<blockquote>
We conceive of the essay as an exquisite vessel, one that evidences the delicate balance of beauty and pain. The ‘exquisite’ character of this vessel invokes simultaneously an exquisite work of art and the exquisite ache of an intense sensation. By bringing to the fore a focus on form, in both the structure and the concept of the collection, we use the term exquisite vessel not just to name the work done herein but to draw attention to form as a creative and literary practice of reverence for the exquisite in its most literal sense of something carefully sought out. To essay is to try, test, and practice. The form of the essay, then, is a fitting site for the experiential and sometimes painful work of seeking answers.
</blockquote>
Shapes of Native Nonfiction is a collection of contemporary essays by Indigenous writers, edited by Elisha Washuta and Theresa Warburton, and published in 2019. But in addition to providing a sampler of Indigenous voices and perspectives, the collection also offers a provocation about essaying itself, by thinking deeply about the art of basket weaving. What goes into a well-crafted basket? How is that reflected in each of these essays, and in the gathering and arrangement of these essays? Chris and Suzanne look at a few key essays in the collection, and think about how books like this fit into our reckoning of “literature”.
<h2>Show Notes.</h2>
<a href="https://amzn.to/3C5jBup">Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers</a> (Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton, eds.)
The essays from this collection that we focus on:
<ul>
<li>Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton: “Introduction: Exquisite Vessels”</li>
<li>Ernestine Hayes: “Contemporary Creative Writing and Ancient Oral Tradition”</li>
<li>Deborah A. Miranda: “Tuolumne”</li>
<li>Eden Robinson: “Real Romantic”</li>
<li>Laura Da’: “Pain Scale Peace Treaties”</li>
<li>Elissa Washuta: “Apocalypse Logic”</li>
</ul>
Two essay collections that Suzanne edited and Chris designed: 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://punctumbooks.com/titles/how-we-write/">How We Write: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blank Page</a> (Suzanne Conklin Akbari, ed.) </li>
<li><a href="https://punctumbooks.com/titles/how-we-read-tales-fury-nothing-sound/">How We Read: Tales, Fury, Nothing, Sound</a> (Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Kaitlin Heller, eds.)</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://lithub.com/can-the-essay-still-surprise-us/">Suzanne’s essay on LitHub about the essay and this collection.</a>
Our episode on Eden Robinson’s <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/35">Monkey Beach</a>.
<a href="https://patreon.com/megaphonic">Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon</a> and hang
out with us in a friendly discord.
Next: Lyn Hejinian:<a href="https://amzn.to/48M4Mtb">My Life</a>.

<description>On a collection of contemporary nonfiction essays by Indigenous writers.</description>

On a collection of contemporary nonfiction essays by Indigenous writers.

74. Shapes of Native Nonfiction.

<blockquote>
Storytelling is an emergent practice, and meaning for each individual listener will necessarily be different. The relationships between the storyteller and the listeners become the nest that cradles the meaning. The storyteller creates both the context and the content and collectively a plurality of meanings are generated through the experiences of the audience. The “analysis” and the “critical examination” are done with the utmost care and respect. Nishnaabeg storytellers, when telling in English, will use phrases such as “maybe it happened this way,” “some people say that’s what happened, I don’t know, I wasn’t there” or “I heard it happened that way, but I don’t know.” Revealing that one can only speak about what they know to be true from direct experience.
</blockquote>
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s nonfiction book Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence and a New Emergence (2011) considers what “resurgence” might mean for Indigenous people and communities. Her ways of thinking about resurgence are intimately connected to her thinking about story, especially the many forms of creation story. Suzanne and Chris reflect on and respond to Simpson&#039;s conceptions of what story is, how it relates to the essay, and what it makes possible.
<h2>Show Notes.</h2>
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson:<a href="https://amzn.to/3ZZB0i9">Dancing On Our Turtle&#039;s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence</a>.
<a href="https://www.leannesimpson.ca">Leanne Simpson’s website.</a>
Other books by Simpson include <a href="https://amzn.to/40cKBSN">A Short History of the Blockade</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/3Umpmdm">Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies</a>, and <a href="https://amzn.to/3YAzfGN">Rehearsals for Living</a> (with Robyn Maynard).
Our episodes on Lee Maracle’s <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/23">Memory Serves</a>, Ovid’s <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/3">Metamorphoses</a>, and Augustine’s <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/53">Confessions</a>
Next: Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton, eds. <a href="https://amzn.to/3A2tp7X">Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers</a>.

