A Case For Classics: Recent Episodes
somer@acaseforclassics.com
It's finally here! The Dickens Episode! It's okay to have complicated feelings about the man, but we have to admit that his works are important to our society and culture. Some of them, at least.
Winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize, To Kill a Mockingbird is still an important piece of American literature, we just need to adjust some things.
Talking about the 1953 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Not gonna lie, Hemingway is most of the focus...but he should be.
This is a quick one, just some tidbits about the Pulitzer Prize before we begin our series on works that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Recast of original Episode 5, I get to talk about on of my favorite works ever, classic or not, Beowulf!
The Master and Margarita is one of the few books I'll cover on this podcast that actually has a rabid fanbase. So my job is easy, right?
Juiced up recast of Episode 4 with some extra material. Oscar Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Grey are the case.
This isn't a full re-cast of Episode 3, this is mostly new material of me explaining why, OH WHY, I don't like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Recast of Episode 2 where I made a case for Gustave Flaubert's classics work Madame Bovary.
Joseph Conrad's work Heart of Darkness is the case this week, but I somehow added more love for T.S. Eliot and Hunter S. Thompson.
I'm going back and redoing some of my earlier episodes, improving and adding a bit. Today's is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451!
I read the wrong translation! Oh well, we're still going to talk about the woman who wrote this work, The Tale of Genji, and about the time in Japanese history that it represents. Good trivia here!
In honor of Black History Month, I talk about Frederick Douglass and, like, a fraction of his accomplishments. He was incredible.
Shirley Jackson is the whole case this week. I've found that not only do I need to read more of her work, I also need to read a biography on her as well!
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is a great British book that has nothing to do with the American Civil War...I now know. But it's a fantastic read that I'm glad I found.
With the New Year still fresh and shiny, I'm just doing a simple episode talking about the state of this humble little podcast.
Today's case is about someone so cool, she didn't have to obey the rules of grammar! That's bell hooks and she was a writer who had several works that should be read by anyone identifying as human.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a work that has no consensus from readers as to whether it's actually about ghosts or not. That just makes it more interesting.
We're talking about a great play in this episode! Cyrano de Bergerac is a terrific good time and I can't imagine you wanting to pass this one up!
In this episode, it's all about Emily Dickinson, one of the most important American poets of the nineteenth century.
Algernon Blackwood's classic The Willows is a great short story, a true tale of horror for nature-lovers!
This is another bonus episode recast, this one about a biography on Anais Nin titled, "ANAIS: The Erotic Life of Anais Nin" by Noel Riley Fitch. Check it out!
Octavia E. Butler's classic, Kindred is a work that transcends genre. I hadn't read it before, but I freaking loved it.
Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, A Brave New World is today's subject. I almost departed from horror, but this still counts. Boy, does it ever.
In keeping with spooky season, I'm talking Edgar Allan Poe this week. But make no mistake, he wrote MUCH more than horror.
Since today is the Autumnal Equinox, I thought we'd go spooky with one of the truly seminal works of horror, The House on the Borderland.
Sense and Sensibility might be my second favorite Jane Austen work. I love the book, but hey, the movie hits it out of the park too!
L. Frank Baum wrote the first American fairy tale with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It's a surprising book that no movie has yet lived up to.
I make a case for Valmiki's culturally important epic poem, The Ramayana. There might be a flying monkey and a blue guy, but this is a SERIOUS work!
It's another bonus episode, but it's a fun one where I lay down my movie adaptation-hating mantle and allow that sometimes, not only do movies get it right, they do it better. Sometimes.
Let's talk circluar logic and a war book that is just plain fun with Joseph Heller's classic, Catch-22.
It's another bonus episode from my Patreon days and it's a funny one about details from Dante's Inferno that I originally left out of the main show for fear of offending a listener. Oh well!
Ambrose Bierce was a short story writer with an influence that is far-reaching. And he was a notorious grouch with an amazing name.
I'm talking about Franz Kafka's amazing (and short) work, The Metamorphosis! You need a BIG can of Raid for this one.
Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the greatest epic poems in the Latin language. Myths, gods, heroes, and and endless stream of rape victims. It's harsh, but absolutely worth a read.
