It's Season Five of The Inklings Variety Hour, episode one, and you know what that means! Time to return to the enchanting land of--

--record scratch--

--Calormen?

That's right, Ed Said. We're kicking off this season the right way, with a little trip to an unprepossessing fisherman's hut and the down-on-his-luck literary ancestor of both a refreshing soft drink and Taran the Assistant Pig-keeper. 

I'm only talking 'bout Shasta. Can you dig?

You know who else is talking about Shasta? I mean, besides Bree the talking horse (no not that one) who abducts him? 

Why, it's Jonathan Geltner, renowned author of Absolute Music, and Joseph Weigel, host of Men with Chests and also an author! Together, we discuss the following subjects:

• Calormene culture and Narnian culture


• Literary analogues (or lack thereof) of The Horse and His Boy


• Formal language and formulaic language


• The wider world in which Narnia exists


• Proverbs (Calormene and Narnian)


• How Tashbaan is awesome


• Freedom

Books we bring up:

• The Thousand and One Nights


• Travels in Arabia Deserta


• David Eddings' Belgariad Series


• Huck Finn


• The Prince and the Pauper


• The Worm Ouroboros


• The Faerie Queene

Copyrighted Music:

• Original BBC Narnia Theme


• Mr. Ed theme (not Ed Said)

As always, please leave a generous review if you want higher quality or quantity podcasts! This is a labor of love, and I'm currently only able to get something out once every two weeks. See you in two weeks' time, as musician Matt Wheeler joins me to talk (and sing) about his favorite Narnia book.