<description>Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s 2011 book Dancing On Our Turtle's Back explores story and resurgence.</description>

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s 2011 book Dancing On Our Turtle's Back explores story and resurgence.

73. Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back.

<blockquote>
When lately I retired to my house resolved that, in so far as I could, I would cease to concern myself with anything except the passing in rest and retirement of the little time I still have to live, I could do my mind no better service than to leave it in complete idleness to commune with itself, to come to rest, and to grow settled; which I hoped it would thenceforth be able to do more easily, since it had become graver and more mature with time. But I find (variam semper dant otia mentem),
that, on the contrary, like a runaway horse, it is a hundred times more active on its own behalf than ever it was for others. It presents me with so many chimeras and imaginary monsters, one after another, without order or plan, that in order to contemplate their oddness and absurdity at leisure, I have begun to record them in writing, hoping in time to make my mind ashamed of them.
</blockquote>
The Spouter-Inn returns with an experiment. We recorded four episodes over a busy weekend, and our cluster topic was &quot;Essays, Essaying, Stories, Storying&quot;. We decided, this time, to put a “classic” text in conversation with some much more recent works. Let’s see where this path takes us?
Michel de Montaigne’s Essays are often described as the origin of the genre. But his writings are almost nothing like the kinds of essays we read in magazines or write for academic assignments. Montaigne’s pieces are meandering and personal, and often only tangentially related to the topics they are nominally “about”. Chris and Suzanne read a few of these essays and follow them wherever they might go.
<h2>Show Notes.</h2>
Michel de Montaigne: <a href="https://amzn.to/3zKEDxO">Essays</a> (trans. M.A. Screech). Also available on <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600">Project Gutenberg</a> (trans. Charles Cotton) and on the <a href="https://hyperessays.net">HyperEssays</a> website.
The essays we look at:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://hyperessays.net/essays/on-idleness/">On Idleness</a> (1.8)</li>
<li><a href="https://hyperessays.net/essays/on-liars/">On Liars</a> (1.9)</li>
<li><a href="https://hyperessays.net/essays/on-the-power-of-imagination/">On the Power of the Imagination</a> (1.20)</li>
<li><a href="https://hyperessays.net/essays/on-friendship/">On Friendship</a> (1.27)</li>
<li><a href="https://hyperessays.net/essays/on-the-education-of-children/">On the Education of Children</a> (1.25)</li>
</ul>
Our episodes on <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/10">Leaves of Grass</a> and <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/2">the Symposium</a>. 
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Étienne_de_La_Boétie">Étienne de La Boétie.</a>
<a href="https://patreon.com/megaphonic">Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon</a> and hang
out with us in a friendly discord.
Next: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson:<a href="https://amzn.to/3ZZB0i9">Dancing On Our Turtle&#039;s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence</a>.

<description>On Michel de Montaigne’s original collection of essays from the sixteenth century.</description>

On Michel de Montaigne’s original collection of essays from the sixteenth century.

72. The Essays of Michel de Montaigne.

<blockquote>
Allas, of me, unto the worldes ende, 
Shal neither been ywriten nor ysonge 
No good word, for thise bokes wol me shende. 
O, rolled shal I been on many a tonge; 
Thurghout the world my belle shal be ronge; 
And wommen most wol hate me of alle. 
Allas, that swich a cas me sholde falle!
(Alas! Until the end of the world, no good word will be written or sung about
me, because these books will utterly shame me. Oh, I will be rolled on many a
tongue, throughout the world my bell will be rung — and women will hate me
most of all. Alas, that such a thing should happen to me!)
</blockquote>
Geoffrey Chaucer’s narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde tells a love story
— if by “love” you mean romantic obsession, coercion, and worse — all set
during the Trojan War. Chris and Suzanne talk about how this book explores the
interiority of its characters, how it depicts independence and politics, and
how it explores the way narratives unfold within systems of tropes and
traditions.
<h2>Show Notes.</h2>
Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde (in the
<a href="http://www.librarius.com/troicris.htm">original</a> and in a
<a href="https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/Chaucerhome.php">modernization</a>).
Other works by Chaucer: <a href="https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/text-and-translations">The Canterbury
Tales</a>; <a href="https://amzn.to/3tpUJJD">The
Riverside Chaucer</a> (i.e., his complete works).
Our episode on the <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/1">Iliad</a>.
(The Spouter-Inn will in fact turn five years old in January.)
Boccaccio: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Filostrato">Il Filostrato</a>.
Our episodes on <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/55">Paradiso</a>, <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/68">Consolation of
Philosophy</a>, and the
<a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/3">Metamorphoses</a>.
<a href="https://patreon.com/megaphonic">Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon</a> and hang
out with us in a friendly discord.

