Triptych Conversations

The Masterpieces 1. Franz Schubert's ERLKÖNIG (1815) We begin with a song, but one that is over 200 years old and in German. Franz Schubert (1787-1828, above right, painted by Wilhelm August Rieder in 1875) blazed bright but far too briefly. He died at only 31 and yet left an extraordinary body of work. This song, Erlkönig, was a setting of a poem by Goethe (1749-1832, painted by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1828, above left) which Schubert composed at only 18. (That really is not fair, is it?) The poem reflects the great obsessions of the burgeoning movements of Romanticism, with its resistance to reductionistic materialism, a love for the sublime and the grandeur of the natural world, fascination with human passions, as well as the threshold with the metaphysical. This is all captured in this short poem, with the drama’s different characters reflecting different perspectives. That is the key to Schubert’s setting. The song is propelled by its constant rhythmic foundation on the piano, and the beautiful melody weaves its way through the poem’s eight verses. But the huge challenge for both pianist and singer (in under 3-4 minutes) is to differentiate between the Father, the boy, the wraithlike, demonic Erl-king, and narrator (a scene painted by many artists including this detail above of a mural by Peschel in Dresden). Not only that, but the tensions are ratcheted up by Schubert’s device of going up a semitone in each new verse.  This brilliant musical miniature is a remarkable achievement: dramatic, chilling, shocking. It perfectly illustrates how something created on the smallest scale can transport one into vast emotional landscapes. 2. Kei Miller's AUGUSTOWN (2016) To Joel’s home country of Jamaica now, and a prize-winning novel by Kei Miller, an old friend of his (as it happens). Augustown is a district of the capital, Kingston, and in Miller’s deft handling, it becomes a microcosm of both Jamaica’s life and complex history. The story traces the devastating but unintended consequences of authoritarian action: firstly with the real-life treatment in the 1920s of the revivalist preacher Alexander Bedward by the colonial government after he claimed to his many followers that he could fly. then in the 1980s, the cruel, unsanctioned haircut of a Rastafarian boy by his officious school-teacher. Never didactic or simplistic, Miller is always sensitive to the complexities of the situation and the tragedies that follow. He gives one such a sense of place, so that even if one has never visited this district, let alone the Caribbean, the book feels totally alive, with scores of compelling characters that seem to have both agency and inevitability. The book is truly a fine achievement and deserves wide readership. Oh a yes, Rastamouse was a thing (thanks Sophie). British cartoon with (believe it or not) 104 episodes!! They even did a set at Glastonbury in 2011. 3. Egon Schiele's FOUR TREES (1917) Back to Vienna again, but a century later. In fact, we only just noticed after completing the recording the lovely symmetry of masterpiece dates: 1815, 2016, 1917!! It really is by chance. If ever we needed to illustrate the fact that extraordinary things can be made by difficult, even despicable, people, then this is it. Egon Schiele (1890-1918, photo taken in 1914 and self-portrait painted 1912) was a profoundly disturbed artist who was contemporary with Gustav Klimt and strongly influenced by him (among others). But the dysfunctions of his upbringing, plus the darkness (and at times illegalities) of his proclivities, make him a very difficult subject. But there’s no doubting his artistic genius. As Sophie pointed out, for those who only know his visceral and shocking portraits, this landscape comes as a welcome surprise and relief. His FOUR TREES has an autumnal melancholy to it (it was painted only a year before he and his wife would die three days apart of the Spanish Flu) contains multitudes, as is so often the case in artistic evocations of the four seasons. It’s not straightforwardly figurative but conveys some unease. Why are they such different shapes, and isolated all in a row, and why has the second already lost most of its leaves? And yet, for all its weirdness, it is utterly compelling. It’s hard to tear one’s eyes away once you start looking closely. Other Mentions Triptych highlights after two series: Sophie: Joel likening Nick Cave’s Ghosteen to William Shatner’s ‘singing’ on his Christmas album… (1:5). Joel: Sophie describing her childhood being reared by R S Thomas and Lionel Ritchie in the Welsh valleys (1:1). Mark: Sophie’s subsequent childhood memory of avoiding the juvenile games of fellow school kids through her immersion in the work of Lord Byron.

