The Reader and the Writer

“This is my story, my giving of thanks.” —Hannah Coulter (p. 5)

Welcome to Hannah Coulter, by Wendell Berry. In this episode, Rhea and Shari discuss the power of Wendell’s work in and for their lives. They talk about his way of seeing every single thing that opens up to us a story that, as Hannah writes in the beginning: weighs upon us, presses against us and fills all our senses to overflowing (paraphrased from p. 5). They discuss the long-view narrative structure (much like Crossing to Safety), memory, and the trinitarian life hidden in plain sight. They talk about Hannah’s beginning that is a continuation of Nathan’s ending, the story that is her story, Nathan’s story, their story together. They talk about the humility of knowing one’s own neediness, the golden threads of love and gratitude, kindness that keeps alive, and her unique way of describing what it is to be “in love.” They talk about the light that shines in darkness and never goes out calling us always back into life (paraphrased from p 57). Of course, they talk about Membership.
They do none of this while maintaining dry eyes.
Below is our reading schedule:
* Chapters 1-7: June 23
* Chapters 8-15: June 30
* Chapters 16-24: July 7
Further Wendell Berry Resources:
* The Berry Center
* Berry Center Bookstore
* Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
The Wendell Berry poem I (Shari) keep on my desk:
IX.
The incarnate Word is with us,is still speaking, is presentalways, yet leaves no signbut everything that is.
(from: This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems)

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“The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.” —Sixo to Paul D.
Only this woman, Sethe could have left him his manhood like that. He wanted to put his story next to hers.

Welcome to our final episode of Beloved, by Toni Morrison. In this episode, Shari and Rhea discuss the first images, and any Scripture that came to them when they finished the novel. They discussed axes, fruit, chopping down, our creature limitations and the devastations we aren’t meant to carry. They discuss the four strange chapters at the beginning of this section; the “thoughts of the women of 124, unspeakable thoughts, unspoken.” (235) They read aloud the unspoken conversation and discuss the ways in which, when read this way, it sounds a little like the call and response of a Black Spiritual. They discuss why possession v. love, why the women of the community were the only ones who could exorcise Beloved, and Paul D was the only one who could heal Sethe’s brokenness. Finally, they ask themselves: “What do I say is my best thing? What do I act like is my best thing?”
Our next book is Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. We will read it over three weeks.
Here is the breakdown:
* June 23: Chapters 1-7
* June 30: Chapters 8-15
* July 7: Chapters 16-24
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“What is it you gentlemen are thinking of when you are with Mrs. Casaubon?”
“Herself,” said Will…. When one sees a perfect woman, one never thinks of her attributes—one is conscious of her presence.” (409)

Welcome back to Middlemarch. In this episode, Shari & Rhea discuss beauty and love from multiple characters’ perspectives. What is love and beauty according to Will Ladislaw? Lydgate? Rosamond? Dorthea? They talk about Farebrother and the apostolic question surrounding Dorthea and Lydgate’s conversation: What does “apostolic” mean? What has it become in the world of Middlemarch? How is all this apostolic talk relevant with the question of the Reform Bill looming in the background? Finally, they discuss the dead hand. Is there more than one dead hand? What are all the ways these dead hands are affecting the living?
Next month, is Book 6 (only three books left!). That episode is set to air the second Friday of July. Between now and then, consider making a Casaubon/Ladislaw family tree. It may just come in handy as you continue to read!
Here is the R&W outline for Middlemarch, Book 5 for your personal use:
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Welcome back to Beloved. In this episode, Rhea and Shari discuss the way this section of the story has a sense of suspendedness to it in ways that are hard to understand or explain. They discuss this phenomena through the unique p.o.v.’s: Baby Suggs (beyond the grave), the “four horsemen,” and Stamp Paid. They discuss the moments of “communion” happening and what each one is signifying, pointing toward and away from. They talk about the way the back and forth of the narrative time leaves them feeling suspended over time itself, and the implications of this for the characters, especially Sethe who is now anxious to live in the “no-time” behind the locked door of 124 with Denver and Beloved.
And because so much of this story leaves them beyond the realm of understanding, they end with poetry from Gwendolyn Bennett: “Epitaph.”
Epitaph by Gwendolyn Bennett
When I am dead, carve this upon my stone:
Here lies a woman, fit root for flower and tree,
Whose living flesh, now mouldering round the bone,
Wants nothing more than this for immortality,
That in her heart, where love so long unfruited lay
A seed for grass or weed shall grow,
And push to light and air its heedless way;
That she who lies here dead may know
Through all the putrid marrow of her bones
The searing pangs of birth,
While none may know the pains nor hear the groans
Of she who lived with barrenness upon the earth.

Next week Rhea and Shari will discuss the final portion Beloved: pp. 236-323.
The next book they are deep reading is Hannah Coulter, by Wendell Berry (yay!!)

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Welcome back to Beloved, by Toni Morrison. In this episode, Shari and Rhea discuss the novel in a bit of a different way, that is, in the way of movement. What is the push and pull of each character? Where is the status quo that each is continually striving for and what is the continual element disrupting that design? Where and when and to who is each character saying yes, or no to, and what is the resulting consequence of that decision—however conscious or unconscious that may be. All these things help reveal a movement happening: for the characters individually, and the story as a whole. And how is memory involved in all this movement? How is it pushing, pulling, causing, disrupting, animating, and fragmenting these people, their lives, and our lives, too?
If you missed our last episode, you can listen to it here:
You also may like reading my most recent essay asking the question: Could AI ever get so good that it could write Beloved??
Thanks for listening to this episode of The Reader & the Writer. If you liked this post, show it some ❤️ and share it with others. .

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