A 30-minute tangent episode in which we bring you discussions and bloopers that were cut from various episodes or captured when we left the mic running. What started as a discussion of Romanticism turned into a contemplation of our emotionally devoid culture, interesting death rituals, and other strange tangents on emotionality. Kaisha talks moss—surprise, surprise—and her inability to loan out books. We share my snort laugh, her song and dance, and a random, pre-episode recording conversation about the impact of short stories, strange poetry obsessions, 
Kaisha’s stash of pretty drinking glasses at the bookstore, and the gifts of alcohol that her employees bring her. Today’s tangent is a look behind the scenes, we hope you enjoy!
This month we will be giving away a copy of The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst and a bunch of adorable succulent bookmarks (See Photo!)- we explain how to enter toward the end of the show notes. You can find other Giveaways on the giveaways tab and in the Give us a Shout tab. Be sure to check those out. We ship worldwide, so don’t hesitate to enter our giveaway.
Romanticism and Death:
- Self help books usually are focused on how to be happy.
- Studies on the happiest places in the world versus suicide rate.
They are happy because they have Lasse. See picture and follow him on Instagram! - Versus a place like Syria with low suicide rates because–when you are facing the fact that life can be taken from you at any moment, there is more treasuring of it.
- We have completely lost touch with nature and our emotion.
- This idea that we have to always be happy and positive.
- Piece on my blog about my mother passing (that I should be over the grief by now).
- Embracing those negative emotions is healthier than pretending like they don’t exist.
- We lost the culture of dealing with grief.
- We have lost our death rituals.
- What about for those who encounter bad luck or other kinds of loss.
- We tend to hide the things that go wrong in our life.
- What about those people who share their grief publicly?
- Death rituals and grieving rituals.
- The old Victorian hierarchy of morning: Deep morning vs run-of-the-mill morning.
- Differences in family dynamics as related to grief.
- Death Pictures–Read Stiff by Mary Roach, it is fantastic.
- Open Casket funerals–How do we remember those who have passed.
- Mummy Dolls.
Fun Little Snippets:
Kelsey’s snort laugh.
Kaisha’s Song and Dance.
Short Stories and Faulknerian Tangents:
- Anita Desai
- The impact that a short story can have (as opposed to a novel).
- Mature version of the narrative form and movement elements they represent.
- For example, it might be better to pick up a short story if you are new to Postmodernism, than tackling a full novel.
- They are great for training you to understand the form, techniques, and characteristics of different literary movements.
- Kaisha feels like a kindergartener when it comes to poetry.
- We are going to do a few poetry Tangents.
- “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot–We might try to get the awesome, super intelligent Lit professor from OSUC, Neil Brown, to help us dissect it.
- “Kubla Khan” by Coleridge.
- Kaish has part of Kubla Khan memorized, what?!
- “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge
- We have this need to understand what we are reading immediately. This doesn’t always work, especially with poetry and certain authors like Faulkner.
- With poetry, close your eyes and just listen the first time through. Pay attention to the emotions you feel while you are listening.
- Try it with this recording of “The Hollow Men”
- We are going to do a few poetry Tangents.
- Some sounds that are sacred.
- Some Hebrew sounds.
- Tibetan Buddhism.
- The Quran.
- We forget that poetry is meant to be heard, not read.
- Some fantastic old stories are like this–
- The Odyssey
- Beowulf
- Oral Legacies
- Nerd Tangent–we love Tolkien for his obsession with those old oral traditions and languages. Check out National Geographic’s The Lord of the Rings: Beyond the Movie.
- Kaisha always has the best drinks.
- Kaisha’s employees are awesome and bring her alcohol. Thank you Kaisha’s employees. Thank you.
Loaning Books:
- Celeste Ng’s interview on a podcast about reading life.
- Her mother wouldn’t loan books. She would have to read them in her mother’s house.
- Kaisha had a moral dilemma in that her grandmother wanted to read Moby Dick, but her G-ma was so hard on books, Kaisha couldn’t do it and ended up buying her a new one.
Another time Kaisha talked about moss:
- When she was visiting her husband (then her boyfriend) in Portland and presented him with a handful of puff mushrooms.
- He still has them.
- He calls them Kaisha’s spores.
- He thought it was the strangest, cutest thing ever.
- That is the goal in life, finding the people in life who think your strange quirks are cute.
Connect and Win!!
That’s all we have for today. We hope you enjoyed a glance at our behind the scenes antics. Next week we are reading and discussing “The Gray Champion” and “Young Goodman Brown” both by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Don’t miss the episode, it’s a quirky one!
- Don’t forget to enter our giveaway for July. This month we will be giving away The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst and some adorable succulent bookmarks! There’s only about a week left! To enter, rate us on iTunes and then just let us know you rated us on social media or as a comment to one of our show notes (that way we can get in touch with you if you win)!
Connect with us:
Thanks for listening to Read Write Repeat! Talk with you next time!
