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 49: The Great Divorce, Ch. 7-10
Episode 48: The Great Divorce, Ch. 2-6
Episode 47: The Great Divorce, Preface & Ch. 1
Episode 46: "The Importance of Being Earnest" Act 3
Episode 45: "The Importance of Being Earnest" Act 2
Episode 44: "The Importance of Being Earnest" Act 1
Episode 43: The Literary World of Oscar Wilde
TLLepisode42 mixdown
Episode 41: The Art of Writing, Part 2
Episode 40: The Art of Writing, Part 1
Episode 39: The Literary Life of Karen Glass
Episode 38: "A Winter's Tale" Act 5
Episode 37: "A Winter's Tale" Act 4
Episode 36: A Winter's Tale, Act 3
Episode 35: "A Winter's Tale" Act 2
Episode 34: "A Winter's Tale" Act 1
Episode 33: An Introduction to A Winter's Tale
Episode 32: The Literary Life of James Banks
Episode 31: Our Year in Reading
Episode 30: The Literary Life of Caitlin Beauchamp
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