Mailbag Time, Nerd-friends!
In which your weirdo questions come front-and-center (also some newsy stuff comes up + some Catcher in the Rye stuff while we're at it)
Boy, y’all are weird. I put out a call on the Facebook group for some questions, said you could ask anything, and you sure did. Ask anything, that is. It’s great. I support it. But let it never be said of us that we’re not a bunch of nerds.
Which is to say, welcome to another edition of the Close Reads Mailbag!
Let’s start with Katie Patton’s question, which is delightful and one worth revisiting like once a week: What word do you love the sound of?
I asked Tim and Heidi this question, and Heidi said that hers is esoteric, which is a great choice. Speaking of which, did you know that the opposite of esoteric is exoteric, which Merriam-Webster defines as “suitable to be imparted to the public",” was first used in 1660, and, strangely, has no sample uses on their website? I’m intrigued by that last bit. Esoteric has five sample uses, but exoteric has zero. Also, the Merriam-Webster rhyming dictionary only includes six total words that rhyme with exoteric. See:
I am tempted to say that my choice would be dysenteric, but that would probably be in bad taste. A few that I love are scansion, eccentric, sequoia, mellifluous, luminescent, and ahem.
Sarah Bergren, then asked: How can a man keep his beard looking well-groomed?
Truthfully, I’m the wrong person to ask about this. I forget about it too often for anyone to say that my beard is “well-groomed.” Meanwhile, Tim spends most of his life beardless. Heidi, too. But there were some good beard oil suggestions on the Facebook thread. Beard oils are pretty useful, and they smell good. Carina rightly noted that you could just leave products on the counter and hope he takes a hint. I have questions, though. First, are we talking about a mountain man/monk beard? Or are we talking about a Samurai beard? Second, do you like said beard? This is key, it seems. Third, does the beard belong to a young man (you know, like your kid) or does it belong to your husband? If it’s your kid, just forget it. Don’t waste your energy. He either wants to look like Westley from Princess Bride or he wants to look like Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean and neither are ideal.
Christina Scott asked: Do you plan on continuing the fund-raiser auction idea for a book's spot on the CR schedule?
Yes, we do! Coming in March or early April. Exact date TBD, but it will absolutely be back. So get ready. If you hate The Catcher in the Rye this will be your chance to pay those auction winners back for their mischief. (If you like it, however, then we chose it on our own and you should review the show wherever you get podcasts with all five stars and a positive written review).
Valerie Abraham asked: Wine or beer? Consider your final answer carefully.
#DefinitelyNotOpinionatedOnThisAtAllButTheresOnlyOneRightAnswer
This feels a lot like a threat, but then so does most of what people write on social media. The part that’s confusing here is the use of the word “final.” Am I supposed to post a series of answers? Do I take you through a stream of consciousness adventure through my mind until I arrive at a Final Decision and as I try to answer the question in the most satisfying way but if I do that then do I have to make sure that you, the reader, is satisfied or just that I am satisfied and in the end what is satisfaction anyway, it’s really hard to quantify, I can’t imagine finding a way to make everyone satisfied and then no matter what I say I’m going to think of some reasonable reason why beer is better than wine but in fact, everyone knows that isn’t true, just ask books, and if I spend too much time on this I’m going to find myself at the bottom of a wikipedia hole because I started researches varietals and regions and breweries an ingredients and the history of hops and that reminds me of my three-year-old who said on Sunday (very loudly) that the communion wine gets made up at the alter during the service and all they have to do is mash up a bunch of grapes in the fancy cup and then pour in some water and then pray over it and voila! and that reminds me that wine is good enough for the Church so it’s good enough for me.
Nancy DeHaven Hall asked: How do I improvise over a fully diminished seventh chord, and what is a good way to practice that? #yousaidanything
Erin Azar asked: Recommendations for books that would help someone who feels like dabbling in film criticism? (In all of her non-existent spare time?)
See, now this is a question I can answer. Here are some titles you should check out. Jeffrey Overstreet, one of the best Christian film critics working today, wrote a worthwhile book called Through A Screen Darkly. It’s very readable, explores films from plenty of genres and eras, and is a great option for young film enthusiasts, too. David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film is worth adding to your library, as is Leo Baudy and Marshall Cohen’s Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings (from the 1970’s—a classic). In my opinion, the most important books of film criticism ever written were Andrei Tarkovsky’s Sculpting in Time, and Andre Bazin’s two-volume set, What is Cinema?. That’s the gold-standard right there. Also: definitely check out A.O. Scott’s recent book, Better Living Through Criticism, Anthony Lane’s collection of essays, Nobody’s Perfect, and any number of Pauline Kael’s books, if you want to deep-dive. It can’t hurt to read some of the classics of film history, but that’s a different question/answer. (Those are all affiliate links, by the way. Full disclosure and what not —you can support the show when you buy, is what I’m saying).
Hayley Croft asks: How much time do you spend reading each week in preparation for the podcast?
This varies from book-to-book and person-to-person. Heidi says she spends about an hour a week reading, Tim says he’s closer to two, and I’m somewhere in between. But that depends on how many shows we are doing in a given week. Sometimes we’re recording multiple shows on multiple books, so you have to account for that. This doesn’t count other research, of course, or any production work.
Reed Taze Charles asks: Tips on close reading for those who REFUSE to write in/highlight in books?
First:
But also: Commonplace, take pictures of passages with your phone and keep them in Evernote, keep a reading journal where you index notes, and then maybe try asking a friend to keep a copy of the book for you where you can just keep your notes like a normal person.
Tabitha Mudd asks (among other questions I didn’t try to answer this time): Should you put a penny in a pennyloafer?
A penny loafer is for two things: pennies and lazy feet.
Jennica Ralston asks: Camels. Good, bad, ugly?
Yes.
Tracey Hentz Leary asks: If I’m not too late—when can we look for the bracket this year and what will be the theme?
Great questions Tracey. You can look for the bracket in early March and our 2020 theme is . . . romance related . . .
The Catcher in the Rye Stuff
Want to learn more about Catcher? Here’s some links to get your deep-dive started.
Here is the original 1951 review of the book in The New Yorker
Back in August, the Guardian asked whether today’s young readers were turning on Salinger’s book
And here is Robert McCrum on why it’s one of the 100 best novels of last century
Reminders
Here’s the reading schedule for Catcher in the Rye.
Week of 2/12: Chapters 1-9
Week of 2/19: Chapters 10-17
Week of 2/26: Chapters 18-27
Week of 3/4: Q&A
And, after that, we will respond to Holden’s cynicism with Anne’s earnestness in Anne of Green Gables!
Also:
Did you miss the news about the 2020 Close Reads Retreat on Wendell Berry? There are a few spots left. You should come retreat with us.
Here’s the whole 2020 schedule with Amazon affiliate links and so forth.
You can sign up for (or give the gift of) Audible and support the show at the same time.
We just launched a new podcast hosted by Noah Teztner (The History of Vikings), called Victoria’s World that is all about the history of the Victorian Era in England and it’s fascinating and you should listen to it post-haste. 7 of the 15 episodes are up. Check it out here or wherever you get pods.
The Play’s the Thing will be back in late February with all five episodes of a series on As You Like It.
And, of course, we have begun our Patreon-exclusive shows on Crime and Punishment. Join us? This helps us pay the contributors to be on the show, Logan to edit it, and for the various fees that it costs to get the shows to you. And it gives you access to some of our favorite shows in recent memory.
Thanks so much for being our partners in this whole endeavor.
Until next time: happy reading.
—David