The Masterpieces 1. Wendell Berry's DO NOT BE ASHAMED (1967) We had to rerecord this episode for several reasons (without changing the masterpieces), but this gave it added poignancy. The great farmer-poet Wendell Berry died in the intervening weeks (31st Aug 2026) at the age of 92 and so it was all the more special to focus on this poem, DO NOT BE ASHAMED. It’s one of the hundreds that he published over his long, intentionally non-transient life. But the fact of his total commitment to living in one place throughout (Port Royal, Kentucky) gives this remarkable poem even greater force since in many ways it articulates the worst sides of small-town life. It gives permission, if not a mandate, to break free from the psychological bonds that high-control communities exploit to keep their subjects in step. 2. Alexander Abraham's STAY (2019) The backstory to this song is fascinating. Alexander Abraham was born to Nigerian parents in Athens, Greece, but the whole family moved to the USA when he was just 11. But he faced more significant setbacks in the States. His mother was killed in a car crash resulting in his being fostered, and then as a talented football (ie proper, NOT American football) player, a serious injury  ended his career. But during his convalescence, he started teaching himself guitar. Which is, of course, not necessarily going to result in much at all. But in Alexander’s case, it led to him starting a career in music. Who knows what might happen if injury ever prevents him from playing music? We had some discussion as to exactly what he’s wrestling with in the song Stay. Why the sense of guilt (in the first stanza), where do the loyalties lie? But it does seem (though you can make up your own mind) that he’s wrestling between the roots he’s put down in Texas and the fun and excitement of London’s music scene. It’s a beautifully measured performance, and Joel particularly loves the guitar solo by Gary Clark Jr in this clip below. 3. 1917 (dir. by Sam Mendes, 2019) Sam Mendes has a pretty impressive cinematic (let alone theatrical) track record. But 1917 may well go down as his masterpiece (unless his Beatles quartet is incredible…). Inspired by the stories told by his Trinidadian grandfather Alfred Mendes (who had fought in the First World War), the entire war is distilled into a 24 hour period in which we experience the constant jeopardy, futility and horror of the frontline. Two British Lance-corporals (Schofield and Blake) are ordered to undertake a do-or-die mission to warn the 2nd Battalion Devonshires that if they proceed with the planned dawn attack on the next morning, they will walk into a trap and be massacred (because the Germans have only made a tactical retreat). It is the ultimate Quest story, and it certainly packs a punch. The cinematography is spectacular, the cast top-notch, and the cinematic immersion complete. It is an astonishing achievement. I became quite obsessed with the film when it first came out, and ended up writing it up for The Rabbit Room here. It was the cyclical nature of the narrative that really got under my skin, so much so that I tried to map it out here. Other Mentions Screen Adaptations we have loved Sophie: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (the BBC / Colin Firth one) Joel: Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (the modern one with Cumberbatch and Freeman) Mark: Mick Herron’s Slow Horses novels (Apple TV with Gary Oldman etc)  

The Masterpieces 1. Midnight Mass (Mike Flannagan, 2021) Midnight Mass is a 7-part Netflix series that came out in 2021, created by horror aficionado Mike Flanagan. Which, for many of us is not exactly the greatest selling point. But bear with this, since there was method in Sophie’s madness for suggesting we watch this. For the purposes of the episode, we focused just on the first two episodes: Genesis & Psalms (click image right for full list of intriguing episode titles).A remote island, cut off by weather and failed ferries to the mainland, is the setting, a small community that revolves (for better or worse) around the island’s Catholic Church. This has beeb led by the elderly priest, Monsignor Pruitt, for years, but he is away on sick leave. The compelling but somewhat mysterious Father Paul stands in his place.This is a beautifully depicted community. But the most striking thing about the whole conception, as we discussed in the pod, is that none of it feels clichéd. 