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The History of Literature #143 – A Soldier’s Heart – Teaching Literature at the U.S. Military Academy (with Professor Elizabeth Samet)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL2878944280.mp3 Since ancient times, societies have used rousing lines of poetry to inspire soldiers to acts of heroism, courage, and sacrifice. But what about literature that expresses doubts about war? Or fear? Or that conveys its brutal nature? Should those works be a part of the curriculum as well? And what about literature that, Continue reading
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The History of Literature #142 – Comedian Joe Pera Talks With Us
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL8120951432.mp3 Comedian Joe Pera has been hailed as one of the top “Comedians Under 30,” “20 of the Most Innovative Comedians Working Today,” and the “Cozy Sweater of Comedy.” His lovable, pleasantly awkward delivery style has made him a breakout star on the standup circuit and on late-night shows like Conan and Late Night with Seth Meyers. In Continue reading
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The History of Literature #141 – Kurt Vonnegut (with Mike Palindrome)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL2248778305.mp3 “The year was 2081,” the story begins, “and everyone was finally equal.” In this episode of the History of Literature, Jacke and Mike take a look at Kurt Vonnegut’s classic short story, “Harrison Bergeron.” In this 1961 story, Vonnegut imagines a world of the perfectly average, where no one is allowed to be Continue reading
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The History of Literature #140 – Pulp Fiction and the Hardboiled Crime Novel (with Charles Ardai)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL3981967103.mp3 In 1896, an enterprising man named Frank Munsey published the first copy of Argosy, a magazine that combined cheap printing, cheap paper, and cheap authors to bring affordable, high-entertainment fiction to working-class folks. Within six years, Argosy was selling a half a million copies a month, and the American fiction market would never be Continue reading
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History of Literature #139 – “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL1087999791.mp3 In 1922, the miserable genius Franz Kafka wrote a short story, Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist), about another miserable genius: a man whose “art” is to live in a cage and display his fasting ability to crowds that don’t always appreciate what he is trying to do. Inspired by actual historical figures, though suffused Continue reading
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History of Literature Episode #138 – Why Poetry (with Matthew Zapruder)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL9865955051.mp3 In his new book Why Poetry, the poet Matthew Zapruder has issued “an impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for its accessibility to all readers.” The poet Robert Hass says, “Zapruder on poetry is pure pleasure. His prose is so direct that you have the impression, sentence by sentence, Continue reading
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History of Literature Episode #137 – Haruki Murakami
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL4372276419.mp3 Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS | More Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the rare writers who combines literary admiration with widespread appeal. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by lifelong Murakami fan Mike Palindrome to discuss what makes his novels so compelling, so mysterious, and so popular. Works discussed include The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, Continue reading
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History of Literature Episode #136 – The Kids Are All Right (Aren’t They?) Making the Case for Literature
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL7957805150.mp3 Does literature matter? Why read at all? Jacke Wilson takes questions from high school students and attempts to make the case for literature. Works and authors discussed include Beloved, The Great Gatsby, Shakespeare, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, the Odyssey, The Inferno, Continue reading
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The History of Literature #135 – Aristotle Goes to the Movies (with Brian Price)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL2517676848.mp3 Hollywood screenwriter and professional script doctor Brian Price, author of Classical Storytelling and Contemporary Screenwriting: Aristotle and the Modern Scriptwriter, found everything he needed to know about screenwriting in a 2,500-year-old text, Aristotle’s Poetics. Brian and Jacke talk about how Aristotle’s study of Greek tragedy has unlocked the buried secrets of storytelling – and how those Continue reading
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History of Literature #134 – The Greatest Night of Franz Kafka’s Life
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL7590405383.mp3 Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS | More We use the term Kafkaesque to describe bureaucracies and other social institutions with nightmarishly complex, illogical, or bizarre qualities – and in most biographies of Franz Kafka (1883-1924) we find that his life often mirrored the strangeness in his fiction. In this episode, host Jacke Wilson examines the origins of Kafka’s particular sensibility, Continue reading
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The History of Literature #135 – Aristotle Goes to the Movies (with Brian Price)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL2517676848.mp3 Hollywood screenwriter and professional script doctor Brian Price, author of Classical Storytelling and Contemporary Screenwriting: Aristotle and the Modern Scriptwriter, found everything he needed to know about screenwriting in a 2,500-year-old text, Aristotle’s Poetics. Brian and Jacke talk about how Aristotle’s study of Greek tragedy has unlocked the buried secrets of storytelling – and how those Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 