The Spouter-Inn

By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris PiumaArts Books

The Spouter-Inn episodes

April 30, 2021 44b. Bonus: Oriana Schwindt on The Fellowship of the Ring.
A lot of the core texts that are referenced in The Lord of the Rings are
from an Elvish perspective, and it’s very easy to take that for granted as
the correct perspective of this world. But there are all these other people
in this world, and they have different concepts of the cosmology. Even
people who are supposed to be as closely connected as men and elves… It is
very interesting to go back and read and try and figure out who is coming
from what perspective.
Oriana Schwindt is one of those former
journalists-turned-screenwriters. She lives in Los Angeles now, but is pretty
sure it’s just a phase. She’s a co-host on Megaphonic’s own By-The-Bywater Tolkien podcast and is
considering reviving her old podcast about grift in America, called,
appropriately, American
Grift.
Show Notes.
Oriana on Twitter and
Medium.
She last joined us for our bonus episode on Reading During
Crisis at the start of the pandemic.
Her Tolkien podcast, By-The-Bywater, has
episodes about Tom Bombadil,
Ghân-buri-Ghân, and Orcs (and
racism), among other topics.
And she was recently featured on an episode of This Is Your
Mixtape.
Support The Spouter-Inn and all of Megaphonic on
Patreon.
46 min
April 20, 2021 44. The Fellowship of the Ring.
[Frodo said,] ‘I should like to save the Shire, if I could—though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.’
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s foundational high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, and it describes a group of various people—hobbits, humans, dwarves, and elves—gathering together and travelling throughout the varied landscapes of Middle-earth as they attempt a dangerous and seemingly impossible task. Chris and Suzanne ask how these varied lands and peoples interact with and reflect each other, and unpack a few exceptional moments along the way—including, as promised, the curious Tom Bombadil.
Show Notes.
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring. [Bookshop.]
Other books by Tolkien: The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion. Beowulf [translation].
By-The-Bywater, a monthly podcast about Tolkien here at Megaphonic. Check them out!
A vast (and old-school) resource for Tolkien’s invented languages.
On J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy Whitelock.
On J.R.R. Tolkien and Stuart Hall.
If our Tom Bombadil discussion isn’t enough for you, By-The-Bywater devoted a whole episode to him.
Tolkien's map of Middle-earth, and the Google map version.
John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.
Next: Attar: The Conference of the Birds. [Bookshop.] [Alternate translation.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon (thanks!).
55 min
April 05, 2021 43. Braiding Sweetgrass.
[Nanabozho] walked the land, handing out names to all he met, an
Anishinaabe Linnaeus. I like to think of the two of them walking together.
Linnaeus the Swedish botanist and zoologist, in his loden jacket and woolen
trousers, with felt hat cocked back on his forehead and a vasculum under his
arm, and Nanabozho naked but for his breechcloth and a single feather, with
a buckskin bag under his arm. They stroll along discussing the names for
things. They’re both so enthusiastic, pointing out the beautiful leaf
shapes, the incomparable flowers. Linnaeus explains his Systema Naturae, a
scheme designed to show the ways in which all things are related. Nanabozho
nods enthusiastically, “Yes, that is also our way: we say, ‘We are all
related.’” He explains that there was a time when all beings spoke the same
language and could understand one another, so all of Creation knew each
other’s names. Linnaeus looks wistful about that. “I ended up having to
translate everything into Latin,” he says of binomial nomenclature. “We lost
any other common language long ago.” Linnaeus lends Nanabozho his magnifying
glass so he can see the tiny floral parts. Nanabozho gives Linnaeus a song
so he can see their spirits. And neither of them are lonely.
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass is a collection of essays that
combine the scientific study of botany with Indigenous teachings on plants
(and humanity’s relationship to the natural world). Originally released in
2013, the book’s popularity has continued to grow. Chris and Suzanne explore
what makes this book so appealing, what the book is successful at, and also
what its limitations might be. In particular, Suzanne discusses some things
the book has inspired her to do in the year or so since she first read it.
Show Notes.
Robin Wall Kimmerer: Braiding Sweetgrass.
[Bookshop.]
Her other book, Gathering
Moss.
Our episodes on Memory Serves and
Monkey Beach.
Zoe Todd’s Twitter thread on Kimmerer’s
books.
Our episodes on Exile and Pride and
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.
Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton, eds.: Shapes of Native
Nonfiction.
Speaking of urban Indigenous thought, here’s an upcoming essay collection
called Indigenous Toronto.
[Book launch.]
Tom Porter: And Grandma Said...: Iroquois Teachings: as passed down through
the oral tradition.
Amanda Earl, ed.: Judith: Women Making Visual
Poetry.
Dionne Brand: A Map to the Door of No
Return.
Tove Jansson; Letters from Tove.
Next: J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
(Thanks!)
1 hr
March 24, 202142b. Bonus: Nahir Otaño Gracia on Laxdæla Saga.
Pirates were the reason why Puerto Ricans survived and thrived under a harsh
