Arts & Ideas

Of the novels of J. C. Powys I’d read, “Porius” is my favorite… a pure animist marvel. It’s good to see that the man and the work are still being talked about. With due respect, the comment that Powys is not currently in print was mistaken; within the last decade a half dozen titles have become available—largely by The Overlook Press—plus a biography called “Descents of Memory.” Any curious reader would do well to search them out beginning with “A Glastonbury Romance” and saving “Porius” for desert! Thank you for the discussion.

I listen to a lot of podcasts, have been listening to this one for a decade, and it is by far my favorite. It has a stable of rotating interviewers, who are just as smart and interesting as the guests they interview--and the guests are usually scholars, which means they're well-informed people with original perspectives. And the guests are not those annoying scholars who won't listen and can't stop babbling or came with an agenda they make sure is accomplished without regard for the discussion happening. They roll with the conversation and go to interesting and unexpected places. The subjects are incredibly varied, from history to literature to the visual arts to philosophy, etc. I should note that it took me a couple years to realize that this was my favorite podcast. I write down interesting quotations from wherever I hear them, and eventually I realized that I was quoting people (guests and hosts alike) far more often from this podcast than from any other source, and since then I've taken an even greater delight in starting a new episode. I will note that one or two of the newer hosts are not as good as the old ones, and also I'm really disappointed that Philip Dodd has not been on a new episode in almost a year. He's my favorite of the many excellent hosts, and I would love to see him return soon.

Sigh.. blah blah blah boring woke trash. Soups wokes.

The participants are uniformly leftist and arrogant about their opinions. Readers should know I consider the right is as irksome as the left. It is the arrogance coupled with ignorance that makes this podcast unlistenable.