The Bookening

Please click here to support The Bookening for a low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! Here's something different for those of you who like different things. Our heroes conclude their discussion of Heart of Darkness by interviewing their good friend Pastor Lucas Weeks, who actually grew up in the Congo. He's played with monkeys, seen terrifying native tribal dances, and been escorted from his home by US Marines while machine gun fire echoed in the distance. So arguably he can bring more perspective to Heart of Darkness than even the Mysterious Phantom did.  Next week Dame Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

Please click here to support The Bookening for a low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! Let's face it. Nathan, Brandon, and Jake are probably the three bravest men ever to have walked the face of the earth. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that in this episode, our heroes delve fearlessly into the murky depths of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, asking tough questions like "was Marlowe wrong to lie to that lady at the end?" and "Is Joseph Conrad a 'bloody racist?'" It's also entirely possible that a very special guest shows up near the end of the episode, someone who has some very particular bones to pick with our heroes. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SHOCK YOU!!!!!!!!! Next week more Joseph Conrad'sHeart of Darkness.  Coming thereafter Dame Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

Please click here to support The Bookening for a low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! This week Nathan, Jake, and Brandon begin their journey into ... THE HEART OF DARKNESS! (Nolanesque musical sting). Our heroes discuss Joseph Conrad's journey from Polish orphan to French sailor to English novelist, why King Leopold of Belgium was a real jerk, and whether Jake's shoes glow in the dark.  Next week more Joseph Conrad'sHeart of Darkness.  And soon thereafter Dame Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

Please click here to support The Bookening for a low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! Kids certainly do say the darndest things, and given that 3 of our heros' kids had read N.D. Wilson's Boys of Blur (and what's more, loved Boys of Blur), we figured they'd have the darndest things to say about it. Spoiler: we weren't wrong. Special thanks to Elissa, Eliot, and Peter for a fun and fascinating ep! Tell all your friends and family to support us A.S.A.P, so they'll get their Skittles bribe. Yes, next week we're finally getting to Joseph Conrad'sHeart of Darkness. 

Please click here to support The Bookening for a low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! In today's episode, our heroes (sadly sans Brandon) continue their discussion from the Newbery ep about why reading is not some kind of big inherent virtue like so many educators and pundits make it out to be. As our heroes point out: 1. Reading, like any discipline, requires actual work. Sometimes mundane work. It is not (merely) a glorious series of transcendent moments and discoveries, like, y'know Reading Rainbow kinda makes you think. 2. Reading (or any art) is not the ultimate point of the well-lived god-honoring life. 3. If you're one of those Christians who thinks he's going to redeem the culture through it engaging it with the arts, you're pretty dumb. CORRECTION: Nathan very well may be wrong at the end of the episode when he says that next week we start Joseph Conrad'sHeart of Darkness. If all goes according  to plan, next week we hope to have a Very Special Episode to finish out our discussion of children's literature. After that, Conrad, baby!

Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Call It Courage. Maniac Mcgee. The Bridge to Taribithia.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. What do these books have in common you ask? They're Newbery Medal winners of course, and in this episode our heroes use Newbery as a springboard into a discussion of the invention of kids lit and young adult fiction, and whether kids should be taught to read what they enjoy ... or enjoy what they read. One thing is for sure. Everyone hates Johnny Tremain.  Please click here to support The Bookening for a low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! Next week we begin Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.   Music Credit: "Loping Sting" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

If you love The Bookening, we really do need your help. Please click here to support The Bookening for a low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! Here's a pretty pickle. Our heroes like N.D. Wilson and what he's doing in Boys of Blur. On the other hand, they did have some difficulties with the book that made for some interesting discussions about literature, writing, story, etc. Which, it turns out, is one of the primary functions of their podcast. Never ones to shirk their duty, our heroes solider on, discussing the weaknesses of a book they would 100% recommend for boys in the target demographic. Hey, we talked about Steinbeck's weaknesses, too. Click here to buy the book. Next week, we'll be discussing the Newbery Awards and kids lit in general. After that, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

If you love The Bookening, we really do need your help. Please click here to support The Bookening for a very low monthly amount and help us continue making the podcast. Thank you! In episode 40, our heroes talk about N.D. Wilson's young adult horror/fantasy/action novel Boys of Blur. For such a slim volume, this book packs a lot in, and our heroes find themselves with plenty to discuss, including small towns, football rivalries, race relations, C.S. Lewis-wannabees, useless clichés, useful tropes, extravagant character names that are good, and one character name that they weren't such a huge fan of.  By the way, here's some footage from the event that Jake mentions involving Nate's dad Doug. Click here to buy the book. Next week, more Boys of Blur. After that, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

