Waywords Studio Full Slate

Waywords Studio Full Slate


Latest Episodes

Le Guin Part 3: The Reader’s Labyrinth
August 30, 2025

Sure, the Omelas dilemma is tough, but at least we have our narrator as ally, right? Right? Perhaps the real horror in Omelas has less to do with the child at its center.

Le Guin 2: Architectures of Happiness
August 23, 2025

Is this story really about that suffering child? Or is it more about how we wall its suffering out, then invite it back in?

Le Guin 1: The Hideous Bargain
August 15, 2025

At last we settle in to think about Le Guin's Omelas story and set aside some common approaches to it. The first of several parts.

Gardens of Imagination – Narrative Utopias
August 08, 2025

Let's niche down into a small sub-genre of fantasy and explore our desire for it, the classic utopia!

In Defense of Fantasy
August 01, 2025

Riddle: What do Beowulf, Palmolive dish liquid, and Sarah Maas have in common? Hint: Ursula K. Le Guin knows!

Stephen King Meets Shel Silverstein: Formalism and Trope in Story
July 25, 2025

What do a children's story and horror film have in common? Maybe our Suffering Child question, with very different approaches to it.

Negotiating for Space: Compromise and Flag-Planting
July 18, 2025

This is getting challenging. What are we to do with the Suffering Child question? And on which form of suffering do I plant my flag of resistance? Dostoevsky and Langston Hughes both offer clues.

Reading: “Rebellion” from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’
July 11, 2025

Still another famous writer has posed the Le Guin question, and he did it in one of Russia's most famous novels, The Brothers Karamazov. Here it is.

Otium and The Moral Philosopher – William James
July 04, 2025

Le Guin leans on an essay by William James, but what does that have to do with all our garden talk? It's about our blind spots and our privilege.

Marvell’s Garden and Ours – Otium
June 27, 2025

Speaking of links back to Andrew Marvell's poetry--weren't we?--we expose some of our misapprehensions about nature, leisure, and work. And we read Marvell's poem "The Garden" while we think green tho