With Rachael

Episode 19: "The Silver Key" by H.P. Lovecraft

I put a few authors we hadn’t read before on a random wheel and spun it. Unfortunately this is the story the wheel chose for us and I’m not really convinced the author or the story is actually something I’ll ever want to read again. The story isn’t bad, it just doesn’t fit what I would consider to be intriguing. The sentence structure is very long, and almost feels like the story is composed of run on sentences strung together with paperclips and hope. If you’re like me, and listen to podcasts to fall asleep to, this one might be the one you repeat over and over again. This story can be summed up quickly. The main character has been conditioned by the world to hide his true thoughts about the world and the world that lives in his dreams. He becomes bothered with the perspectives of people living in the “real” world, calling them and their aspirations shallow and fickle. He lives in this world so much that the one he built in his dreams becomes inaccessible, and the longing to visit grows. Everything changes when he finds this silver key hidden by generations and generations of his family. I hope you enjoy this episode. Be sure to Like, Comment, or Share this episode with your friends! Goodnight, Rachael The music for this podcast was provided by Miles Agean. Check out his album, Alpenglow, on Apple Music & Spotify. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit withrachaelpodcast.substack.com [https://withrachaelpodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 18: "The Camel's Back" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

We do what we can to mitigate the pain of heartbreak. Some people cry in bed. Some people eat everything they have in their fridge. Some people dust themselves off, put on a camel costume and go to a party. Our main character and his partner are minutes away from signing the marriage license when they break up. Since both of them are a part of the upper echelon, they have to understand that they’ll see each other frequently, but not like this. F. Scott Fitzgerald has a lot of haters. Whether they hated Gatsby, or are disgusted with how he treated his wife, Zelda. Using her diary as content, publishing her work under his name, or putting her in the psych ward, to name a few of the most annoying actions. My only gripe with him and this story, though the theme seems to run throughout some of the other stories we’ve read so far - the description of black people in stories in the mid 1950s and earlier. I get it. Things were different back then, blah blah blah. It’s so disheartening and annoying to read about black people in stories from this time period where as soon as it’s mentioned that they’re “negro”, which is right away, the dialogue for that character consists of some corny exaggerated accent, and the overall demeanor of that person is meant to feel poor, or stupid, or less. The character is a part of that group but not in status of education level. It’s also becoming clearer to me how hypocritical it is for people this day and age to say, “Black People make everything about race!” when race in these short stories is always established when a character is black, but not to describe the main characters, whom we can only perceive as white. I hope you enjoy this episode. Be sure to Like, Comment, or Share this episode with your friends! Goodnight, Rachael The music for this podcast was provided by Miles Agean. Check out his album, Alpenglow, on Apple Music & Spotify. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit withrachaelpodcast.substack.com [https://withrachaelpodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 17: "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

If I ever meet Nathaniel Hawthorne in the afterlife, he’ll never know peace. This story is about a successful scientist named Aylmer who falls and love and marries the most beautiful woman, Georgiana. The men want to be with her. The women are jealous of her. The only flaw she has is a tiny birthmark in the shape of an infant hand on her cheek. The birthmark is a little red, so when she blushes, the mark fades. When she’s pale, the mark is more pronounced. As soon as Aylmer, (who even names their kid Aylmer?) marries her, he becomes disgusted with the fact that she has this birthmark and begins to make her physically uncomfortable in her skin. I’m not a man hater by any means. I have my personal opinions about the roles that men and women play in society, but I also have doubts that a woman would ever do something like this. This guy Aylmer has some nerve. I hope you enjoy this episode. Be sure to Like, Comment, or Share this episode with your friends! Goodnight, Rachael The music for this podcast was provided by Miles Agean. Check out his album, Alpenglow, on Apple Music & Spotify. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit withrachaelpodcast.substack.com [https://withrachaelpodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 16: "The Argonauts of the Air" by H.G. Wells

I want to get something off my chest. I feel as though it’s been a long time since our last TRUE invention. A tangible thing that flips the entire world on its’ axis hasn’t been released in a long time. Don’t fight me. This story is all about an inventor investing all of his time and money into this flying machine. The papers, his community, and passersby mock him and laugh at this seemingly unattainable goal. They see him as a joke, which starts to get into his head. Inventors have to be very brave and strong to do what they do. The constant noise and criticism can be overwhelming, and may derail the process. It’s not for the weak and takes a lot of dedication to filter out the negative voices. Can you think of an invention you’d like to see? Or are you like me, in thinking we’ve done so much, there’s not really more tangible inventions to be created? Let’s chat in the comments. I hope you enjoy this episode. Be sure to Like, Comment, or Share this episode with your friends! Goodnight, Rachael The music for this podcast was provided by Miles Agean. Check out his album, Alpenglow, on Apple Music & Spotify. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit withrachaelpodcast.substack.com [https://withrachaelpodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 15: "Autumn Flowers" by Aleksandr Kuprin

Wow. What a story. The first story on this podcast that made me think, “I should call him… Actually, I most definitely should not. ” This story is written as a letter from one woman to an old lover. She’s actively running away from meeting him one last time because she realizes that nothing can come from another reunion. As the woman recounts the beautiful moments between them, oh so long ago, she comes to think about how their love had reached an end. She ruminates on how it felt to be in the same room again, as two different people, recounting their memories as adults mock their actions as young children. This story is poignant and tells a tale as old as time. Two people deeply in love, growing apart, and coming together once again and unearthing those old feelings. The line that sticks out most to me? When the protagonist is thinking about what would happen if they continued to spend time together, she says “We would have robbed those dead people by substituting for our love of the past a fake and ludicrous make-believe. And the dead people would have cruelly avenged themselves by creating between us quarrels, distrust, coldness, and - what is more terrible than all the rest - a ceaseless jealous comparison of the present with the past.” These two people were together for a long time in an undetermined time in the past. They have both grown, become more attractive, and experienced life away from each other. If they started seeing each other again, they would be constantly comparing each other to past versions of themselves, unable to see a future with each other through the nebulus of time between their past relationship and the current one. That love that was dead would be revived only to destroy them. Is this woman making excuses or is she just incredibly self aware? In our everyday lives we often see our friends wanting to give their exes another chance. Send this to that friend in hopes that they see the same thing as I do. Sometimes the memories of that love are better than how the love itself in those moments felt, and it’s easier to come to terms with that, than reignite and get burned. Maybe your friend should get on the train and leave, just like this main character. Like, Comment, or Share if you liked this episode. Goodnight! The music for this podcast was provided by Miles Agean. Check out his album, Alpenglow, on Apple Music & Spotify. Goodnight! x Rachael This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit withrachaelpodcast.substack.com [https://withrachaelpodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]