Letters
Knit to This: Obscure
Two years ago I went on a solo camping trip with nothing to listen to except an oddball podcast I had just discovered. I was so transfixed by it that I don’t remember a thing about the camping trip because I spent the entire time listening to comedian (and, crucially in this case, improv genius) Michael Ian Black (you’d know him if you saw him) reading Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.
Did I lose you? Well come on back, because the show is hilarious. Black opens the book (with no prior knowledge or research about it—or familiarity with it other than that it sat on his wife’s shelf—and no plans at all except to perhaps explore a half-thought-out idea about the nature of cultural “obscurity” which even he admits might apply to his own career) and begins reading (from his local branch library, and accompanied by his dog Jack-Jack) with absolutely no knowledge of its contents other than the title.
As he reads, he’ll stop at the end of a sentence and query, “Now what does that mean?” and then he’ll reframe aloud the sentence he just read in non-Hardy-speak (frequently in wildly incorrect fashion; he gets a lot charmingly wrong) and then zip right on to the next sentence. Sometimes you only hear one paragraph in a half hour because Black will get so far off the subject that even he can’t find his way back easily. When he wants to roam around the hills of Hardy’s Wessex, you just have to go along for the stroll with him.
Now look: I’m not seriously going to recommend that you rush over to your wireless and tune in to seventy-five 30-45 minute-long episodes of Jude the Obscure (that’s a lie—as a diehard Hardy fan, I’m totally saying you should do that), but here’s some news! Season 2 of “Obscure” began in late 2020 (fortuitously timed, as you’ll hear), and this time around tackles Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!
Just short of twenty episodes in so far, and it’s just as delightful and fascinating and … r-o-u-n-d-a-b-o-u-t as Season 1 (it takes Black half of the first episode to decide whether or not to read the Introduction—he skips it, but you never really know if he might decide to go back and read it anyway in the future, and he DOES read the publishing information). Same setup: he has no idea what he’s reading before he lays eyes on it while you’re listening.
Frankenstein is a little more fun than Jude (in alllll the ways), so feel free to jump in with Season 2. You’ll know if it’s for you by the end of the first episode (there are naughty words), but I think “Obscure” does a great service to literature by appearing to do it no service at all other than playing around with it—I think we sometimes forget how fun literature can be.
It’s almost impossible to listen to “Obscure” and not quote Dr. Frankenstein himself and yell out “It’s alive!”
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What fun! Less serious, more quirky is exactly what I need right now. A deep dive is needed as I prep garden beds this weekend.
Gee. Jude the Obscure was just such an important book to me as a teen–I don’t think I could go there –But Frankenstein sounds GREAT!
Another great find: The Moby Dick Big Read, where each chapter is read by a different person. Tilda Swinton, Stephen Fry, Neil Tennant, Fiona Shaw, Will Self, Benedict Cumberbatch, China Miéville, Tony Kushner, John Waters, Simon Callow, Sir David Attenborough, Prime Minister David Cameron, Mary Oliver. I mean. It’s a lot to think about.
All of this is boggling my mind. I can’t wait.
I love that podcast! The book has such an odd assortment of chapters that it really works. The actors are great of course but some of the best chapters are non-famous people. I wish they’d done other books too.
Some were great, some not so much, some were irritating. To me id didn’t help the cohesiveness of the story. I just drifted away after a while.
Forgot to say another thing I enjoyed about this – I made a point of listening to a chapter a day and some of the chapters are very short. I just never knew what I was going to get.
I’m gonna give it a listen while I do chores
You did it again, DG! Love this recommendation! Ta❤️
I’m convinced by your brilliant review to give this a go. It sounds so fun.
Thanks for the review … I love audiobooks and podcasts. They have kept me informed and entertained for many years. I just subscribed and will fold Michael Ian Black into my listening queue. Thanks to others who have offered favorites here – I’ve found people and places that I wouldn’t normally have run across. Very much enjoyed listening to the entire Master and Commander series this summer, Moby Dick previously and many other major and minor worthy offerings. Finishing up the All Souls Trilogy (plus one) by Deborah Harkness recently recommended.
It kept me entertained for many days. And while I mostly LOVED it, I think I never finished. Hmmm…??
I have laughed at Michael Ian Black’s work since I first saw him on a short lived sketch comedy show called The State. This sounds like a fantastic podcast!
I’ve listened to the first 3 episodes. I’m loving it. Thanks so much for the recommendation.