The Thousand and One Nights is an ‘infinite text’: it has no fixed shape or length, no known author and is transformed with each new translation. In this first episode of Fiction and the Fantastic, Marina Warner and Anna Della Subin explore two particularly mysterious stories in the context of the wider mysteries and pleasures of the Nights. ‘ ... Show More
Oct 14
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Shyness and Dignity’ by Dag Solstad
What happens when the techniques of realist literature become absorbed into our understanding of real life? And what would it mean to try to depict that experience in fiction? In Dag Solstad’s Shyness and Dignity (1994), a middle-aged teacher, Elias Rukla, is teaching Ibsen’s The ... Show More
24m 18s
Oct 2024
Aladdin - An Arabian Nights Mystery
Join us for a mysterious and enchanting story from the worlds most famous collection of classic tales, Arabian Nights. So, get comfy on your bed, chair or magic carpet and prepare for this wonderous and mysterious tale. Please leave a 5-star review & SUBSCRIBE on Apple and Spotif ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 2020
201-1001 Nights: In the Wind
We're back in the stories of 1001 nights, where Scheherazade has to tell bedtime stories to save her life. On the first, a man ruins a wedding reception and can't show his face in town again. The second starts with a murder, and then only gets darker.This week's item, the ridicul ... Show More
35m 7s
May 2021
16.18: Poetry and the Fantastic
Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard For the last seven episodes we've explored language, meaning, and their overlap with that thing we mean when we use language to say "poetry." In this episode we step back to some origins, including, at a meta-level, the origins of ... Show More
24m 57s