Literary Gladiators: Episode 8- "Ragged Dick" by Horatio Alger

To celebrate Charlie's birthday, we decided to discuss one of his favorite works from American Literature II: Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger. This was originally part of the first season material and the episode was taped with Jim, Brianna, Charlie, and I. While the original episode was not saved, we were able to re-tape it this season and the discussion included Jim, Courtney, Charlie, and I. In all honesty, the episode came out quite well.

Ragged Dick is one of those pieces that features a character kids of the era could relate to and is meant to develop good morals in the youth of the late 1860s. This was one of Charlie's original suggestions along with "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville. "Bartleby" will make up the second part of Charlie's birthday and feature Larry and Breanna, who participated in the last tapings of the second season.

This episode should be informative, heated, but at the same time enjoyable. Here you go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_TGaM64r8Q

Literary Gladiators: Episode 7- "The Peacock" by W.B. Yeats

During the summer, we put together twenty-two episodes of Literary Gladiators spread among four separate sessions. This episode that you are about to see was the very first that we filmed. Jim, Charlie, and I are back just as we intended to be, while Courtney (a co-worker of mine that has expressed a joy for reading, writing, and literature) joins us on the panel for the very first time. Laney is our new moderator, while my friend Ari continues to serve as the editor.

The inspiration behind this particular episode is a story that we go over while Charlie and I were in British Literature II. Charlie brought up something similar to which I replied my answer to his predicament quite bluntly. We were having a group discussion, so the other person or two and I continued going over specific details before Charlie exclaimed his reply to this particular realization. We had to share this story, along with our discoveries and approaches in how we read this particular poem.

I will continue to share episodes on my blog as they are released. The next episodes should be up in about two weeks and cover Charlie's birthday week/ Will Charlie get his cupcakes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1U_cvBiRTU