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Published: June 25, 2024, 5 a.m.

For this week\u2019s \u201cBest of The Literary Life\u201d series episode, we revisit a conversation about George Orwell\u2019s essay \u201cWhy I Write.\u201d Angelina and Cindy kick off the discussion about how much they each identify with Orwell\u2019s description of his childhood. In his story of learning to write, we see many aspects of a good education, even his inclination to imitate other authors. An important point Angelina brings up is Orwell\u2019s own struggle against the calling he felt to write, in contrast to having an ambition to do so. Angelina brings up a related story about musician\xa0Gregory Alan Isakov, and Cindy reiterates the idea of why we need leisure in order to find our vocation.

Cindy and Angelina also bring out some of the qualities Orwell possessed that make a good writer. Maturity as a human being and as a master of a craft are crucial to certain forms of writing, as Orwell points out about his own work. Other topics of conversation include truth-telling in writing, the motives for writing according to Orwell, and the growing process of writers.

If you want to find replays of the 2019 Back to School online conference referenced in this episode, you can purchase them in Cindy\u2019s shop at\xa0MorningTimeforMoms.com. For replays of the How to Love Poetry webinar with Thomas, you can find those at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.

Check out the schedule for the podcast\u2019s summer episodes on our\xa0Upcoming Events page.

Commonplace Quotes:

Never had she seen it so clearly as on this evening \u2014 what destiny had demanded of her and what it had given her in return with her\xa0seven\xa0sons. Over and over again joy had quickened the beat of her heart; fear on their behalf had rent it in two. They were her children, these big sons with their lean, bony, boy\u2019s bodies, just as they had been when they were small and so plump that they barely hurt themselves when they tumbled down on their way between the bench and her knee. They were hers, just as they had been back when she lifted them out of the cradle to her milk-filled breast and had to support their heads, which wobbled on their frail necks the way a bluebell nods on its stalk. Wherever they ended in the world, wherever they journeyed, forgetting their mother\u2013 she thought that for her, their lives would be like a current in her own life; they would be one with her, just as they had been when she alone on this earth knew about the new life hidden inside, drinking from her blood and making her cheeks pale.

Sigrid Undset, from Kristen Lavransdatter

Orwell was a poet who happened to find his medium in prose, a poet not so much in his means of expression as in the nature of his vision, which could strip the sprawling tangle of the world around him down to its core with the simplicity of a timeless flash of intuition.

C. M. Wodehouse, from the introduction to Animal Farm

Veni, Creator Spiritus

by John Dryden

Creator Spirit, by whose aid
The world\u2019s foundations first were laid,
Come, visit ev\u2019ry pious mind;
Come, pour thy joys on human kind;
From sin, and sorrow set us free;
And make thy temples worthy Thee.

O, Source of uncreated Light,\xa0
The Father\u2019s promis\u2019d Paraclete!\xa0
Thrice Holy Fount, thrice Holy Fire,\xa0
Our hearts with heav\u2019nly love inspire;\xa0
Come, and thy Sacred Unction bring\xa0
To sanctify us, while we sing!\xa0

Plenteous of grace, descend from high,\xa0
Rich in thy sev\u2019n-fold energy!\xa0
Thou strength of his Almighty Hand,\xa0
Whose pow\u2019r does heav\u2019n and earth command:\xa0
Proceeding Spirit, our Defence,\xa0
Who do\u2019st the gift of tongues dispence,\xa0
And crown\u2019st thy gift with eloquence!\xa0

Refine and purge our earthly parts;\xa0
But, oh, inflame and fire our hearts!\xa0
Our frailties help, our vice control;\xa0
Submit the senses to the soul;\xa0
And when rebellious they are grown,\xa0
Then, lay thy hand, and hold \u2019em down.\xa0

Chase from our minds th\u2019 Infernal Foe;\xa0
And peace, the fruit of love, bestow;\xa0
And, lest our feet should step astray,\xa0
Protect, and guide us in the way.\xa0

Make us Eternal Truths receive,\xa0
And practise, all that we believe:\xa0
Give us thy self, that we may see\xa0
The Father and the Son, by thee.\xa0

Immortal honour, endless fame,\xa0
Attend th\u2019 Almighty Father\u2019s name:\xa0
The Saviour Son be glorified,\xa0
Who for lost Man\u2019s redemption died:\xa0
And equal adoration be,\xa0
Eternal Paraclete, to thee.

Book List:

Kristen Lavransdatter\xa0by Sigrid Undset

Animal Farm\xa0by George Orwell

P. G. Wodehouse

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip and Carol Zaleski

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Connect with Us:

You can find Angelina and Thomas at\xa0HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram\xa0@angelinastanford,\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

Find Cindy at\xa0morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram\xa0@cindyordoamoris\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0www.facebook.com/CindyRollinsWriter. Check out\xa0Cindy\u2019s own Patreon page\xa0also!

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