2. Green Mountain Falls Skyspace (James Turrell, 2022) James Turrell (1943– , USA) is a brilliant American artist who works with light. Green Mountain Falls is a remote town in Colorado and Turrell’s SKYSPACE was installed there in 2022 as part of a local arts project.The principle is very simple. A windowless cube of a room, with seating up against each of the four walls up in the mountains. But in the roof, there is a retractable door. Beyond that, only sky. Within the cube, sophisticated lighting can transform the atmosphere at the touch of a programmable button.Find out more here. 3. Who Are We Fooling (Brooke Fraser with Aqualung, 2010) Brooke Fraser (1983- ) is a singer from New Zealand and, for years, was associated with Hillsong Worship. But she has built a successful global career in her own right. The song Who Are We Fooling? is taken from her Flags album from 2010 and was written with the British singer Aqualung (aka Matt Hales).As Joel notes in our conversation, the song is unusual in being a genuine duet, rather than just a tune sung together. This is a musical dialogue that cuts right to the heart in the most affecting way.Here is a live version with a different singer, TEEKS, and the Auckland Philharmonia from 2024. Other Mentions Opening Gambit: Fave Pop Culture Moments Sophie: John Travolta’s Adele Dazeem Joel: Jamaica wins 1st, and 2nd equal (Gold and 2 Silvers) at Beijing Olympics Mark: Boaty McBoatface

The Masterpieces 1. Leif Enger's I CHEERFULLY REFUSE (2025) We start with a very up-to-date masterpiece this time: Leif Enger’s 2025 novel I Cheerfully Refuse. Enger is perhaps not so well known on this side of the Atlantic, but he deserves to be. His writing is lyrical and evocative, and the world he creates for this novel is fascinating. It falls within the genre of dystopia but it wears that lightly. For example, we never discover the nature of the cataclysm that transforms the world, only that it has occurred at some unspecified moment prior to the story. The fact that Enger wrote it during the Covid lockdowns (a bit like Amor Towles’ A Gentleman In Moscow) is not incidental, however! Set in the Great Lakes of North America, Enger’s characters wrestle with the challenges of this new environment, struggling to create a sense of order and community against the odds, while constantly trying to preserve their humanity. Recently widowed when his beloved wife Lark dies, Rainy befriends Sol, a young tearaway who joins him on his Orpheus-like journey. Despite coming from an essentially Christian foundation, the book is far too well-written and brilliantly conceived to descend into crude tub-thumping. Instead it is a moving and ultimately hope-filled testimony to reslience and wonder (not a million miles away from Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven). For more, listen to the conversation Russell Moore had with Leif Enger soon after the book came out – it’s full of fascinating and intriguing insights into the book and its meanings. 2. J. M. W. Turner's THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE (1838) Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was one of Britain’s greatest painters and of all his myriad works, The Fighting Temeraire is perhaps his most beloved. In polls purporting to identify Britain’s greatest/favourite/best (etc) painting, this frequently comes out on top (whatever that means). It is certainly one of the main attractions in the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. This is a painting about transition, about the end of one era overlapping with the commencement of a new one. It depicts the final journey of the Temeraire (which had seen glorious service at the Battle of Trafalgar itself), as the ship is towed from Sheerness in Kent along the river Thames to Rotherhithe in south-east London, where it was to be scrapped. For various reasons, this painting is an impossibility, a fiction to portray a greater truth. But it is one of those paintings that mesmerises the viewer, because the more you look, the more you see. Turner adored painting grand landscapes (in the manner of Claude) with the gorgeous wide colour-spectrum so characteristic of dawn and sunset. But it is no accident that this moment of high nostalgia is bathed in a pre-dusk light. It is unsurprising then that this image means so much to a nation prone to nostalgia about past, so-called glories! And therefore, it was the perfect setting to a James Bond reaching the end of his usefulness… 3. U2's 3 Songs from NO LINE ON THE HORIZON (2009) It was only a matter of time. U2 had to make it onto Triptych at some point, for reasons that regulars to my blog will know all too well. I’m only hoping that you were all impressed by my self-restraint in holding it back to this stage in the second season. Instead of taking one song, or one album, we’re doing something a little unorthodox but there is actually method in the madness. And no, this is NOT the album U2 foolishly gave away to the world for free if they had an iPod or iPhone or whatever it was at the time. That was definitely a misfire. This album is the one before that one, and came out in 2009. It’s quite hard to pin down as a whole, but after the opening title track, it does seem to be formed of three little groupings. And this is the first set. They are the most explicitly theological of the album’s tracks, and they each do intriguing things. You can go into a lot more depth if you wish by reading this longer engagement that I wrote this longer engagement that I wrote some years’ back. But for now, read the lyrics (r) and listen to the episode! Other Mentions: 3 'Slappable' Characters! Joel: Yoda from the Star Wars franchise Sophie: Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield  Mark: Kenneth Widmerpool from Antony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time (esp when played by Simon Russell-Beale)

