Episode 337: “The Celestial Omnibus” by E. M. Forster – Short Story Summer Remix

On this week’s episode of The Literary Life, we continue our series of replays from our Summer of the Short Story with a discussion of “The Celestial Omnibus” by E. M. Forster. Angelina and Cindy tell why they love this short story so much and how it encapsulates their own ideas about literature. Thomas gives us some biographical background on E. M. Forster. We get a brief look at the plot of the story, as well as some discussion of how allegorical Forster makes this story. Angelina highlights the idea presented in “The Celestial Omnibus” that what we see in fairy land is more real than what we see in our own world.

Other themes our hosts bring up include modern educational theory, wonder and innocence, using poetry versus enjoying it, and literary critique contrasted with experiencing literature. Their conversation hinges around the contrast between Mr. Bons’ pride and pretension and the boy’s humility and sincerity. This story embodies everything that The Literary Life podcast is all about, so we hope you enjoy both the story and this episode!

To get the replay of Thomas’ webinar on How to Love Poetry, as well as the current and upcoming summer classes mentioned in this episode, please visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com.

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Commonplace Quotes

At any street corner we may meet a man who utters the frantic and blasphemous statement that he may be wrong. Every day one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one. Of course his view must be the right one, or it is not his view. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.

G.K. Chesterton, from Orthodoxy

In our anxiety to write about literature, we have forgotten how to read it.

Northrop Frye

I read what I feel inclined to read, and I am conscious of no duty to finish a book that I do not care to finish.

Arnold Bennett, from The Philosophy of Book-buying

Port of Aerial Embarkation

by John Ciardi

There is no widening distance at the shore—
The sea revolving slowly from the piers—
But the one border of our take-off roar
And we are mounted on the hemispheres.

Above the waning moon whose almanac
We wait to finish continents away,
The Northern stars already call us back,
And silence folds like maps on all we say.

Under the sky, a stadium tensed to cry
The ringside savage thrumming of the fights,
We watch our engines, taut and trained for sky,
Arranged on fields of concrete flowered with lights.

Day after day we fondle and repeat
A jeweler’s adjustment on a screw;
Or wander past the bulletins to meet
And wander back to watch the sky be blue.

Somehow we see ourselves in photographs
Held in our hands to show us back our pride
When, aging, we recall in epitaphs
The faces just behind and to each side.

The nights keep perfect silence. In the dark
You feel the faces soften into sleep,
Or tense upon the fraught and falling arc
Of fear a boy had buried not too deep.

Finally we stand by and consciously
Measure the double sense of all our talk,
And, everyman his dramatist, anxiously
Corrects his role, his gesture, and his walk.

Book List:

Amazon affiliate links are included in this post.

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

Mental Efficiency by Arnold Bennett

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett

Howards End by E. M. Forster

Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

Religio Medici by Thomas Browne

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Connect with Us:

You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

You can find Cindy Rollins at MorningTimeforMoms.com, over on her podcast The New Mason Jar, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CindyRollinsWriter. You can also check out her Patreon for additional content.

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