Episode 177: The "Best of" Series – The Great Divorce, Ch. 7-10, Ep. 49
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2023
⏱️ 95 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On The Literary Life podcast today, our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks discuss chapters 7-10 of C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. Angelina points out the way in which Lewis uses the "newcomer" character to explain the world he has created. They discuss the various personalities Lewis presents who choose not to take the journey to heaven, sharing how these sketches often hit a little too close to home.
They also talk about the influence of George MacDonald on Lewis and his role in this story. Thomas helps us make some connections with Lewis and Virgil, as well as explaining some of the references made by MacDonald's character. Cindy points out how our loves can be entryways into either heaven or hell. Join us again next week as we finish up our discussion of The Great Divorce together!
There is still time to sign up for Thomas' upcoming mini-class on G. K. Chesterton taking place live from June 26th through July 7th. Register at HouseofHumaneLetters.com today!
Commonplace Quotes:
Meanwhile, you will write an essay on self-indulgence. There will be a prize of half a crown for the longest essay, irrespective of any possible merit.
Evelyn Waugh
Shame belongs, rather, to the bookish recluse who knows not how to apply his reading to the good of his fellows or to manifest its fruit to the eyes of all.
Cicero
It is simply my lifelong experience—that men are more likely to hand over to others what they ought to do themselves, and women more likely to do themselves what others wish they would leave alone. Hence both sexes must be told "Mind your own business," but in two different senses!
C. S. Lewis
To a Skylark
by William Wordsworth
Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!
Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?
Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will,
Those quivering wings composed, that music still!
Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine;
Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct more divine;
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!
Book List:
Letters to an American Lady by C. S. Lewis
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Pro Archia Poeta by Cicero
Farmer Giles of Ham by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis
Psychomachia by Prudentius
Holy Living and Dying by Jeremy Taylor
Satires of Circumstance by Thomas Hardy
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Connect with Us:
You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also!
Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Literary Life Podcast. |
| 0:03.0 | We've grown quite significantly since our debut in 2019, |
| 0:07.0 | and we've had many requests to highlight older episodes that new listeners may have missed, |
| 0:12.0 | as well as revisit listener favorites. |
| 0:15.4 | To honor that request, I present to you this episode of the Best of the Literary Life |
| 0:20.4 | podcast. This is not just another book chat podcast. Lifelong |
| 0:27.2 | reader Cindy Rollins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks for an |
| 0:31.7 | ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well. |
| 0:37.0 | Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover how to fully enter into the great works of literature. Learn what books mean while delighting |
| 0:46.2 | in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week we will rescue story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your |
| 0:55.0 | kitchen, and your commute. The literary life is for everyone because in the words |
| 1:00.1 | of Stratford Caldecott to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper |
| 1:05.2 | insight into reality. Join us for an ever unfolding discussion of how |
| 1:10.9 | stories will save the world. This is the Literary Life Podcast. Hello, my name is Thomas Banks and I am going to be teaching a short class on GK Chesterton starting June 26th over the course of the next nine days, skipping the holiday |
| 1:48.3 | and weekend, of course, up to July 7th. I have been reading books by Chesterton for about 20 years now. Chesterton is an |
| 1:59.7 | author I'm much admire, especially his non-fiction writings, his biographies, his essays, his apologetics and literary criticism. |
| 2:10.0 | But he was also a novelist, |
| 2:12.5 | he was also a poet of considerable talent, |
| 2:15.6 | and I want to show in this class the mini-sidedness |
| 2:19.6 | of GK Chesterton as an author. |
| 2:22.1 | And to point out his influence on both friends and enemies, he was a writer who was very much at the center of the literary world that he lived in, |
| 2:36.0 | that being the English literary world of the first few decades |
... |
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