The Masterpieces 1. Godzilla Minus One (2023) Godzilla Minus One is the latest in Japan’s long-running Godzilla franchise. But dispel all thought of dumb Hollywood monster-pics that revel in cheap thrills and facile redemptive arcs. This film, directed and co-written by Takashi Yamazaki,  is surprisingly arresting. It is characterised by scores of unforgettable images, genuine seriousness in grappling with the legacy of historic horror, and, above all, a rich, affecting narrative. The protagonist, Kōichi Shikishima, is a survivor of the Second World War despite serving in one of Japan’s notorious Kamikaze squadrons. Consequently, the cloud of suspicion dogs him wherever he goes: did he shirk his duty? But that is nothing to the profound well of shame that plagues his thoughts and dreams. For not only did he fail as a kamikaze, he failed as the only one in a position to save his comrades from their brand new threat: a radioactive beast from the sea. The film provides a rich vein for discussion and thought.https://youtu.be/nAYKaslCXPc?si=gbbgr-c4bUCDcSwc 2. Simone Lia’s “Please God, Find Me A Husband!” (2012) This is our first graphic novel on Triptych, for no reason other than that we’ve not done one before. As good a time as any to start with Please God, Find Me A Husband!. Simone Lia‘s breakout book is an unputdownable, hilarious, supremely relatable memoir of heartache, faith and humanity. A painful breakup prompts a major reevaluation of life and purpose. Her season of reflection takes her in unexpected directions, via Catholic convents in Britain and Australia, while navigating romance and idealisation. She is a professional illustrator and artist, born to Maltese parents and growing up in Suffolk, so cartooning is her natural story-telling language. 3. Bruno Catalano’s Les Voyageurs (2013-) Bruno Catalano seems a restless soul, a man with roots and connections with many places, but has empathy with those in exile or without any roots at all. Born in Morocco to Franco-Italian parents in 1960, he moved with his family to Marseilles in southern France at the age of 10. The city is still his base of operations as a sculptor, but he only discovered an artistic bent later in life. For many years, he worked in the maritime world, including time in France’s SNSM (equivalent to the UK’s RNLI). These experiences clearly inform his work today, because he has become particularly well known for his many pieces that explore themes of global migration and refuge. Les Voyageurs is one such sequence, arresting depictions of migrants arriving on docksides carrying perhaps just a holdall or few plastic bags. But each figure is in some way fragmented or missing a significant section. They attract attention initially through apparent physical impossibility; but subsequent concentration arrests the view with a stark challenge to self-examination. How do we see these people? And what burdens or agonies do they bear? Catalano, Bruno – Les VoyageursCatalano, Bruno – ParisCatalano, Bruno – Voyageurs – Vincent2Catalano, Bruno – VoyageursCatalano, Bruno (1960-) 2024 – The Metaphor of Travel Geneva 5Catalano, Bruno (1960-) 2024 – The Metaphor of Travel Geneva 6Catalano, Bruno (1960-) 2024 – The Metaphor of Travel Geneva 7Catalano, Bruno (1960-) 2024 – The Metaphor of Travel Geneva 8 Other Mentions The Intro gambit: the unfinished! Sophie: Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy Joel: Beckett’s Waiting for Godot Mark: George Eliot’s Middlemarch https://youtu.be/X2bfFBbwGhI