I need a little more time for the next two episodes, so please enjoy this Bonus Episode from my Patreon!
No particular case this week, as I wanted to talk about an Ancient Athenian playwright who wrote plays that are STILL being produced!
With hope for an end in sight, I thought it was time to finally talk about Giovanni Boccaccio's plague-set book, The Decameron.
This week we talk about Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning classic, Beloved. It's spoiler-lite, so please do your best to keep this book a surprise before you read it.
This week is a little something special, a little something different. It's a bonus episode from my Patreon account, which I'm shutting down, on Stephen King's Rose Madder. Enjoy!
Let's talk AMERICA and how it was portrayed, lovingly believe it or not, by Sinclair Lewis in his work Main Street.
He's a great poet for beginners and old hat poetry fans alike! This week, I make a case for a man who won FOUR Pulitzer Prizes for poetry, Robert Frost.
Listener request! I make a case for Erich Maria Remarque's WWI classic, All Quiet on the Western Front. I'm glad to have read this book.
In honor of Black History Month, I wanted to highlight two Black American creators of classical works. First is James Baldwin and his work, The Fire Next Time.
It's the end of the Russian Literature Miniseries and I end it on a man and not a work. Wires got crossed, but we still talk about an interesting man, Vladimir Nabokov.
We break from the norm this week as we talk about a Russian writer with humble beginnings and a new perspective, Anton Chekhov.
I tackle a book bigger than my first car, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and share my absolute joy in discovering that it is honestly an amazing book.
This week, I'm talking Dostoevsky, a writer I respect but am not necessarily a fan of. Don't worry, I was gentle. This is not a hate show.
We're doing another mini-series! This time, on Russian novelists! As we should, we start at the beginning with the author of the first Russian Novel, Nikolai Gogol and his book Dead Souls.
We revisit Jane Austen with her final work, Persuasion. Seriously, her father is awful.
This is the third and final episode in our Arthurian mini-series! I talk Camelot, the Round Table, and the knights who sat there.
Part two of our Arthurian miniseries, this week I talk about Le Morte d'Arthur and the complicated i.e. messy man who wrote it, Sir Thomas Malory.
This is part one of the mini-series on Arthurian Legend! Today it's the history of the lore and my thoughts on chivalric romances.
We talk deals with the devil and real life alchemists while I make a case for Goethe's Faust.
It's another poem this week, but it's a hip poem by one of the original hip fellas. Howl by Allen Ginsberg.
I make a case for a book this week that I absolutely love, 1,001 Arabian Nights. A book about a patient woman and her long game.
Alexandre Dumas graces us again as I make a case for the long, but delightful work, The Three Musketeers. And I didn't cry struggling through French pronunciations!
Prepare to be neck-deep in Ancient Greek philosophy as I make a case for Plato's The Republic! Don't worry, you won't drown. I promise.
This week, I'm feeling the spice and gloom of October and am covering one of gothic literature's foundational works, The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve.
I don't think John Milton meant to write an aspirational text for non-conformists, but Paradise Lost is sometimes taken that way. Satan is goals? Okay then!
This week I make a case for James Joyce's first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I didn't talk in detail about those letters to his wife and feel I deserve a prize for that.
It's nonsense and whimsy this week as I make a case for Lewis Carroll's classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I got to dive into my beloved horror genre this week as I cover one of the progenitors of Cosmic Horror, The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers.
It's a comedic classic this week as I cover Miguel Cervantes' classics, Don Quixote! No spoilers, but lots of cool info nonetheless!
Instead of making a case for a single work, this week I'm making a case for a whole author! Daphne du Maurier is horrifyingly under-read by academics and leisure readers alike, so dare to be different, will ya?
Jonathan Swift graces the podcast this week as I make a case for his classic, Gulliver's Travels. Toilet humor, penis jokes, and creative fire extinguishing are only the beginning!
It's another Frenchman this week as I talk about Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. Maybe a bit of a drudge, but if I can keep from snoring, so can you!
It took me too long to get to one of my personal favorites! This week, I talk about Bram Stoker's Dracula and why you should read it, even though I'm sure you know how the story goes.
