A podcast should have a point to make and an audience in mind. The Canon Ball is the epitome of that. If you’re a history buff and a literature aficionado, these guys were born to make you smile.
Imagine your summer goal is to read all the books in Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. You’d have to have a bunch of extra time, of course, but it would be a grand goal. Claude and Dan, the hosts of The Canon Ball, want to help you.
They are attempting to read all of the pieces Bloom—the Yale academic who bemoans the shifts to the academic curriculum over the course of his lifetime in this piece—highlights.
Claude and Dan try to work through each book from a couple of different contexts. They cover the historical context of the situation that created the writing and the critical context—how this stuff has been analyzed and handed down over the years.
And then they discuss how they appreciate or under-appreciate the work itself. While I love getting the historical and critical context, I just like someone more educated than I helping me to really appreciate these works. Claude and Dan provide the a-ha moments I seek.
June 2021 Issue
