Here we go! Episode zero of our new podcast, The History of Literature, right here on jackewilson.com. Let me know what you think!
Introducing the wildly unqualified host, Jacke Wilson.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:24 — 10.6MB)
I do love printed literature, but I love that my ipad can hold such a large library. My bible is even on the ipad. Literature may be transmitted differently, but it will continue in popularity.
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Hmmm, I’m not so sure I’m making the same point – I would count e-books as literature too. I’m worried people have a shrinking need to get their intellectual nourishment from great works in any format. Then again, I count the Bible as literature (it’s the next one on our list), and that shows no signs of slowing down… Score one for literature!
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I would be interested in the basis for the idea that literature is dying. I read everything, good and bad. There isn’t enough time in the world to read everything. I know others who haven’t read any classic literature since their school days. But I am not sure this is a real change.
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I’ll be logging onto the usual suspects — Spotify, Sticher, Google Podcasts, iTunes et al. — and leave rating and reviews, though having only listened to the Intro, this is, as usual, a bit daunting. Last week, I had begun a podcast on English literature, but though it was a Librivox recording, the reading was so monotone and mechanical that even my Google Assistant would have been able to spice it up with the human touch.
It was therefore a pleasant surprise of sorts when, even before I could know if this podcast would interest me thematically, the narrator had a much more engaging voice and style, and was willing and able to introduce his personal, subjective views with adequate doses of self-deprecation.
The underlying motivation for this podcast is the question: Is literature dead?
On a good day, I would respond “no”, literature, even art and culture as a whole, have always been elitist, and literature is hardly any different, considering that we managed to reach a very modest 50% literacy rate only well after 1800.
On a bad day, I would wholeheartedly agree, pointing out that our hedonistic, self-centred entertainment culture has made an “art” only of delving deep into mediocrity when attempting to reach the lowest common denominator — read: the largest customer base — in what passes for art today: popular music, television and film — computer gaming has not quite reached the faux-art status but give it time. 150 years ago, girls were throwing their panties at Liszt, not some boy band grown in the petri dishes of Sony Music.
At this point, I have high hopes for this podcast … and nothing left to do but give it a tentative 5-star rating, deducting stars — or not — as we delve into the episodes.
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Jacke Wilson 
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