The Masterpieces 1. "Assassins", The Crown ep 1:9 (2016) Peter Morgan has made his name, despite his explicit republicanism, from dramatising the House of Windsor. First on stage, then in cinema, and more recently in Netflix’s blockbuster monolith, The Crown. The latter’s production values are spectacular, and certainly in the first two seasons (I confess I gave up in season 3 as it seemed to become more tabloidy), the synergy between script, actors and direction was impressive.Season 1’s penultimate episode (Assassins) was written by Peter Morgan, directed by Benjamin Caron, and was first aired on 4th November 2016. The reason for choosing this one was because of its stellar acting and the dramatic poignancy of the storyline: Winston Churchill (a brilliant John Lithgow) is at last stepping down as Prime Minister to hand over to the desperately impatient Anthony Eden (Jeremy Northam). A portrait has been commissioned from Graham Sutherland (Stephen Dillane) by Parliament and there is going to be a great unveiling. It is the conversations between artist and subject especially that stand out.It has to be one of the finest hours of television I’ve ever watched, I think. 2. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (1932) A complete change of tone now. This is a classic satirical novel from the 1930s and on which has brought universal joy and guffaws to all who have spent any time on the farm. Stella Gibbons (1902-1989) was an English journalist with a remarkable eye for the ridiculous. Cold Comfort Farm was a runaway success that’s never gone out of print; sadly it seems to have been the only one of her many books to have stood the test of time. Her crosshairs were set on the rural sagas that had apparently been popular in the 1920s, many of which had been inspired by the doom-laden tomes of Thomas Hardy (such as the (IMHO) unbearably bleak Jude the Obscure). By common consensus her targets include the so-called ‘loam and lovechild’ novels (!) like Mary Webb’s Precious Bane (set in Shropshire) and Sheila Kaye-Smith’s Joanna Godden (in Kent). But you certainly don’t need to have read those books to love this one (none of us had, in fact). Her turn of phrase is sparklingly witty and the pen-portraits of the various characters laugh-out-loud funny. And the greatest joy of all is that we never do discover the precise nature of the “something nasty in the woodshed” that so perplexed the matriarch and protagonist Flora Poste’s Aunt Ada Doom. It sets imaginations running wild and so that’s perhaps why the phrase has become enshrined in the English language. It even appears in a song by Neil Hannon’s wonderfully arch and rakish band, The Divine Comedy 3. God Says Nothing Back by the Wallflowers (2005) Rebel, Sweetheart was The Wallflowers fifth studio album. Lead singer, and songwriter of all the tracks, is Jakob Dylan (who is, as you might expect, son of Bob) and while it didn’t make huge chart waves, it’s a gorgeous and provocative album. The sixth track is our focus: God Says Nothing Back. It’s a haunting song, full of questions and doubts, and fittingly, is hard to pin down. Other Mentions Opening question: what album saved your life? Joel: Rich Mullins’ Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth Sophie: Mahler’s 5th Symphony Mark: Peter Gabriel’s So

What happens when a young man battling Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (Matts Steen aka Ibelin) meets Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451 and the joy riders of Gertler's 1916 painting Merry-Go-Round...

The Masterpieces 1. GODRIC by Frederick Buechner (1981) Frederick Buechner (1926-2022; pronounced ‘Beakner‘) was an American Presbyterian minister, theologian and, most notably for our purposes, writer. He was prolific in both fiction (15 novels), poetry and non-fiction. He was heralded in his lifetime for his brilliance and creativity, though inevitably, his books have perhaps not maintained their deserved popularity.The novel for which he is best known is surprising! A relatively short work, Godric tells the semi-fictional story of an obscure figure from 12th century Northumberland. Godric of Finchale (apparently pronounced ‘finkle’ acc. to English Heritage!) was a hermit with a heavy conscience, a former Crusader who essentially withdrew from society to a cave on the River Wear, north of Durham. He longs to be left alone to seek God and avoid his past. But the Bishop of Durham was having none of it, and so the Abbot of Rievaulx Abbey sent a young monk, Reginald, to live with Godric in his very old age, to write up this holy man’s life. The result is a hagiography (literally writing about a saint). The word has since come to mean a biography primarily concerned to present the subject in the best light with all warts removed (with probably a few miracles thrown in). But Godric is infuriated by this, not least because he knows his past.The result is an extraordinary, moving and compelling book, wrestling with the nature of good and evil, sin and righteousness, guilt and forgiveness; essentially it’s about how messed up we all are. It’s no surprise that it was a finalist for the 1981 Pulitzer Prize.Buechner wrote:I picked up a small book of saints and opened it, by accident, to the page that had Godric on it. I had never so much as heard of him before, but as I read about him, I knew he was for me, my saint. 