How should we live in this world when so much is changed? Katherine May, author of Wintering and the Electricity of Every Living Thing, asks those most intimate with the effects of these transformations: what now?
How do we stay soft in a world determined to harden? How can we bear witness to suffering without being dragged into despair? How do we ride the waves of our anger, sorrow and exhaustion, and still find space for wonder, hope and joy? How can we possibly help?
In a series of frank, thoughtful and deeply personal conversations, How We Live Now will explore the cultural, social and spiritual mindset for this long moment.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How should we live in this world when so much is changed? Katherine May, author of Wintering and the Electricity of Every Living Thing, asks those most intimate with the effects of these transformations: what now?
How do we stay soft in a world determined to harden? How can we bear witness to suffering without being dragged into despair? How do we ride the waves of our anger, sorrow and exhaustion, and still find space for wonder, hope and joy? How can we possibly help?
In a series of frank, thoughtful and deeply personal conversations, How We Live Now will explore the cultural, social and spiritual mindset for this long moment.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What’s to be done with the lost, the dead, but write them into being?’
So writes Hilary Mantel in her extraordinary memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. First published in 2003, it offers a snapshot of the great writer before the Wolf Hall era: a literary, if not commercial, success, and a fragile soul with a dark, scuttling imagination.
Katherine was joined by Jillian Hess of the brilliant Noted Substack to explore this wonderful book. They discussed the way that Mantel captures her childhood and family, her relationship to her body and the endometriosis that assailed it, the way she talks about writing, and - of course, given that it’s Halloween week - those ambiguous ghosts.
Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK
Links from the episode:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.