Island Idylls riffs on books and life with Barry Menikoff. Author of Stone Mother, Brooklyn born and bred, retired Hawaii university professor, international scholar. Evangelical pastor Aaron Menikoff, author of Politics and Piety, spices this dialogue between father and son. Both chasing that elusive line in an old song, What's it all about, Alfie?
Publisher
Barry Menikoff, Aaron Menikoff
Category
arts · religion & spirituality · society & culture
In their last episode of season three, the Menikoffs discuss one of the most interesting writers of the twentieth century, Flannery O’Connor.
Her stories, categorized in the genre of Southern Literature or Gothic Literature, are dark, realistic, and reflective of the South in her generation.
A Roman Catholic, O’Connor rejects the existentialism of other, famous, twentieth-century authors. But there is no sappy Christianese on the pages of her stories. She writes of horror, but she leaves room for hope, too.
Barry and Aaron talk about “Revelation,” “The LIfe You Save May Be Your Own,” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge.”
18 Aug 2021
35 - Hemingway, Regret, and Death
Everybody’s heard of Ernest Hemingway, that leader of the “Lost Generation” and author of The Old Man and the Sea. By most accounts he wasn’t what we’d consider a “good” man but he was a writer of unparalleled skill.
Barry and Aaron look at three of his short stories: “The Killers,” “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” The main thread tying each story together is death, it’s inevitability, and how people respond to it.
Does Hemingway believe life has meaning? Not really, at least not more than any individual can give to it. Aaron disagrees, but that’s what makes their conversations so interesting.
28 Jul 2021
34 - “Look it Up!” - A Dive Into the Dictionary
For those keeping track, this may be the only podcast episode on the dictionary out there!
In this episode, Barry and Aaron take a break from the short story to think and talk about English dictionaries. Where did they come from, what are they, and why do they matter? Are dictionaries prescriptive--telling you what words should mean or descriptive--reflecting how we use words today? In the world of Google does anyone even need a dictionary today?
Speaking of words, they begin this episode with a brief discussion of plagiarism, the stealing of someone else’s words.
Take a break and enjoy a conversation you won’t hear anywhere else.
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