colonial Spanish rule, because without pirates, people would have starved.
And so pirates were an important economic movement. They were necessary. And
I understand Vikings also the same way. Vikings were, in many ways,
necessary for the movement of the economy. They did so many so many
important things because of their movement and travel. And so the more I
understand them through that Caribbean lens, I feel like it gives me a
different access to them.
Nahir I. Otaño Gracia is an
Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. Thanks to a
Mellon Fellowship, she is currently a member at the Institute for Advanced
Study at Princeton, NJ. Her theoretical frameworks include translation theory
and practice, the global North Atlantic (Britain, Iberia, and Scandinavia),
and critical identity studies. Her current projects include a monograph
entitled The Other Faces of Arthur: Medieval Arthurian Texts from the Global
North Atlantic, and a co-edited volume entitled Women's Lives: Self-Representation, Reception, and Appropriation in the Middle Ages, which will be
coming out early next year.
Nahir joins Chris and Suzanne to talk about women’s agency in Laxdæla Saga,
about what reading the sagas in multiple languages and from a Puerto Rican
perspective reveals about them, and about some other Icelandic sagas that
translate the Arthurian legends.
Show Notes.
Nahir Otaño Gracia’s website.
Jorge Luis Borges: Literatures germánicas
medievales [Ancient Germanic
Literatures].
Gabriel García Márquez: Cien años de soledad [One
Hundred Years of Solitude].
Three volumes of English translations of the Arthurian sagas have been
published with Marianne Kalinke as editor: The Tristan
Legend; The Knights of the Round
Table; and Hærra Ivan.
Some essays by Nahir that are well worth your time:
On Hidden Scars and the Passive Voice
Movements of Exclusion: On Constructing Borders and Building Anxiety
Teaching Race: Preparing Students and Creating a Safe Environment
Support The Spouter-Inn and all of the
Megaphonic podcasts over on Patreon! (Thank you!)
38 min
March 15, 2021 42. Laxdæla Saga.
Olaf approached the cross-bench and took a seat beside her. Thorgerd greeted
him and asked who he was.
Olaf told her his own name and his father’s, and added, ‘You must think it
bold of a slave-girl’s son to dare to sit down beside you and strike up a
conversation with you.’
Thorgerd replied, ‘You must think you’ve done more dangerous things in your
life than talk to women.’
Laxdæla Saga — also known as The Saga of the People of Laxárdalr — is one
of the sagas of the Icelanders. These stories, based on historical events
around the early settlement of Iceland beginning in the ninth century, have an
intriguing mix of dry affect and deeply moving and mysterious material.
Laxdæla Saga is one of the most intriguing, telling the story of a love
triangle between Guðrún, Kjartan, and Bolli and of the violence that it
caused. But, like many of the sagas, it explores this topic with a wide lens,
looking at the events of generations prior that lead to this situation, and
how it affects the families and community for generations after the violence
finally ceases.
Show Notes.
The translation we use can be found in The Sagas of the
Icelanders.
[Bookshop.]
An older, out-of-copyright
translation.
Our episodes on the Mahabharata and on
Vanity Fair.
The Iceland Saga Map project.
Jane Smiley on the Laxdæala
Saga.
Tom Porter: And Grandma Said...: Iroquois Teachings: as passed down through
the oral tradition.
Susan Orlean: The Library Book.
Next: Robin Wall Kimmerer: Braiding Sweetgrass.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon, along
with all of Megaphonic's fine shows.
52 min
February 08, 2021 41. Exile and Pride.
Gender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains
against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race …
everything finally piling into a single human body. To write about any
aspect of identity, any aspect of the body, means writing about this entire
maze. This I know, and yet the question remains: where to start?
We start off the year (a bit late) by reading a book that pushes us in some
new directions. Eli Clare’s Exile and Pride is half memoir, half analysis
of the intersections of queerness, disability, gender, race, and the
environment. Chris and Suzanne explore its many devotions: to lists, to
intersectionality, and especially to the desire to never let things be simple,
but always striving to consider the world in its full complexity.
Show Notes.
Eli Clare: Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and
Liberation.
[Bookshop.]
Other books by Eli Clare: Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with
Cure; The Marrow’s Telling: Words in
Motion.
Thomas Browne: Religio Medici.
An in-depth interview with Clare from
2009.
And a recently online talk given by
Clare.
Next: Laxdæla Saga.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
52 min
January 14, 2021 40. The Boys in the Band.
HAROLD. (Coolly.) Are you now? Are you warning me? Me? I’m Harold.
I’m the one person you don’t warn, Michael. Because you and I are a match.
And we tread very softly with each other because we both play each other’s
game too well. Oh, I know this game you’re playing. I know it very well. And
I play it very well. You play it very well too. But you know what? I’m the
only one that’s better at it than you are. I can beat you at it. So don’t
push me. I’m warning you.
Suzanne and Chris end 2020 (a little late) by reading something from one of
the many notable authors we lost—in this case, Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking
