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The History of Literature

The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino | The African Library Project

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2020

⏱️ 87 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Another special quarantine edition! In this action-packed episode, Jacke talks to Robyn Speed and Tatiana Santos of the African Library Project (africanlibraryproject.org), an organization that has helped create or improve more than three thousand libraries in Africa. He then turns to the great Italo Calvino and his short story masterpiece, "The Distance of the Moon" (1965), which melds together a stunning vision of the cosmos with a poignant and highly original love story. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. Music Credits: “Glitter Blast,” "Bushwick Tarantella," and "Into the Wormhole" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.

0:07.0

Hello, I'm Jack Wilson.

0:11.0

Welcome to another special quarantine edition of The History of Literature. Okay, here we go. Welcome to the podcast.

0:24.0

I am your host,

0:25.0

Jeff.

0:26.0

The man.

0:28.0

Okay, here we go.

0:32.0

Welcome to the podcast. I am your podcast host, Jack Wilson. We've got a great show lined up today.

0:37.5

We're bringing you some literature from the midst of a global pandemic that has sent us all underground. In some sense, for me, that's a

0:46.3

literal sense, as I wile away my hours in the basement, working, reading, and talking to

0:52.4

you.

0:53.0

Reminds me that we have an H.G. Wells episode on our list.

0:57.0

I'm sure we'll be exploring the subterranean world in that one

1:00.0

as we dig into his 1895 classic the time machine.

1:05.0

George Orwell is on the calendar too.

1:07.0

Another underground specialist, his trips to the coal mines,

1:11.0

which are unforgettable.

1:12.0

What a fantastic writer.

1:13.0

And how about Dostiaevsky's notes from underground,

1:17.0

which we covered in our episode on that bizarre unparalleled author?

1:22.0

So, I'm feeling local in one way, intensely local. I've

1:27.2

left the confines of my yard exactly once in the past month. Outside, things are surreal, empty streets, empty playgrounds,

...

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