2. INTO THE WILD (dir. by Sean Penn, 2007) Chris McCandless was utterly disenchanted with the hypocrisies and platitudes of modern, especially suburban, American life, as exemplified by his parents. So in May 1990, freshly graduated from university, he leaves home without telling anyone to escape to the wilderness. He travels all over in his clapped out car until it’s wrecked in a flood. He hitchhikes, meeting various people with extraordinary stories of their own. He is aiming for Alaska, and he eventually finds an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992. He sets up his base there, naming it ‘The Magic Bus’, and all seems ideal. However, things start to go wrong, especially as the weather turns. He also comes to realise how much he desperately craves human company. But when he tries to retrace his steps, the stream he crossed before has become a lethal torrent, forcing him back. He has to resort to foraging for food, and then becomes fatally ill after eating a poisonous plant. He keeps a journal as he slowly declines. Some weeks later, hunters find his body and the family are contacted. Sean Penn’s film is a heart-breaking story adapted from the research of mountaineer and writer Jon Krakauer, whose book Into the Wild stayed at the top of bestseller lists for 2 years. It is beautifully shot and well-paced, with a superb performance by Emile Hirsch in particular. (Sadly, he seems not to have landed the productions or parts that enabled him to reach such heights since). To top it all, the soundtrack is simply stunning: Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam) wrote and sang the songs. I’ve had seasons over the years of keeping the album on repeat. But the film is more than the sum of all these extraordinary parts and is one of those that stays with you long after viewing. 3. Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man Peace Mass (2000) Sir Karl Jenkins (1944- ) is a Welsh Composer who started out as a jazz-fusion multi-instrumentalist. He trained at Cardiff university and the Royal Academy of Music in London. You may think that his music is unfamiliar, but especially through its use in advertising, his compositions seem to get everywhere. They’re the sorts of familiar tunes that you can never place but instantly associate with banks or insurance or whatever! Composing such music is no mean feat, and requires a certain kind of geniusBut he is the writer of far more than atmospheric mood music. He’s best known for Adiemus, and more recently the Armed Man mass for peace. There is a long mediaeval tradition of composing settings of the Catholic mass liturgy around popular melodies and one of the most used was from a folk song called ‘L’Homme Armé’ (or the Armed Man). Jenkins updates the concept at the Millennium,  describing the previous century asthe most war-torn and destructive century in human history Our very own Doodler, Sophie Killingley, with the great man himself (some time ago it should be said!) Commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum to mark its move from London to Leeds at the Millennium, Jenkins combines the original form with texts from the Bible, the Islamic call to prayer, and the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. But just as Benjamin Britten did with his War Requiem after the Second World War, Jenkins throws in more contemporary poetry for good measure. “The Armed Man” – 6:25 “The Call to Prayers (Adhaan)” – 2:04 “Kyrie” – 8:12 “Save Me from Bloody Men” – 1:42 “Sanctus” – 7:00 “Hymn Before Action” – 2:38 “Charge!” – 7:26 “Angry Flames” – 4:44 “Torches” – 2:58 “Agnus Dei” – 3:39 “Now the Guns Have Stopped” – 3:25 “Benedictus” – 7:36 “Better Is Peace” – 9:33 Other Mentions Artistic discoveries during the break: Joel: Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings Sophie: Donna Tartt’s The Secret History Mark: Arvind Ethan David’s audiobook Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth

The Masterpieces 1. The Yellow Wallpaper (1890) Charlotte Perkins Gilman (as she became after her second marriage) suffered intolerable hardships in the lead-up and aftermath of giving birth in 1885 to her only child, Katherine. Today, she would be swiftly diagnosed with severe postpartum depression, but of course in the 1880s and 90s, the concept was light years from a medic’s vocabulary. She was given a ‘rest cure’, a strictly policed form enforced solitude and passivity: confined to bed, barred from social interactions, limited diet, minimal mental stimulation (so little or no reading or writing). If anything was guaranteed to aggravate mental illness, this was it. Highly unusual for the time, she finally divorced her husband Charles Stetson in 1894, although both had recognised that would be necessary as early as 1888. She wrote what would become her most famous  short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, in 1890, about a young mother’s ghastly plummet into madness in circumstances that clearly echoed her own. It is brilliantly paced but utterly chilling in its artful, unreliable narrative that manages to speak with piercing clarity. It’s easy to see why it became a staple of feminist literature, but it shouldn’t be confined to such labels.