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This week on Need To Know, more people watching with Jay and Mona. Today’s hit parade includes John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, Joe Biden, Jane Austen, Chris Christie, Chopin, Bill Buckley, Al Sharpton, and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
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EJHill is our Darcy.
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JohaNn.
Links ain’t linking.
nor for me
“BYC” — cute.
The link is as dead as Barack Obama’s conscience. Please fix it soon.
Fixed!! My apologies.
Nope. The Epstein Yoo podcast boys plays but the Charen Nordlinger podcast is still Dodoville for moi.
D.O.A. @ 16:14 Central Time.
Doc, where are you trying to play this podcast? I’m not seeing (hearing?) the error you are describing.
The poster above with Jay and Mona is stupendous.
Blue Yeti.. I now have the Sabre Dance booming out..one two three and we are Go for Need To Know! Thanks.. and throttle up..
Jay looks so good with hair, I want to see him jump in the lake.
Obama and the Iranian non- election
Obama Superstar.
Obama Hey bama bama bama O bama Obama Hey bama.. either stand with me or your not with me bama O bama Hey bama Hey superstar..
John Kerry plays a part too..
I posted this last year re a Ricochet topic about Austen.
An interesting thing about Jane Austen and the power behind her writing..
“Therefore, I found it surprizing to read that soldiers in WWI carried Jane Austen’s novels into the trenches, and they were especially recommended to soldiers suffering from shell-shock. What is it about these novels that they were prescribed by doctors as a form of treatment for those whose profession, arguably, can be considered the most masculine?”
As for the sequester hysteria, as always,the Democrats are playing the long game, if there is this much angst and discomfort over a $15 Billion INCREASE, will anyone in the future have the strength to attempt an actual cut? I doubt it. Harry Reid actually fought to retain the $25k for the Cowboy Poetry Festival, how will it ever be possible to cut NPR, ACORN (it’s still there, don’t kid yourself), Planned Parenthood and the rest. The Dems know the Republicans don’t have the wherewithal to fight to the death over ever dime the way they do. Every Republican knows that any cut to anything will bring the world down on your head, how many are up to the never ending battle.
To Zach Franzen – a beautiful example. Self improvement a far higher calling than self-esteem.
Also, I promised to provide a link to the Chinese prodigy: Here it is.
Eager to hear how people respond to Hummel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSYS2YzpNR4
Help me win the argument with Jay!
Thanks much for the episode, and the superb poster!
The Family Tall (Mr, Mrs and 10-year-old daughter) is Austen-crazed, so I greatly enjoyed the brief journey into the land of Jane.
Like Jay, I’d never connected with Jane Austen, even when reading two of her novels as an undergrad English major. But then years later I came across a reference to C S Lewis’s love of reading Austen in his rare moments of leisure. Perhaps not coincidentally, Lewis did serve in the WWI trenches . . . . In any case, I figured ‘Good enough for Lewis; good enough for me’, so I gave Austen another try, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I find the moral and cultural orderliness of Austen’s world particularly comforting in these chaotic and depressing days. It reminds me that although human nature never changes, the times do.
I enjoyed this podcast. I enjoyed Mona’s point about using literature to import virtues from an earlier time. It reminded me of a devotional chapter by Theologian and pastor John Piper. He remarks on a book published in 1997 called The Body Project that examines diary entries from adolescent girls from the 1830s all the way to the 1990s.
Two entries for comparison:
“Resolved…to think before speaking. To work seriously. To be self-restrained in conversations and actions. To be dignified. Interesting myself more in others.” (1892)
“I will try to make myself better in any way I possibly can with the help of my budget and baby-sitting money. I will lose weight, get new lenses, already got new haircut, good makeup, new clothes and accessories.” (1982)
I feel like I’m on Dynasty.
Re:Austen, my anecdotal experience is proof of exactly nothing, but I’ll offer it anyway.
I was assigned Austen for the first time as a high school freshman. Bad, bad idea. Boys at that age will not appreciate what there is to appreciate in Austen, we’ll most likely be bored by her–our passions are oriented differently and need to be guided differently by teachers who understand the arts and the souls of their students. More Melville or Conrad, Twain, Dumas or Dickens at that age for boys (among others).
When I later re-read Austen a bit over a decade later, I had a much better sense of what she was after and appreciated her far more. In the intervening time, I had learned to begin to listen to the still, small voices in a book, as well has having had more experience in life and love, and my aesthetic tastes had changed as a result.
Today, some years on again, Pride and Prejudice and, especially, Persuasion, are high on my list of favorite novels.
Jay,
The philosopher you were looking for is J. L. Austin, author of Sense and Sensibilia.
Candy Crowley is persona non gratia for as long as the ill effects of President Obama’s 2nd term are felt.
Pushing back on a minor cabinet official on a show nobody watches isn’t even the first step on the million-mile journey to redemption which she is unlikely to undertake.
And with respect the adds to the Executive Branch: Hagel, Kerry, and Lew. The American people have made their choice, now they can begin to reap the consequences.
Help me win the argument with Jay!
I don’t know enough about classical music to argue with Jay’s assessment of J. N. Hummel, but he was right about M. I. Hummel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummel_figurines
By the way, if someone were to write a Concerto like this today, he would called a prodigy or a genius.
Hi Mona and Jay
I don’t know quite how to express it, but each of your podcasts leaves me feeling somehow uplifted and reminded of the nobler virtues, despite the gloom of the topics you treat. I have a growing reading list thanks to your recommendations, and I would like a classical music 101 listening list. It’s time I found out what the fuss is about. Can you give me a couple of leads?
Thanks so much for your podcasts.