Reading today is typically silent – whether reading a book in a library or reading messages on our phones, we don’t expect the activity to be noisy. At most, we expect the sound of a page quietly turning. But Andrew Albin is interested in the medieval period, when books made all kinds of sounds. Medieval books were noisy: they crackled and creaked, and were usually read aloud (even in private). Andrew argues that we should think of medieval books not just as objects to look at, but as a kind of musical instrument that needs a reader to bring its sounds to life.
Category: Episodes
When you think about historical reenactment, you probably think about reenacting Civil War battles or performing a character at a Renaissance fair. But Catherine Grant is interested in artists who use reenactment to ask questions about the history of feminist and queer activism, and the role of artists in political life. By reenacting and remixing scenes from history, these artists revive stories from the past that might illuminate the present in surprising ways. Beyond the realm of art, Catherine wants us to recognize the power of performing repeated actions in our everyday lives.
Music can tell stories in a variety of ways: operas and musicals have characters and plots, a song can tell a short story, and even music without words can take listeners on a journey. But Randall Eng is interested in using unexpected texts like photocopier manuals and legal pamphlets to produce musical compositions that tell new stories. By cutting up and rearranging these existing texts – also known as “found texts” – he wants to repurpose the original words to transform their meanings and convey new messages.
During the Cold War, the US and Chinese governments didn’t drop bombs on each other, but they did drop translated works of literature. In fact, national governments put a lot of effort into creating translations that covertly served their political agendas. In the case of the US, this meant emphasizing values like freedom and self-reliance, with which they hoped to win the hearts and minds of Chinese readers. But while propaganda is meant to convey one simple message, Lamyu Maria Bo argues that literature can’t be reduced to a single meaning – and meanings multiply even more in translation.
Chronic pain is pain that lasts for months, years or even a lifetime, and doctors have a hard time understanding it. Not only is it sometimes impossible to cure, but doctors also tend to fixate on bodily pain and not address the ways pain is also psychological and emotional. In fact, Travis Chi Wing Lau argues that this attitude goes back to the ways doctors have been trained since the eighteenth century to observe outer bodily symptoms and discount patients’ subjective experiences. Turning to Travis’s poetry, we discuss why we need poets as well as doctors to understand pain.
You may have noticed that music has been sounding more chilled out recently, with softer voices, slower tempos, and fewer instruments. From famous artists like Taylor Swift to background music for working and studying to, chill vibes are all around us. But Robin James argues that chill isn’t just a style, it also has political implications. Chill music creates a mood that helps us be more effective at work, allowing us to manage our state of mind for maximum productivity even as our working lives become ever more precarious.