Whether you were a public school kid who got to order Boxcar Children Books from the Scholastic catalog, or a home-schooled dork who had to stick with the Cooper Kids or Trailblazers, this episode is sure to evoke some warm memories, and maybe suggest a few books to read with your own children. 

And maybe a few to avoid. 

In this thrill-a-minute episode of The Bookening, our heroes wipe the East-of-Eden tears from their eyes,_ _and plunge into the murky depths Rudyard Kipling's  The Jungle Book.

Initially, they can't think of all that much to say about it, which leads Nathan to introduce a dangerous piece of podcasting contraband into the proceedings. When said device proves to be more dangerous than they could possibly imagine, our heroes must use all their wits to properly comprehend Kipling ... OR BE DESTROYED IN THE PROCESS!

Will Nathan, Jake, and Brandon live to read another tale??!??!?!

“Mr. Steinbeck has written the precise equivalent of those nineteenth century melodramas in which the villains could always be recognized because they waxed their mustaches …” —Anthony West in a _New Yorker _review of East of Eden entitled “California Moonshine.”

From it’s publication in 1952, John Steinbeck’s _East of Eden _has always been more of a popular than a critical favorite. As another great twentieth century author (Raymond Chandler) wrote, “The average critic never recognizes an achievement when it happens. He explains it after it has become respectable.”

There are parts of _East of Eden _(the characters of Lee and Cathy, some of Steinbeck’s prose styling) that may never be respectable. It’s one of those books that’s too much of a potboiler for certain members of the (ahem) Critical Intelligentsia, and too much like Literature for certain blockheads who only read potboilers.

Not that any of this matters to the heroes of The Bookening.

They love it all_ _unabashedly. Read it and you will too.

In the final part of their series on John Steinbeck’s _East of Eden, _our heroes wax elegant on Adam Trask and his sons, crush on Abra, love on Lee, and try to understand the mystery that is Cathy. Do they succeed in saying everything they have to say about this awesome book? They mayest.

Timshel, Bro.