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (r) with her daughter, Katherine Beecher Stetson, ca 1897 (Schlesinger Library, Harvard) It is astonishingly good writing, pure and simple. Here are some relevant links: Read The Yellow Wallpaper (in various e-formats) Gothic Fiction The doctor who devised ‘rest cure’ therapy, Silas Weir Mitchell. Including women in Clinical trials before 1993. Mentioned in passing: Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca M. R. James’ Ghost Stories (complied 1931) Aimee Byrd’s Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (NB cover!) 2. I am a Rock, by Simon & Garfunkel (1965) Paul Simon is one of the true greats of American popular music. I mean, who else living has both his creative range and longevity? A brief ChatGPT query offers only Willie Nelson and Dick van Dyke (!?, though he is 100 this year). Both great folks – but IMHO not a patch on Paul Simon. You mention Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, or Johnny Mathis? But their careers are marginally shorter, believe it or not. He first came to global fame (as well as Sophie’s obsession) through his 10-year partnership with fellow New Yorker, Art Garfunkel.  It was hugely successful, but towards the end, became highly fraught; they formally split in 1970. This song, I am a Rock, was first released in 1965 but only in the UK. It would gain a global hearing when included in their 1966 album Sounds of Silence. Simon and Garfunkel, 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden 2009. (Kevin Kane/WireImage) Paul Simon’s official site In Passing: Meditation XVII (No man is an island) by John Donne 3. Local Hero (dir. Bill Forsyth) (1983) In an earlier episode, we shared our artistic proselytising failures: those things we loved that failed to impress anyone else. Mine was Local Hero. So we put it under the Triptych microscope, with interesting results! Bill Forsyth wrote and directed (on the back of his success with Gregory’s Girl), David Puttnam produced (fresh from Chariots of Fire Oscar glory). The film’s scale is simultaneously tiny and global. Its tone is light and quirky, almost absurd at times, but manages also to prompt serious questions. It’s nostalgic certainly, and perhaps trades in caricatures of a long-past Scotland. But it is a film with heart that really grows on you (though only perhaps, as Joel says in the discussion, once you have an idea of what to expect!).  The premise is simple. US megacorp oil company wants to buy remote fishing village on Western Highlands coast to turn it into a massive refinery. Agent sent from Houston to soften the inhabitants up for the deal. That’s it. But nothing goes smoothly. And that’s the joy of the whole. A wonderful cast (including Burt Lancaster in one of his last big roles; the great Fulton Mackay, Denis Lawson, not to mention Peter Capaldi in his very first etc), brilliant script, and dollops of wonder and natural beauty. Oh and Mark Knopfler’s gorgeous soundtrack. As several critics have pointed out, it is effectively a modern fairy tale. Lovely tribute to the film and to Pennan (where some of the filming took place), 40 years on. Oh, and I was wrong – they DID have, and STILL have a red phone box! The Bechdel-Wallace Test: a simple (and therefore not uncontroversial) means of analysing the portrayal of women in fiction (esp. film): does the work feature at least two women in conversation about something other than a man, and do they both have names? The legacy of Monty Python‘s absurdism? 10 fun facts about the movie! Other Mentions Our childhood artistic joys: The Doodler: The Poetry of Lord Byron. The Scribbler: Mr Benn. The Crooner: Drawing horses. I can’t quite believe it. What started as a minute little thought-seed, during one insomniac night back in mid-2024, then evolved into an actual thing with a real-live team. Joel and Sophie were in pretty quickly after the thought was shared, and then Owen came up trumps as our techie. Now look! We have reached the 8th, and  final, episode of Triptych Season 1!  What a ride it’s been. But before delving into this week’s  show-notes, we would LOVE to hear from YOU. So here’s a link to a brief TRIPTYCH Listener Survey (it should only take 5-10 minutes, max) to help us develop and grow Triptych for Season 2 and even beyond! But for now, back to the show… We decided to take the masterpieces in chronological order this time.

