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19. Samuel Johnson - Part 2
Season 1
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Sometimes older literary works provide fascinating insights into their historical moments and into our ongoing quest to understand the human. And sometimes they’re dull as dirt. On this week’s episode, part two of our Samuel Johnson three-parter, we finally hit a major dud with Johnson’s Rasselas. And yet, there are a few good entertaining rambles to be had out of our frustration with the text and in Daniel’s ruminations on the oddities of Johnson locating his philosophical romance in Abyssinia, or modern day Ethiopia. We also talk “The Vanity of Human Wishes” and 18th century poetics, something maybe three people besides Claude will be utterly fascinated by. Look, they can’t all be Don Quixote… If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod. The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. Check out some of the other shows on the network at agorapodcastnetwork.com. One last note: if you’re in the New York area and need reading and writing tutoring, or are interested in online tutoring, let us know. Claude has a tutoring business on the side and a newborn, so he’s always looking looking for a few more clients. If you need some help, send an email to claudemoinc@gmail.com. We can also produce literary lectures on demand. I’m not entirely certain what situations would call for that, but for some quality literary infotainment hit us up!
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33. Lyrical Ballads: 1805 Edition
01:28:45||Season 1Don't call it a comeback: Claude and Dan return after a lengthy hiatus with... Lyrical Ballads! But THIS is Wordsworth's extensively revised, reordered, and largely de-Coleridged 1805 edition. We go deep teasing out Wordsworth's tangled erotic sentiment, discuss the place of the Americas in the Old World imagination, and arrive at some final thoughts on Wordsworth's poetics. In our typical fashion, we discover what all this has to do with Mayberry and William Faulkner.32. Lyrical Ballads: Tintern Abbey
01:02:37||Season 1And we come to the conclusion of our read of the first version of Lyrical Ballads. Want to know what Claude has been on about for the past few years with the term ontological/epistemological crisis? Here’s your answer with a close exploration of Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,” the poem that closes the volume. The Canon Ball is part of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, on Twitter at Canonballpod, and on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast. And if you like our show but want to know more about film and what goes into the making of it check out Beyond the Big Screen, a podcast that goes into the intricate details (historical, philosophical, and otherwise) behind major motion pictures. And if you’re really hankering for more drama, friends of the show Andrew Pfannkuche and Ana Weinberg have put together a biographical discussion show about the life of Alexandre Dumas called “Two Musketeers.” If you like the show, they’ve entered it for competition in the Tongal creative community. Go vote for them at the link: https://tongal.com/welcome/ngp/31. Lyrical Ballads: William Wordsworth
01:16:47||Season 1In this episode, Claude and Dan continue their journey into Lyrical Ballads and cover the varied sallies of William Wordsworth. Excerpts from uncompleted plays, touching ghost story poems, further streetside harangues from beaten down people, there’s something for everyone and always a lot more going on than it seems at first blush! Claude explores Wordsworth’s place among the Romantics and Dan is moved to wax poetic about the public recycling drop-off by the high school football stadium.The Canon Ball is part of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @Canonballpod.30. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
57:23||Season 1We’re one poem in to Lyrical Ballads and by god is it a wild one! We’re reading through and contemplating Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancyent Marinere” (1798 spelling), one of the weirder gothic poems in the English language and one hell of a way to start a poetic project. Why would a mariner shoot an albatross with a crossbow? Why would a mariner even have a crossbow? We try to get to the bottom of these mysteries as we begin dipping our toes into this watershed volume of Romantic poetry. The Canon Ball is part of the Agora podcast network. Check out some of the other shows on the network like Ben Jacobs’ From Wittenberg to Westphalia, a full exploration of the Protestant Reformation. Ben examines all of the nitty gritty details of the history, theology, politics, and even the civic planning that went into the transformation of Europe from Catholic dominance to, well, whatever it was that came after. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @Canonballpod. And if you or a kid in your life need English tutoring, SAT tutoring, or college essay help drop us a line at claudemoinc@gmail.com. Claude could use the money…BONUS: Marvell - Intelligent Speech Preview
44:06||Season 1It’s an Intelligent Speech miracle! Not only will Daniel and Claude discuss Borges, Claude will also appear on a panel with Ray Belli of Words for Granted, Kevin Stroud of History of English, and Dan Morris of Tracing the Path on Lost Connections in Language and Literature. Claude’s part of the panel will entail a short consideration of the possible personal relationship between John Milton, Andrew Marvell, and John Dryden. So tonight we talk Marvell, a somewhat overlooked poet who was perhaps unfairly pigeonholed in the 20th century as a metaphysical. Can he give Donne a run for his money in the best of his poems? Sure! But there’s a lot more to consider…The Intelligent Speech Conference is THIS SATURDAY, April 24, starting at 10 AM EST (3 PM GMT)! For more information and to purchase tickets, visit intelligentspeechconference.comThe Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod.BONUS: Borges - Intelligent Speech Preview
41:23||Season 1It’s that time of year again. The Intelligent Speech Conference is just around the corner! The theme this year is “Escape,” and out of sheer perversion Daniel and Claude are going to discuss the works of Jorge Luis Borges, a writer mostly known for writing tales involving inescapable intellectual mazes. Can Borges find a way out? Can Claude and Daniel? Come see us at Intelligent Speech and find out!Intelligent Speech is Saturday April 24th beginning at 10 AM EST (3 PM GMT). Tickets are $30 each, $20 if you register before March 24th. Use promo code “canon” for a special discount and to support the show!https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/product/intelligent-speech-spring-2021/BONUS: Valentine's Day 2021 - John Donne
01:17:34||Season 1Dear Listeners: will you be our valentine? In this special romantic bonus episode, Claude and Dan take a look at the romantic poetry of John Donne. There is even more hidden meaning and beauty than just the superficial double entendres and suggestive verse. The Canon Ball mingles the erotic and the divine once again! Seems like a theme in the canon...The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod.29. Poetics
01:17:41||Season 1Claude takes Dan back to school for a crash course in poetics. We take a dive into the structure and rhythm of poetry, how people who study poetry talk about it, and what the seasoned poetry reader should keep an ear out for. Learn to tell your iambs from your dactyls!The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod.28. Lyrical Ballads (The Background)
01:53:09||Season 1We did it! Out of the Faustian Aristocratic Age fire and into pure, straight up, uncut romanticism by way of Lyrical Ballads, the joint production of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Did Lyrical Ballads break new ground? … no. Did it shatter the poetic norms of British poetry all at once, brushing stuffy aristocratic heroic couplet satires into the dustbin of history? … no. Did it incite a literary revolution, breaking down the barriers for entry into the domain of poetry for the common British subject? … no. But it still was a major watershed production in the history of poetry in English, and though we deflate some expectations on this preliminary background episode on the historical context of the book, we do still recognize that Wordsworth and Coleridge made a major intervention on the function and purpose of poetry.The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. We’ve added a couple of great new shows to the network, like Pontifacts, a light hearted, only slightly blasphemous, papal history podcast that ranks the popes from Peter to Francis. And launching this month is Revolution 1, a podcast examination of the Tunisian Uprising and the Arab Spring that followed.If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod.