Podcast Benomtad

“Little Red Cap:” A little girl, beloved by her grandmother and known for her red cap, is sent by her mother to bring her grandmother a meal.  Little Cap assures her mother she’ll follow all directions, and goes off on the trail.  

She is not afraid of the wolf when she sees him, and he peppers her with questions, learning of her destination, where he’ll get two victims.  They walk together and he points out the natural life arou...

The mermaid's deal with the fisherman: she gives him an abundant catch without telling him, and then takes it away unless he'll agree to her demand.  In order to get his livelihood back he must sacrifice his child to her.  He appeals to a higher authority in a Christian society, and this forstalls the child offering.  These complexities and moral ambiguities remind me of great power negotiations, which, unlike those within a countr...

Why Dionysus May Be the Patron of Theater: A well-told story will shake you and has the power of psychological transformation.  A death to your former self.  A communal experience with a large part of those you grew up with and knew well, seeing a story that you knew deeply, with the reflection of your reactions in the chorus on stage.  It seems that Greek theater could be a transformative religious experience. 

(A Clip from the...

A fisherman employed by a Count that paid him well for how big his catches were suddenly stopped catching fish and was let go.  Sat out on water, weeping.  Mermaid came to him and said she was the one who gave him all the fish and then took them away, and that if he wanted more he’d have to give her something he didn’t know he had.  He agreed and caught a large load.

Went home and shocked his wife with the news– she told him she...

We talk of the danger of applying strict logic to every situation, without using discernment.  But we live in a world with a lot of mystery to our brains.  So you must have wisdom to best know how, when, and how much to apply logic.  Our conversation meanders to Lois Lowry’s “The Giver,” where there is a rigorous discipline around the use of words.  Ian opines that there is an overemphasis on belonging in this society, and he contr...

The king appoints his handsomest soldier to be his bodyguard and sends him to a nobleman with a beautiful daughter.  He tells the daughter not to speak to any soldiers, but she and he grow intimate.  After there is a baby, the nobleman sends the bodyguard away for three feathers from the tail of a dragon who lives on a glass mountain.

On the way, he comes to a country where the king has lost a golden chain, and he is only allowed...

The Princess’s Personal Agenda in “Knapsack, Hat & Horn”

I view this as a cautionary tale: be respectful of someone with great power.  This story also resembles the Von Schönwerth story “The Scorned Princess,” and I talk about that story.  

(From a discussion on the Brothers Grimm’s ”The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn”)

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Ian and I discuss the Greek-Roman god Dionysus-Bacchus.  He reads an Orphic poem and then I gloss various stories put together into a narrative in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.  This is a fascinating discussion of a god with opposing features: of gentleness, compassion, and persuasion, but also of wild revelry, frenzy, and terrible violence.  We discuss this divinity of the vine, of natural vitality cultivated on a structure, and of ...

If you’re mindful, you’re better able to connect to and serve others.  How does one get so?  Getting back to what naturally arises.  

(From a discussion on Von Schönwerth’s “Anna Mayala”)

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https://youtu.be/ZGx8Odijcvo

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/von-schonwerth-s-anna-mayala-forbidden-love-and-time-forever-l...

The Sheriff, out hunting with the town notables, wishes John were with them.  The bugle calls, and back at the castle, John awakens.  He thinks of his compadres over in Sherwood– the green men, and sees how he’s grown fat in the six Fall and Winter months with the Sheriff.  He goes to the pantry and asks the Steward for some meat and bread, and the fat man, envious of John’s closeness to the Sheriff, says it’s too late for breakfas...

Ian and I discuss McLuhan’s difficult Playboy interview where he answers questions about his philosophy of technology.  At the core of our concern is how to live well, connected to people and ourselves as embodied beings, as information technology advances.  Perhaps appropriate to the topic, we do struggle some to get ahold of his philosophy and how to go forward with this concern.  

McLuhan’s 1969 Playboy Interview:

https://web....

an: Rousseau seems to have an inherent faith in nature, in its goodness.  If you believe in that, you have something to aim for, to return to that.  I: Rousseau also says that most virtues are negative.

(From our discussion “Rousseau, Happiness, & Modernity”)

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Three brothers, tired of poverty, go out into the world.  In the forest, they come to a hill of silver and the first brother decides to load his pockets and return home.  The second does so with a hill of gold, but the third goes further into a much-larger forest, one of unknown breadth.  There, starving, he climbs a tree to look around, wishes for food, and finds a knapsack that always provides a feast.

Going on, he finds a succ...

Attention is your light, and that can build if you can keep your attention on it.  It can grow, and we can see it more truly.  Instead of increasing our attention, however, we often instead look for something that seems bright to our minds right now, what is salient, and so forth.  Do not take the world as it presents to you now.

(From our discussion “Rousseau, Happiness, & Modernity”)

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The beautiful Veri and Anna Mayala were in love, but she was poor, and her many suitors were grievous to them.  But finally, they were to be married, and on that date imaginative “Crazy Veri” got a roebuck from the woods for the feast and was walking back to the village.

At a footbridge, his mind wandering, he noticed the moon had already risen, and its reflection shone in the water.  He grew melancholy, and was drawn by sweet me...

About the Merchant’s son’s character: Early in life he showed faith in his father, himself, the world… How did he change?  When he goes back home he is not recognized by the sentries of his hometown.  Then he changes into the shepherd’s garb.  Perhaps there is something of another world to him, and he isn’t to return to this world? 

(From a discussion of “The King of the Golden Mountain,” by the Brothers Grimm)

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Back in the time of small kings, one was riding forth with his retinue from the castle to go hunting.  Three sisters who were watching their cows saw them, and the eldest pointed to the king and said she would marry him, or none.  The second girl answered from the other side of the hill, pointing to the one on the right and saying the same thing.  The king had the three sisters brought to him and confirmed what they had said, and h...

The character of Bearskin: courage, but then he learns perseverance with his seven years of living Hell.  He must live truly wretchedly; he cannot even pray.  

(From a discussion on “Bearskin,” by the Brothers Grimm)

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Audio episode:

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JJ Rousseau wrote in “Emile” that his principle aim in teaching his student is to feel the beautiful of all sorts to fix his tastes on it and prevent his natural appetites from corruption.  In this podcast I try to introduce Ian to Rousseau’s thought and we go off into the wilds of conversation.

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