Literate Sleep

Podcast door Rick Whitaker

Engels

Gezondheid & Persoonlijke Ontwikkeling

Tijdelijke aanbieding

2 maanden voor € 1

Daarna € 9,99 / maandElk moment opzegbaar.

20 uur luisterboeken / maand
Podcasts die je alleen op Podimo hoort
Gratis podcasts

Begin hier

Over Literate Sleep

Rick Whitaker, author and host of the nocturnal podcast Literate Sleep, reads aloud from literary texts that you can enjoy while falling asleep. These are not cliffhangers or thrillers. They’re citizens of the low country, content to amble along to see whatever happens to be there--fabulous but fully self-evident literary landscapes without the promise of climax, epiphany, or resolution. These texts could go on, it seems, forever, which is not to say that they’re boring. They're not. Among the writers whose work will be featured in future episodes are, for instance, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Lynch, W. G. Sebald, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Richard Howard, Ronald Firbank, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Marcel Proust, Toni Morrison, William James, Edith Hamilton, and the list could go on and on--you could be put to sleep by the list itself. But as a reader with a severe allergy to boredom, Rick Whitaker will always strive to put you to sleep with texts that will not bore you. In his quiet readings without music, these literary texts will lull you, pacify you, and induce you to sweet, smart dreams. The first episode is a reading of a 1913 story by the Swiss writer Robert Walser. Born in 1878, Walser was a dropout from school at 14. In his 50s he retired to a sanatorium where, he said, he went “not to write, but to be mad.” "Kleist in Thun" is his homage to the German poet Heinrich von Kleist. Following the Walser story, a page from James Joyce's famously inscrutable novel Finnegans Wake. But you’ll be sound asleep by then. Literate sleep.

Alle afleveringen

15 afleveringen

Ivy Compton-Burnett's Mother and Son, Part 3

Tonight I'll read Part Three of Ivy Compton-Burnett's acid-washed comedy of manners, her 1955 award-winning novel Mother and Son.

9 jul 2025 - 50 min

Ivy Compton-Burnett's "Mother and Son" Part Two

Tonight I’ll read Part Two of Ivy Compton-Burnett’s 1955 novel Mother and Son.

27 jun 2025 - 1 h 4 min

Ivy Compton-Burnett's "Mother and Son" part 1

Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969) is one of the great geniuses of fiction. Her novels, while seeming to be constrained and small, are in fact the opposite: they freely explore and reveal the wide intelligences and feelings among people. Reading them is a deep and addicting pleasure. Compton-Burnett is a novelist one wishes were still alive to write another book. Mother and Son is the only one of her 20-odd novels to have received a prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, upon its publication in 1955. It is one of my favorite novels.

20 jun 2025 - 1 h 0 min

Fathers and Sons: an anti-celebration

Tonight I’ll read my anti-celebration of Father’s Day, a text I’ve compiled over many years that was inspired by the late works of novelist David Markson. “Fathers and Sons” presents fathers and fatherhood at their worst. I realize, of course, that not all fathers are execrable and a precious few are exemplary if not even virtuous. I am blessed to have an unofficially adopted father who has saved my life countless times and is the person I go to for answers when I’m most at a loss. He has never failed me, and I salute Dennis Snell in Dayton, Ohio. He has my lifelong devotion and love. I hope you, too, have a good father figure in your life. Biological fathers in my own experience have been more trouble than they were worth, and the text I’ll read now proves it. I hope you’ll enjoy the story even if there’s little in it that’s enjoyable. It’s meant, among other things, to be funny. So I invite you to lie down and get comfortable, settle in, close your eyes, and get some good, literate sleep.

13 jun 2025 - 39 min

Quentin Crisp's "Manners from Heaven"

To celebrate Pride month worldwide, tonight I’ll read two short essays by Quentin Crisp from his 1984 book “Manners from Heaven.” I had dinner once with Mr. Crisp many years ago, so I can attest that he was as well-mannered in life as he still is in print. I recall him asking few, if any, questions and listening attentively while focusing on the meal that was provided to both of us for free. He had just given a talk at the New York Public Library, and it was I who had urged the director of the series, a close friend, to invite him. It was a pleasant evening. I wouldn’t normally bother to celebrate Gay Pride, but nowadays one must do what one can to kick against the pricks.

1 jun 2025 - 39 min

Super app. Onthoud waar je bent gebleven en wat je interesses zijn. Heel veel keuze!

Makkelijk in gebruik!

App ziet er mooi uit, navigatie is even wennen maar overzichtelijk.

Kies je abonnement

Meest populair

Tijdelijke aanbieding

Premium

20 uur aan luisterboeken