Want to dig a bit deeper, stretch a bit wider, discover unique insights in your reading? So do I! That's why we literary nomads explore beyond the comfortable beach read. Subscribe for podcasts and video, fiction and poetry, essays and online courses, unexpected freebies, and ways to lever your literacy into activism! For students of all ages, educators of all kinds, and just plain out litterateurs!
On Reading for Action, Uncertainty, & Even Kafka
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17 March 2025 Hard ConversationsHey, all! I've these past two weeks discovered some interesting dynamics in my local efforts to foster healthy book challenge policies: lawyers and leaders are choosing instead to keep their heads down and hope for the best. As one education leader said to me, "We are working to avoid any spotlights." It's a fear response, a kind of paralysis, which we have all seen in countless places across the news. It's also, at its kindness, an unhealthy position for those who hold it and for those in their care. For all of us. I'll have more on my steps in response in the coming weeks, but I'll be clear on my goals: as difficult as it is to speak openly, publicly, about our values, staying silent will not be an easy option. I'll be focusing on counter-values to the fear, watching all the while as I live in what I will describe as a "divided community" on some of these right to read topics. And Hard Productions: Audiobook EverywhereAudiobooks are one of the greatest spoken word challenges I have met. As many have written, what is asked of readers is an entirely different set of skills than we might expect: radio broadcasters, actors, podcasters, and others must adjust their methods. When I tried to add the necessary level of dramatic interpretation to the readings, a sort of hybrid challenge emerged: articulate at a measured and slower pace, not varying tone and volume beyond the barest variables, at a precise measure from a flat-acoustic microphone: Variance? Emotion? Investment in the text? All must come from . . . somewhere else. Doing this in a temporary crafted acoustic sound booth at home took months of learning, hours of takes and re-takes (accompanied by the hours or days of cooldown after a two-hour take was wasted). I'll describe the environs of my 2'x3' booth as . . . febrile. Once I thought I had it (with most interfering electrical and wifi appliances killed off), a plane would fly overhead or a burly neighbor would "roll coal" in front of the house. Then came the meetings with (very kind and patient) audio engineers at Lantern Audio (the distributor) who would coach me in how small Limiter settings could be, what to do with that sibilance, what LUFs levels might be tolerated. After several weeks here of back and forth, including of course more pickups and retakes, they sent the message that they "thought they could work with what I sent." The subtext seemed clear: You got a ways to go, still, buddy, but we've got other projects to get to. I understood. Chastened but far more appreciative of what goes into production in those fancy studios with professionals, I greenlit the production. Nothing about Unwoven was designed for profit. This first book, its Teacher Guide and online course still in production, is for me a worthwhile first step into this full production field, so I was intent upon learning as much as I could. I'm marking this portion a success. Download from one of my favorite sources or anywhere you find your listens.
Literary Nomads and UncertaintyOur first steps away from Marvell find bigger questions emerging from our reading, all coalescing ultimately into something fairly pragmatic: what do I do with it? It's the classic question from younger readers--and never an unjust one--but also from those of us who make hard choices about our time. If we see reading as merely an escape, these are hardly times to set down the proverbial sword or ploughshare for the page. But what if--as we always somehow expect to be true--our reading has more significant work for us, as well? This depends, of course, partly upon what we read, but also upon how we think about what we take from it, what I describe as "What We Carry With Us" (Episode 5.06): these might well be questions too difficult to resolve upon that initial reading and larger than the reading itself. They should be places where we "Read and Live in Uncertainty" (Episode 5.07), places ultimately where we can engage in what so much literature always asks of us: Where we can have "Hard Conversations" (this week's Episode 5.08). Most at issue--in global narratives and our responses to them--is our demand for a single definitive right answer, an absolute assurance. So treacherous is this desire that we blind ourselves to contradiction in order to proceed or find ourselves paralyzed. Uncertainty, when productive and healthy (not an anxiety-laden crisis of danger), is one of the strongest values and practices critical reading offers us; and it's crippling when we don't aspire for it in our conversations in the world. These past episodes have wrestled with these questions as an introduction to what's at stake in using literature, putting reading into practice. Along the way we've touched upon Ralph Ellison, Fitzgerald, William Blake, and others. Here's a preview of what's ahead:
Hope You're Listening!
And don't forget that you can ask a question for the podcast to wrestle with, too!
Previews in TotalitarianismMy first forays into Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism have not disappointed. While I'm certain that I will finish it ahead of schedule, I am also looking at the various ways I want to respond to it, both for myself and for those interested in reading her (or finding a worthy substitute for doing so). So far, I am looking at writing a series of my own reflections, perhaps also in video, but also putting together a lengthy production of notes. I've completed drafts of the first few sections of the book and what I plan. Would love your feedback! Would this be helpful? Is there something more I could/should add? Would audio or video be better or as complement? Would you like to read along and contribute? All are possible!
And Uncertain ValueHow serious can a limerick be, anyway? A busy end-of-month in reading! Early Recommendation from My Reading: The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen“Like the homeless, refugees are living embodiments of a disturbing possibility: that human privileges are quite fragile, that one’s home, family, and nation are one catastrophe away from being destroyed. " First of two books by him I plan to read this year, this short story collection of diverse people experiencing dis-settlings as they adjust to lives in new spaces with uncertain consequences. Each a stand-alone story, not all based from Viet Nam, Nguyen spreads a wider net in raising questions about resettlement and immigration.
from Kafka: A World of TruthThis introduction to Giorgio Fontana's new exploration of Kafka is a treasure in uncertainty: who is Kafka and who is Kafka for us? “Because if we read him carefully, we realise that any unambiguous exegesis is doomed to failure: there’s always a further path that opens, a further bend in the maze: any attempt to make Kafka say only what we would like him to immediately becomes arrogant, even ridiculous: the page immediately says Return to sender.”
Read like you mean it. Talk and write like it matters. Steve What's Ahead?
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Waywords Studio
Want to dig a bit deeper, stretch a bit wider, discover unique insights in your reading? So do I! That's why we literary nomads explore beyond the comfortable beach read. Subscribe for podcasts and video, fiction and poetry, essays and online courses, unexpected freebies, and ways to lever your literacy into activism! For students of all ages, educators of all kinds, and just plain out litterateurs!