    'My father's relationships were always between equals, however old or young, distinguished or undistinguished the other person. Once, when I was quite little, he came up to the nursery while I was having my lunch. And while he was talking I paused between mouthfuls, resting my hands on the table, knife and fork pointing upwards. "You oughtn't really to sit like that," he said, gently. "Why not?" I asked, surprised. "Well..." He hunted around for a reason he could give. Because it's considered bad manners? Because you mustn't? Because... "Well," he said, looking in the direction my fork was pointing, "Suppose somebody suddenly fell through the ceiling. They might land on your fork and that would be very painful."' -Christopher (Robin) Milne on his father It's another episode of The Bookening and this time our heroes are discussing Winnie the Pooh and The House of Pooh Corner. This proves to be a more delicate task than expected, as our heroes realize that while there are many things to admire and love about A. A. Milne and his creations, there are things to be wary of, too. There's something weird about these stories. Something sort of off. They're not quite children's stories. And the cumulative effect is a little different than just some silly stories a humble father made up for his kid. Plus, there's the matter of Milne's own history, and his relationship with his son Christopher, which wasn't half as magical as the stories make it out to be. Will our heroes get to the bottom of this Heffalump pit? Or will this journey into the 100-acre woods prove to be their undoing???????????????? Click here to become a supporter (pretty please).  Click here to buy the book from Amazon.  Next time Boys of Blur by ND Wilson!  

If you like episodes about literary theory and how literature works, this one is for you, as Brandon and Nathan go deep-diving, trying to figure out what on earth William Faulkner was trying to accomplish with As I Lay Dying and whether it was a good thing.  Give us money here. Click here to buy the book from Amazon.  Next we're reading The Complete Winnie the Pooh ... and after that Boys of Blur by ND Wilson 

As I Lay Dying part 2 is still coming tomorrow.  But today we have a BONUS EPISODE about three ABSOLUTE LITERARY CLASICS that are all on TV or coming to movie screens soon. We've got our hot take on the books they are based on.  Also ... Give us money!!! Please and thank you. 

This right here is an episode about William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Sadly, our heroes had to record this episode with Jake M.I.A. So that was weird, and is hopefully a rare occurrence. Left to their own devices, Nathan and Brandon ladle on the context, talking about everything from Faulkner's life to the Southern Renaissance in American literature to early Hollywood's penchant for misusing great writers. Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor keep coming up, possibly because both our heroes love Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor. Plus, with Jake gone, Nathan and Brandon are finally free to reveal his secret shame to the world. IT WILL SHOCK YOU! Give us money here. Click here to buy the book from Amazon.  Next we're reading The Complete Winnie the Pooh ... and after that Boys of Blur by ND Wilson (we switched the schedule around in order to do our (very very tiny) part for Wilson, given his recent severe medical troubles. We encourage everybody to buy a copy and read along.)

"Man, in short, is to storm the heavens and overthrow the gods, or even to become a god himself. There is nothing outrageously improbable in such a conspiracy. Indeed, at a moment when a single atomic bomb – of a type already pronounced “obsolete” – has just blown probably three hundred thousand people to fragments, it sounds all too topical. Plenty of people in our age do entertain the monstrous dreams of power that Mr. Lewis attributes to his characters, and we are within sight of the time when such dreams will be realisable."--From a review of That Hideous Strength by George Orwell  In our final episode on C. S. Lewis's weird book, our heroes ponder modernism, post modernism, and the demise of western civilization itself!!!!!!!!! Special thanks again to our guest star for this series, Pastor Stephen Baker, dean of the most excellent Clearnote Pastor's College. Click here to buy the book from Amazon.  Next month we're readingAs I Lay Dying.

WARNING: DUE TO THE THEMES AND IDEAS OF THE BOOK BEING DISCUSSED, THIS EPISODE CONTAINS MUCH MORE (AND MUCH MORE FRANK) DISCUSSION OF SEX THAN IS USUAL IN OUR PODCAST. LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.  The advisory above is no joke. This episode is pretty much all about marriage, sex, and eroticism. Mostly because that's what That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis is pretty much all about. Well, that and Mr. Bultitude the Bear.  Listen as our heroes plunge bravely into the nature of the sacred erotic bond between Man and Woman, as expounded by a then-47-year-old professor of Medieval and Renaissance Litetature (and up to that point lifelong bachelor). As in the previous episode, they are much aided by the irrepressible Pastor Stephen Baker (Dean of Clearnote Pastor's College), who explains why every college student on the face of the planet should be forced to read this book. His theory on Mr. Bultitude is that he is "just a bear." Brandon has other ideas about Mr. Bultitude but they go repeatedly and terribly awry. Jake has a amazing pitch for who should play Fairy Hardcastle in the movie version. Nathan plays it cool. Arguably this week's topic is out of his wheelhouse, and anyway, he's never one for vain speechifying.  Click here to buy the book from Amazon.  Next month we're readingAs I Lay Dying.

  In this episode our heroes begin their discussion of C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength. They spend much of the time discussing Lewis himself--who he was, the larger context of his life and work, and whether he is a trustworthy influence on Christians today. You'll learn why the Space Trilogy actually shouldn't be called that, what kinds of trashy novels C.S. Lewis was a sucker for, and how Lewis thought a novel of adventure, fantasy, or escapism should work. You'll also learn why, even given some of Lewis's more egregious doctrinal errors, if you found yourself in his shoes, you wouldn't have done any better. So haters be cool. Our heroes are aided immeasurably by the presence of their first ever guest star, Stephen Baker, huge Space Trilogy nerd (he wouldn't like us calling it that), associate pastor of Clearnote Church, and Dean of Clearnote Pastor's College (aspiring pastors, check it out!). Click here to buy the book from Amazon.  Next month we're readingAs I Lay Dying.