The Masterpieces 1. Black Mirror 3:5 "Men Against Fire" (2016) Black Mirror is both a phenomenon and an outlier, one that has gained cult status in some quarters (though perhaps there’s a generational divide there? You’ll need to ask our producer Owen for more on that. He has views…). It started life on the UK’s once quite edgy and adventurous Channel 4, the brainchild of journalist, arch-satirist and presenter, Charlie Brooker. He has either written, or prompted creative discussions for each episode, working with his producer Annabel Jones. Stripe’s commander Medina, played by the one and only Shiv Roy (aka Sarah Snook!!) But what makes it incredibly unusual is that it is an anthology show; in other words, one made up of a series of unrelated, stand-alone episodes. This is obviously much more expensive than a regular show because new sets, casts, designs etc are needed every time. The common thread is the impact of technology, socially, relationally, economically, and politically. Some gripe that it often piggy-backs on ideas that are developed at greater length elsewhere, but that does seem nit-picky when the production values are so high and the provocations so thoughtful. If that was not the case, it’s unlikely Netflix would have thrown huge budgets at it or so many A-list stars given their right arms to be in it.  That said, it is rarely comfortable viewing and sometimes incredibly dark. As this episode is… the discussion we had was very ‘interesting’! The premise of Men against Fire: soldiers are given neural implants that affects their perceptions, especially of enemies, so that they appear as lethal grotesques, or ‘roaches’. However nothing is as it seems. But what is interesting is that none of the ethical issues are as straightforward as they first seem. In this clip, psychiatrist Arquette (played by the brilliant Michael Kelly) explains the ethos behind the implants to protagonist Stripe (Malachi Kirby). Brooker was initially inspired to focus on propaganda by a British John-Pilger-made documentary about the Iraq war called The War You Don’t See. But his thinking was subsequently shaped by Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command by military historian S L A Marshall, and Dave Grossman’s On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. An intro to the concept of ‘Othering’ Finally, a flavour of Brooker’s less intense work (apols for some of the NSFW language) 2. Love after Love by Derek Walcott (1976) The total population of the 16 Caribbean nations comes to only around 44 million (so 0.54% of the world’s population). But just stop for a moment to think of its cultural impact: this is a region punching well above its weight: in music (eg mambo, calypso, dancehall, ska, reggae in international cuisine with the joys of things like jerk cooking or rum in sport (cricket and athletics especially) on many other cultures via its diasporas through its joyful festival and carnival culture in intellectual clout with the likes of CLR James (Trinidad) and Frantz Fanon (Martinique); not to forget the Nobel-winners: Sir Arthur Lewis (St Lucia) for Economics; V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad & Tobago) and Sir Derek Walcott (St Lucia) for Literature. [Plus I’ve not even MENTIONED our very own Carib genius, The Crooner — just a matter of time, surely — let alone anything to do with pirates] So it’s to Derek Walcott that we turn now (1930-2017). He won the Nobel in 1992 for his varied writing (plays, short poems, epic poetry, criticism), work that bridged all kinds of different influences making him one of the leading post-colonial writers of his generation. In this episode we discuss his beautiful, Love after Love, which was his publisher’s Poem of the Week only the other day. Receiving his Nobel in 1992 Some other connections George Herbert’s LOVE III Timothy Keller’s short book (based on a talk he often gave) The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. Joel even mentioned Calvin’s Institutes, so more on them here. 3. Making Do by Lake Street Dive (2021) Lake Street Dive is a highly talented and versatile band made up originally of friends who met at music college over 20 years ago (the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston). Since then, they have successfully experimented with different genres while the line-up has changed slightly. There is so much to love about their music, with its invention, virtuosity, flexibility and joie-de-vivre. This song, Making Do, is deceptively straightforward at first listen, though – and prompted a very interesting discussion. The core line-up on this 2021 album, Obviously, was: Rachael Price (original line-up) – vocals, writing Bridget Kearney (original line-up) – vocals, background vocals, bass, synthesizer, writing Michael Calabrese (original line-up) – drums, writing, background vocals, percussion Akie Bermiss (joined 2017) – vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, piano, background vocals, writing Mike “McDuck” Olson (original line-up, last album) – guitar, mandolin, strings, trumpet, writing Other Mentions The Guilty Pleasures (we were prepared to admit to…) Sophie the Doodler Killingley: Lloyd-Webber & Stilgoe’s Starlight Express Joel the Crooner Bain: Jerry Zucker’s Rat Race (mainly for Rowan Atkinson) Mark the Scribbler Meynell: Chris de Burgh’s 1975 album Spanish Train and Other Stories