So, two episode transcripts went live early. Rawls and Extended Mind. The episodes themselves haven’t gone live, and will come out on the 17th and 24th. Solving one problem with another, you know that a Cornwall episode went live early? I’ll use its transcript to plug one of the holes this Friday.
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The Extended Mind and Hermetic Magic
When the podcast does these episodes on philosophy, it’s often necessary to begin by explaining terms. In 1998, Clark and Chalmers released a book called “The Extended Mind” in which they posited that material objects beyond the skull or skin could be part of an environment which, when coupled with the mind, formed a system,…
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Orotolans: hiding sins from God with a towel
Preparing the ortolans Ortolans are tiny, so they need to be trapped, not shot from the sky with a bow, or torn by a falcon. They don’t flock, which makes this even more challenging to collect in numbers. Trapped orotolans are kept in the dark. This tricks them into thinking it is night, when they…
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Dunsany fragment: The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater
I’ve been saying in various episodes the next Dunsany will be Tale of Pombo the Idolater. The problem with that is that the plot hooks it offers overlap strongly with the Three Literary Men. They seem to have been written as companion pieces, and so I don’t want to bore listeners with the same set…
Read MoreOops: episode 67 transmitted early.
I pressed the wrong button and the episode for August 26 has gone live early. I’ll be putting the notes up closer to the day. I also plan to replace it with an episode on Cornish mermaids. So – accidental extras!
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Faeries of Cornwall : Four More Tribes
This is the first time I’ve done a two part episode. Last week I covered Cornwall’s Small People, who are the faerie tribe with the greatest footprint in Hunt’s Popular romances from the west of England. This week, the other four of Hunt’s tribes. I’d repeat that Hunt’s taxonomy clearly doesn’t include at least two…
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Faeries of Cornwall : Introduction and the Small People
This is the second in series of posts designed to flesh out Cornwall as a setting for Ars Magica troupes. . It uses as its core text Popular romances of the west of England; or, The drolls, traditions, and superstitions of old Cornwall by Robert Hunt. Hunt divides Cornish faeries into five types: small people, spriggans, piskies, buccas…
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Frostiana
Sometimes the Thames freezes over. It was more common in the Eighteenth Century, when temperatures were a little colder than now, and the bridge over the river had pylons more closely placed. People held markets on the frozen river. During the final frost fair in 1814, a book was printed on the ice. I’ve gone through it…
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