play about gay men, The Boys in the Band. The
play was first produced in 1968, the year before the Stonewall riots; and a
film was made in 1970. For the play’s 50th anniversary, the play was
remounted, and then in 2020 a new film adaptation was made by Netflix. But
what does it mean to read or produce The Boys in the Band in 2020? Is it a
historical artifact—something you turn to in order to understand what life was
like for some people in a particular place and time—or does it offer fresh
pleasures and insights? Is this play being canonized, and if so, how?
Show Notes.
Mart Crowley: The Boys in the Band.
[Bookshop.]
The Boys in the Band (1970)
(trailer) and The Boys in the
Band (2020)
(trailer).
LitHub’s list of notable literary deaths in
2020.
Some interviews with
Mart
Crowley.
Next: Eli Clare: Exlie and Pride.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
55 min
January 02, 2021 39. The Metaphysical Poets.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Chris and Suzanne wrap up their cluster on
Sex by looking at some
Metaphysical Poets —namely, Andrew Marvell and John Donne. How and why do
they use philosophical ideas and argumentation in their poetry? What is going
on, formally and structurally? And is it erotic, and if so… where do the
erotic interests lie? Women? Nature? God? The poets themselves?
Show Notes.
The selection of poems we
looked at. [PDF]
An anthology of Metaphysical poetry.
[Bookshop.]
More poems by Marvell
and Donne.
A review of a recent biography of Andrew
Marvell [Nigel Smith: Andrew Marvell: The
Chameleon].
A recent acquisition of a manuscript of Donne poems that circulated through
his coterie.
Next: Mart Crowley: The Boys in the Band.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon. [Thank
you!]
59 min
December 22, 2020 38b. Bonus: Luther Obrock on the Mahabharata.
The very first word of the Bhagavad Gita is, of course, dharma. And I find
that rather beautiful, how this is set up, and that we’re automatically
embedded within a story, within a telling. So we have this theophany that’s
absolutely beautiful that itself is already being part of a story that’s
being told through us. I find that rather beautiful.
Luther Obrock is assistant
professor in the department of Historical Studies and the Department for the
Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. His area of research focuses
on Sanskrit poetry in the second millennium, specifically on the literary and
cultural place of Sanskrit in the Sultanate period — that is during the first
centuries of Muslim rule in South Asia. He is also an avid reader of the
Mahabharata since his undergraduate days.
He joins Chris and Suzanne to provide them with a bit more context on the
Mahabharata, to read a few lines of the original Sanskrit, and to share some
of his favourite stories and passages.
Show Notes.
Our main episode on the Mahabharata.
Our episodes on the Iliad and the
Symposium.
Luther’s article (which we also posted with our main article), “Mahabharata
Brahmins, Kings, and the South Asian Social
World”.
James L. Fitzgerald on the
Mahabharata.
A.K. Ramanujan: “Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal
Essay”. [You,
uh, may be able to google a non-paywalled copy.]
The Razmnama.
Andha Yug [The Blind Age].
Niyoga.
Shloka metre.
Kavya.
If you want more, check out the Mahabharata
podcast!
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
41 min
December 21, 2020 38. Mahabharata.
“Have a hundred jars filled up with ghee.
Now, sprinkle the flesh with water.” Instantly,
The hideous ball split into a hundred pieces —
Embryos, the size of a finger joint —
And one extra. Vyasa took each one,
Placed it in a jar, and left instructions
About the tending of the embryos,
And when the vessels should be broken open.
…
More months of waiting. In the room of jars,
A dozen nurses tended the embryos
That slowly grew inside the glowing vessels.
One day, Gandhari woke to a loud commotion.
The first baby had been born from his jar
And was brought to her. Her hands encountered
A large, muscular infant, her first-born son.
The Mahabharata is an enormous Sanskrit epic of ancient India. It tells of
a great war between two sides of a family, and of how the various participants
in the war struggle to follow dharma—that is, roughly, how to do what they are
meant to do in life. Suzanne and Chris focus on two sections in particular:
Book 1, which tells of origins and complicated genealogy of the Bharatas, and
Book 6, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, a prolonged conversation that takes
place on the precipice of battle. Although they are only able to scratch the
surface on this remarkable collection of tales, they are enthusiastic about
what they’ve discovered so far.
Show Notes.
The Mahabharata, trans. Carole Satyamurti.
[Bookshop.]
William Buck’s translation.
Our episode on the Iliad.
J. Robert Oppenheimer on the
Mahabharata.
Luther Obrock’s article “Mahabharata Brahmins, Kings, and the South Asian
Social
World”
provides a helpful overview.
This overview of the Mahabharata family
tree might also be helpful for
newcomers.
A bonus episode with someone more familiar with the Mahabharata is coming
soon!
Next time: Poetry by Andrew Marvell and John
Donne. [PDF]
If you’re enjoying the show and you’re able to, please considersupporting the
Spouter-Inn on Patreon
In memoriam Bobby Akbari, beloved research assistant [on the right]
57 min

About The Spouter-Inn

From the publisher's feed

Chris (a poet) and Suzanne (a professor) spent six years talking about “great books” (whatever that means), and are now talking about reading (and all the things that means).