{"podcast":{"title":"The Literary Life Podcast","slug":"the-literary-life-podcast-743688","podcast_index_feed_id":743688,"rss_url":"https://theliterarylife.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.theliterary.life/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/8/4/b/0/84b00ee61f70f70b/3000x_podcast_logo.png","author":"Angelina Stanford","episode_count":327,"summary":"Not just book chat! The Literary Life Podcast is an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well and the lost intellectual tradition needed to fully enter into the great works of literature. Experienced teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks (of www.HouseOfHumaneLetters.com) join lifelong reader Cindy Rollins (of www.MorningtimeForMoms.com) for slow reads of classic literature, conversations with book lovers, and an ever-unfolding discussion of how Stories Will Save the World. And check out our sister podcast The Well Read Poem with poet Thomas Banks.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-literary-life-podcast-743688"},"episode":{"title":"Episode 328: Best of The Literary Life – \"On Fairy Stories\" by J.R.R. Tolkien","slug":"episode-328-best-of-the-literary-life-on-fairy-stories-by-j-r-r-tolkien","published_at":"2026-05-12T05:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-literary-life-podcast-743688/episode-328-best-of-the-literary-life-on-fairy-stories-by-j-r-r-tolkien","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-literary-life-podcast-743688","url":"https://theliterarylife.libsyn.com/episode-328-best-of-the-literary-life-on-fairy-stories-by-jrr-tolkien","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/theliterarylife/tllep328final.mp3?dest-id=1228634","summary":"This week on The Literary Life, we are re-airing an episode from the archives featuring a discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's essay \" On Fairy Stories \" between Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks. Angelina sets the stage for this discussion by orienting us to the context for the essay by Tolkien as a critique of what is considered a fairy story. She points out the difference between cautionary tales like those by Charles Perrault and the German folk and fairy tales collected by the Grimm Brothers. Our hosts highlight Tolkien's definition of true fairy stories, ones that take place in the \"perilous realm\" and involve a journey element. He critiques Andrew Lang as including many stories as fairy tale that are not truly fairy stories. They also discuss topics from the essay including sub-creation, magic and spells, suspension of disbelief, and children's responses to fairy stories. Join us again next week for an additional \"update\" episode on this same essay with Jenn Rogers. Don't forget to check out everything going on over at HouseofHumaneLetters.com to stay up to date on all the upcoming new summer classes and webinars! Cindy also has some exciting things happening at MorningTimeforMoms.com , including registration for her summer discipleship group. For the full show notes for this episode, see our podcast website at https://theliterarylife/328 .","meta_description":"This week on The Literary Life, we are re-airing an episode from the archives featuring a discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's essay \" On Fairy Stories \" betwee…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5473,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-literary-life-podcast-743688/episodes/episode-328-best-of-the-literary-life-on-fairy-stories-by-j-r-r-tolkien/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-literary-life-podcast-743688/episode-328-best-of-the-literary-life-on-fairy-stories-by-j-r-r-tolkien.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}