This week I talk about four works, Pamela, Anti-Pamela, Shamela, and Fanny Hill. We go from super virtue to porn in this, so prepare yourselves!
This week we talk about Charlotte Bronte's amazing piece, Jane Eyre and I admit that, like Jane, I used to have a thing for the wrong kind of guy.
This week I make a case for The Count of Monte Cristo, the absolute best revenge book ever written.
This week, I talk about Edith Wharton and her book Ethan Frome. And guess what? There's a movie adaptation that I don't hate! How about that?
This week, we blow the stink off from the last couple of weeks and talk about The Canterbury Tales, a classic that is a freaking JOY to read and research. And I mean that.
This week, I had my childhood ruined, so I'm sharing my misery and talking about Roald Dahl and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
This week I talk about the poetry of T.S. Eliot. There's some fun trivia bits in here that you can use to wow people during your next Zoom meeting, so listen closely!
This week I talk about Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Much of it is still surprisingly relevant today, and I get sidetracked ranting about the joys of the canned meat of my heart, Spam.
This week, I make a case for William Shakespeare, but with a twist. Don't read his plays, watch them! I've got handy dandy links to help you with that in the show notes!
This week we talk about Booker Prize winner, Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee. This is a heavy book, but so very much worth the time.
This week, we finish the four part series on Dante Alighieri and The Divine Comedy. I confuse myself with medieval astronomy, but it's a good time despite that!
This week, we talk about part two of The Divine Comedy, Purgatory. There have been more interesting mountain climbs in history, but this one still has its moments.
This week, we talk about The Inferno, the first part of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. It's a book worth reading, especially if you're a fan of categorizing and efficiency.
This week, we start a four part series on The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. This first part is on the author and how we should all hope to weaponize our anger so gloriously.
Ice cream was the topic of discussion last time and it remained civil! Now let's talk about franchises, horror or otherwise, that were ruined the longer they went on.
There's not much room for jokes this week as I make a case for the literary gut punch that is Flowers for Algernon. I like to listen to Linda Ronstadt's Goodbye My Friend after finishing this book.
Another episode of my rambling in an effort to distract you, my lovely friends, from worrying too much about the outisde world. Today's question is about ice cream. Chime in!
Let's stay engaged and connected during our social isolation. I ask some questions and I'd like your answers! We're in this together, so let's BE together.
This week, we talk about The Aeneid of Virgil. It's not necessarily a favorite read, but there's a lot of circumstances surrounding the work that make it interesting and culturally relevant.
This week, Somer makes a case for The Lord of the Flies and why parties without adult supervision are maybe not as fun as they originally sound, especially with budding tyrants on the guest list.
This week, Somer makes a case for The Odyssey, one of history's greatest epics and I (Somer) tried to make sure to avoid spoilers, which I assure you, was not easy because I could spend all day squealing about this work.
This week, Somer goes ancient with the classic epic poem, The Iliad. Who wrote it and when? Is that even really important? What is important is, where is the stinking horse we all know so well? Listen and find out!
This week, Somer makes a case for a more recent classic, The Satanic Verses. She explains the meaning of the title as well as the book itself. There's also cause for a mini party in this episode regarding movie adaptation.
This week, Somer labors to make a case for a book that she knows will elicit many eyerolls from some listeners, but hang in there anyway! She only ever asks that you give a book a one chapter try, so why not give Pride and Prejudice a shot?
This week, Somer covers the heroic classic, Beowulf. We don't know who wrote it, or when, but we certainly know who's the best hero ever because he tells us. We also know that a certain movie adaptation makes Somer a little loud and grouchy.
This week Somer covers The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel written by infamous zinger, Oscar Wilde. She talks about the touchy stuff concerning the author as well as the silliness of the philisophies within the work.
This week, Somer invites your ire as she both describes her dislike for Mary Shelley's classic, Frankenstein, and insists that you read it if you have not. Her sadistic side maybe?
This week, Somer talks about the first work of famed realist author, Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary is held in high regard, even today and is a beautiful depiction of a complicated woman in literature.
Somer makes a case for Ray Bradbury's iconic classic, Fahrenheit 451 and discusses life v. existence as well as how great wall-sized televisions could be.