Ep 89: Author Martin Matthews on his Dream Chasers Trilogy

Martin Matthews is the author of four published novels, including The Dream Chasers trilogy and the Pencraft Award-winning The Graveyard Girl and the Boneyard Boy. The final book of his trilogy, Moria Versus the Universe, was just released in November 2021. Martin is a friend of mine (Chris) and we have had numerous discussions over the years about writing, the creative process, God, grief, not feeling like we belong anywhere, being consummate curmudgeons, politics, and schmolitics. Our conversation for this episode continues in that line, though here he goes into detail about the world building of his trilogy of novels, how it is a meditation on the possible future of humanity, and why exactly Stephen King is an utter failure (you heard it here first!). Martin came along in my life at a particularly pivotal moment. I was transitioning out of a job and had no idea where I was going. As our friendship formed he offered me a lot of encouragement and the simple excitement of talking with someone about writing, creativity, and all the ideas that fill our heads. For that I will always be grateful.

You can discover more about Martin at his website: https://martinmatthewswrites.com/ or purchase his books through his Amazon author page. 

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Ep 29: Melody Green—Tolkien Scholar
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PCR Podcast Ep29: Dr. Melody Green—Tolkien Scholar

Dr. Melody Green, Dean of Urbana Theological Seminary, is the organizer of the 5th annual Tolkien Conference. She herself is a literature scholar, having published and researched on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and George MacDonald. The 2016 conference is November 5 at Grace Community Church in Champaign, Illinois. Please visit http://tolkienconference.com/ for registration info and topics to be presented. This episode's conversation focuses on the conference, the place of Tolkien's work in today's world, and a side chat about Lewis' enigmatic novel Till We Have Faces. This year's keynote talk is Professor Mike Foster's interview with Colin Havard, the son of one of the Inklings. You can listen to my interview with Professor Foster here: Episode 15: Mike Foster Tolkien Scholar and Author.

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Related Podcast Episodes:
Ep. 29: Melody Green—Tolkien Scholar
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PCR Podcast Ep28: Dialogues With Brandon—What makes a great novel?

In the latest "Dialogue With Brandon," Brandon and I discuss what it takes to make a great novel. We are both attempting to write a novel and so we hammer out what makes for great plot and great characters. Is it OK to use cliches? Should our characters be composites of real people we know? Should we use brand names of different products and stores? On and on we go in pursuit of the Great American Novel. 
Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, Tunein, and PocketCasts.

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Episode 15: Mike Foster Tolkien Scholar and Author

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Infinite Jest: a typical reading experience

Why Study Literature? A concise answer

This year at the school where I am a headmaster I am teaching a combined history, literature, and writing class to Jr. High students. As an introduction to my students and parents I have composed a brief document explaining as simply as possible why we take the time to read "stories" in our school and am sharing it here in this space as well.

Introduction to Literature Class

Let me let you in on a little secret.

There are only a few things we try to accomplish in a literature class, only a few things that actually need to get done.

The Basic Principles of History

This year at the school where I am a headmaster I am teaching a combined history, literature, and writing class to Jr. High students. Over the past few months I have been compiling a number of what I would call "Principles of History" mostly out of my own contemplation but also stemming from my recent readings of history. My plan is to discuss these principles everyday with my class, giving them the basic list only and not the writing that goes with it. Each day I will let them pick the principle they are most curious about as a discussion starter. May they be an aid to starting your own discussions...

Infinite Jest: A Typical Reading Experience

I have been reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace for quite some time now.  I have not talked or written about it much. Simply put, I have not really even known how to.   Most of the time, while reading it at home, I just stop, look up at my wife, and say only with my facial expression "there's no way I can even talk to you about what I'm reading".

In the purest sense I can think of, reading this novel has been a singular experience.  Perhaps this is true of all literature; that reading is a solitary act consisting of not merely going over a story from point to point but of immersively enjoying the art of logically strung together words over the course of a narrative.  But I have a feeling David Foster Wallace in his writing meant to give us a particular kind of "singular experience" that can only be experienced in the thing itself, making it imperative to read over every word; a kind of work that could be recounted in various anecdotes to someone who has read it as well ("Do you remember the part when Hal...") but as soon as one begins the description of any one scene they immediately begin to realize the inadequacy of their recounting and are then drawn to just go to the section itself and read it aloud.  Meaning, Wallace wrote a novel that cannot simply be talked about (or for that matter made into movie or TV show), but has to be read.

If only we could have gotten inside DFW's head...

So, apart from reading the entire work aloud with a devoted group of people (which would be some strange social experiment, let me tell you) or to meet with a meticulously detailed book group (e.g., "For this week's meeting--#179 of 470 planned--we're going to be discussing pages 358-359, wherein Done Gately has his dream about the smiley-faced figure with the shepherd's crook and how this relates to 12-step programs and people trying to overcome substance abuse, as well as reflecting on the use of dream sequences within a narrative as a way of communicating deeper truths by means of symbolism"), which I am sure has been done, it is a very difficult work to even begin sharing about what it is "about"--its scope, its themes, its characters, its settings.  Its about everything and yet its about a long list of really specific and odd things (e.g., even though most of the story is based in a prep school tennis academy and a halfway house for substance abusers, undergirding the narrative is an alternate history of a (near) future (semi-)dystopian (North) America which contains within it a group of Quebecoise nationalist activists. Oh yeah, and there is also a lot in there about avant garde film history. Does that follow?).

And but so the reason I am writing this blog post is that in the current passage of Infinite Jest I am reading, something just happened to me as a reader that continues to happen again and again throughout the book: my reading of the text breaks down and I have to consult something outside the text in order to help me to comprehend the text.  Now, all good literature should be challenging and have words that extend beyond any reader's current vocabulary; this is part of the joy of reading, this act of discovery. But I am beginning to think that Wallace actually intended for his readers to have this constant breaking down when engaging his text(s), because for me I could potentially have a "reading breakdown" every 2-4 pages.  Let me explain.

Summer Reading List (2013)

I always get very excited for my summers, for with the end of the school year comes the opportunity to do all (or some) of things I had no time to do in the midst of the busyness of it all (such as writing blogs).  Last year I made a to-do list (a decent amount of which I accomplished) and a reading list (most of which I never got to).  I have decided to make a reading list yet again, and I have high hopes to finish most of it this time (My current list is much shorter and I am only watching one television show right now [Battlestar Galactica] which hopefully will not distract me too much).  This list is similar to last year's list but with a number of variances.

I am excited about this list!  I share it with everyone in the hopes that you will all discover some books you have never heard of before or to motivate you to read some of the books that are on your own lists.

Reading is so much fun and is so rewarding! I say this not as a teacher but as a human. Yay reading!!!