A Tedious Argument Goes on Holiday
A enforced lull in the conversation as co-host crosses the pond
It was in Istria, Croatia — formerly Illyria, for fans of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night — in July of 2016 when I was running up and down hills (not through choice but as a way from A to B) and listening to a podcast about the European Football Championships (soccer, for our North American cousins), that I first considered a literary podcast for students, colleagues and friends alike. A whistlestop tour through literary heritage and genres, with some harmless, banal chatter on the side, was how I perceived it. A vehicle to convey my own passion for literature, and to share those great lines that drip off the tongue and find a permanent place in the heart: ‘The flower that smiles today / Tomorrow dies,’ (Shelley); ‘Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other,’ (Steinbeck); ‘If you’re happy in a dream, does that count?’ (Roy); ‘Do I dare / Disturb the universe?’ (Eliot).
For it to be a great podcast, though, it needed to show that such passion is, like all the best experiences and Wrigley’s chewing gum in the 1990’s, even better to share. In Jamie Wilkinson, I found a co-host (to quote Alan Partridge, I’m the host!) with knowledge, charisma, sympathy, and an acceptance of my unwavering capability of talking over him or belittling his exceptional understanding with a childish joke or a daft “new monthly feature”.
Perhaps the camaraderie can be heard and enjoyed by our listeners, but it was certainly appreciated by me. Like a child at Christmas, I looked forward to “Pod Recording Day”. The ribbing about making, or not making, ‘another Star Wars reference’ or a persistence about the literary merits of Harry Potter, or Jamie’s attempted retorts, making me increasingly angry with his suggestion that my great hero, Percy Shelley, was weak and sickly rather than simply dying young in a yachting accident, were some of the many highlights for me.
We all know the statistics after A Tedious Argument was born, with the six episodes amassing nearly one million plays in total (a statistic, for full disclosure, I am very suspicious of, but Jamie is adamant about since the internet doesn’t lie). Three-quarters of a million plays were in the United States, with our French cousins coming a distant second. Of SoundCloud subscribed listeners, the most regular players were Marco Alexiadis, Mateo Ceballos, Heli Parna, and Raquel Gebara — thank you — and special mention must be made by me of Sophie and Natalie Clarke, two of my former students from more than fifteen years ago, who became frequent @tediousarg listeners.
But, to quote Viola in Twelfth Night, ‘What should I do in Illyria? My brother, he is in Elysium.’ Jamie is, gladly, not going to Elysium… but he is departing for Boston. And despite the wonders of the WorldWide Web, I suspect his departure will mean an enforced pause in what has been a largely pointless and repetitive conversation. A Tedious Argument is a joint effort, our deranged and deformed love-child if you will, and will only continue when both parents are reunited. With a heavy heart I say, Good Luck Stateside, Jamie.
A Tedious Argument podcast is available on SoundCloud and iTunes.
