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 95: An Introduction to Edmund Spenser with Kelly Cumbee
Episode 94: “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, Part 3
Episode 93: “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, Part 2
Episode 92: "Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, Part 1
Episode 91: "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," Part 2
Episode 90: “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” Part 1
Episode 89: The Literary Life of Adrienne Freas
Episode 88: How to Read Don Quixote
Episode 87: The Literary Life of Wes Callihan
Episode 86: “Silas Marner” by George Eliot, Ch. 16-End
Episode 85: "Silas Marner" by George Eliot, Ch. 10-15
Episode 84: “Silas Marner” by George Eliot, Ch. 4-9
Episode 83: "Silas Marner" by George Eliot, Ch. 1-3
Episode 82: The Literary Life of Charlotte Mason
Episode 81: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Episode 80: Why Read Old Books
Episode 79: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Episode 78: The Literary Life of Thomas Banks
Episode 77: Our Literary Lives of 2020
Episode 76: The Literary Life 19 Books in 2021 Reading Challenge
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A Princess of Mars
The War of the Worlds
Fresh Air
The Count of Monte Cristo