<description>Geoffrey Chaucer's narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde.</description>

Geoffrey Chaucer's narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde.

71. Troilus and Criseyde.

Allas, of me, unto the worldes ende, Shal neither been ywriten nor ysonge No good word, for thise bokes wol me shende. O, rolled shal I been on many a tonge; Thurghout the world my belle shal be ronge; And wommen most wol hate me of alle. Allas, that swich a cas me sholde falle!(Alas! Until the end of the world, no good word will be written or sung about me, because these books will utterly shame me. Oh, I will be rolled on many a tongue, throughout the world my bell will be rung — and women will hate me most of all. Alas, that such a thing should happen to me!)Geoffrey Chaucer’s narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde tells a love story — if by “love” you mean romantic obsession, coercion, and worse —&nbsp;all set during the Trojan War. Chris and Suzanne talk about how this book explores the interiority of its characters, how it depicts independence and politics, and how it explores the way narratives unfold within systems of tropes and traditions.Show Notes.Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde (in the <a href="http://www.librarius.com/troicris.htm">original</a> and in a <a href="https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/Chaucerhome.php">modernization</a>).Other works by Chaucer: <a href="https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/text-and-translations">The Canterbury Tales</a>; <a href="https://amzn.to/3tpUJJD">The Riverside Chaucer</a> (i.e., his complete works).Our episode on the <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/1">Iliad</a>.(The Spouter-Inn will in fact turn five years old in January.)Boccaccio: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Filostrato">Il Filostrato</a>.Our episodes on <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/55">Paradiso</a>, <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/68">Consolation of Philosophy</a>, and the <a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/3">Metamorphoses</a>.<a href="https://patreon.com/megaphonic">Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon</a> and hang out with us in a friendly discord.

<description>&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Allas, of me, unto the worldes ende,&lt;br&gt;Shal neither been ywriten nor ysonge&lt;br&gt;No good word, for thise bokes wol me shende.&lt;br&gt;O, rolled shal I been on many a tonge;&lt;br&gt;Thurghout the world my belle shal be ronge;&lt;br&gt;And wommen most wol hate me of alle.&lt;br&gt;Allas, that swich a cas me sholde falle!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;(Alas! Until the end of the world, no good word will be written or sung about me, because these books will utterly shame me. Oh, I will be rolled on many a tongue, throughout the world my bell will be rung — and women will hate me most of all. Alas, that such a thing should happen to me!)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Geoffrey Chaucer’s narrative poem &lt;strong&gt;Troilus and Criseyde&lt;/strong&gt; tells a love story — if by “love” you mean romantic obsession, coercion, and worse —&amp;nbsp;all set during the Trojan War. Chris and Suzanne talk about how this book explores the interiority of its characters, how it depicts independence and politics, and how it explores the way narratives unfold within systems of tropes and traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Show Notes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde (in the &lt;a href="http://www.librarius.com/troicris.htm"&gt;original&lt;/a&gt; and in a &lt;a href="https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/Chaucerhome.php"&gt;modernization&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Other works by Chaucer: &lt;a href="https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/text-and-translations"&gt;The Canterbury Tales&lt;/a&gt;; &lt;a href="https://amzn.to/3tpUJJD"&gt;The Riverside Chaucer&lt;/a&gt; (i.e., his complete works).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Our episode on the &lt;a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/1"&gt;Iliad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;(The Spouter-Inn will in fact turn five years old in January.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Boccaccio: &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Filostrato"&gt;Il Filostrato&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Our episodes on &lt;a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/55"&gt;Paradiso&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/68"&gt;Consolation of Philosophy&lt;/a&gt;, and the &lt;a href="https://megaphonic.fm/spouter/3"&gt;Metamorphoses&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://patreon.com/megaphonic"&gt;Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon&lt;/a&gt; and hang out with us in a friendly discord.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Suzanne and Chris talk about great books—but what does “great” even mean?

The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books

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