This week on The Literary Life, we bring you another episode in our “Best of” series with a throwback to one of our 2021 Summer of the Short Story shows. In this episode, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas talk about E. M. Forster’s short story “The Machine Stops.” If you are interested in more E. M. Forster chat, you can go listen to our hosts discuss “The Celestial Omnibus” in Episode 17. Angelina points out how this story made her think of Dante. Thomas and Cindy share their personal reactions to reading “The Machine Stops.” They marvel at how prescient Forster was to imagine a world that comes so close to our current reality. They also discuss how to stay human in an increasingly de-humanizing world.
Past events mentioned in this episode replay:
Back to School 2021 Conference: Awakening
Cindy’s new edition of Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love
Cindy’s Charlotte Mason podcast The New Mason Jar
Commonplace Quotes:Imagination, in its earthbound quest,
Seeks in the infinite its finite rest.
Walter de la Mare (from “Books”) from “The Hollow Men”by T. S. Eliot
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
Two Stories and a Memory by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Howards End by E. M. Forster
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison
1984 by George Orwell
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Connect with Us:You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
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Episode 240: "Best of" Series - The Importance of Detective Fiction, Ep. 3
Episode 239: “Best of” Series – The Literary Life of Jone Rose, Ep. 135
Episode 238: Why Read Biographies
Episode 237: “Best of” Series – “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” Pt. 2, Ep. 106
Episode 236: “Best of” Series – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R. L. Stevenson, Part 1 (Ep. 105)
Episode 235: “Harry Potter” Book 1, Ch. 13-End
Episode 234: “Harry Potter” Book 1, Ch. 8-12
Episode 233: “Harry Potter” Book 1, Ch. 3-7
Episode 232: “Harry Potter” Book 1, Introduction and Ch. 1-2
Episode 231: What to Do When The Literary Life Feels Overwhelming
Episode 230: “Best of” Series – “Why I Write” by George Orwell, Ep. 16
Episode 229: “Best of” Series, “Araby” by James Joyce, Ep. 11
Episode 228: “Best of” Series, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Ep. 15
Episode 227: “Agnes Grey” by Anne Bronte, Ch. 19-25
Episode 226: “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë, Ch. 12-18
Episode 225: “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë, Ch. 6-11
Episode 224: “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë, Introduction and Ch. 1-5
Episode 222: “Tartuffe” by Moliere, Acts 3 - 5
Episode 221: “Tartuffe” by Moliere, Introduction and Acts 1 & 2
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