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 129: “The Enchanted April” by Elizabeth von Arnim, Ch. 12-22
Episode 128: “The Enchanted April” by Elizabeth von Arnim, Ch. 1-11
Episode 127: The Literary Life of Kay Pelham
Episode 126: "The Abolition of Man" by C. S. Lewis, Ch. 3
Episode 125: “The Abolition of Man” by C. S. Lewis, Ch. 2
Episode 124: “The Abolition of Man” by C. S. Lewis, Ch. 1
Episode 123: In Search of the Austen Adaptation – Emma
Episode 122: The Literary Life of Timilyn Downey
Episode 121: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Acts 4 and 5
Episode 120: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III
Episode 119: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Acts I and II
Episode 118: An Intro to Shakespeare and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Episode 117: Our 2021 Literary Life Reading Wrap-up
Episode 116: The “Two for ’22” Literary Life Reading Challenge
Episode 115: In Search of the Austen Adaptation – Pride and Prejudice
Episode 114: The Literary Life of Dr. Carolyn Weber
Episode 113: “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen, Vol. 3, Ch. 9-17
Episode 112: “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen, Vol. 3, Ch. 1-8
Episode 111: “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen, Vol. 2, Ch. 6-13
Episode 110: “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
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