Literate Sleep

著者： Rick Whitaker
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  • Rick Whitaker, author and host of the nocturnal podcast Literate Sleep, reads aloud from literary texts that you can enjoy while falling asleep. These are not cliffhangers or thrillers. They’re citizens of the low country, content to amble along to see whatever happens to be there--fabulous but fully self-evident literary landscapes without the promise of climax, epiphany, or resolution. These texts could go on, it seems, forever, which is not to say that they’re boring. They're not. Among the writers whose work will be featured in future episodes are, for instance, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Lynch, W. G. Sebald, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Richard Howard, Ronald Firbank, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Marcel Proust, Toni Morrison, William James, Edith Hamilton, and the list could go on and on--you could be put to sleep by the list itself. But as a reader with a severe allergy to boredom, Rick Whitaker will always strive to put you to sleep with texts that will not bore you. In his quiet readings without music, these literary texts will lull you, pacify you, and induce you to sweet, smart dreams. The first episode is a reading of a 1913 story by the Swiss writer Robert Walser. Born in 1878, Walser was a dropout from school at 14. In his 50s he retired to a sanatorium where, he said, he went “not to write, but to be mad.” "Kleist in Thun" is his homage to the German poet Heinrich von Kleist. Following the Walser story, a page from James Joyce's famously inscrutable novel Finnegans Wake. But you’ll be sound asleep by then. Literate sleep.
    Copyright 2025 Rick Whitaker
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あらすじ・解説

Rick Whitaker, author and host of the nocturnal podcast Literate Sleep, reads aloud from literary texts that you can enjoy while falling asleep. These are not cliffhangers or thrillers. They’re citizens of the low country, content to amble along to see whatever happens to be there--fabulous but fully self-evident literary landscapes without the promise of climax, epiphany, or resolution. These texts could go on, it seems, forever, which is not to say that they’re boring. They're not. Among the writers whose work will be featured in future episodes are, for instance, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Lynch, W. G. Sebald, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Richard Howard, Ronald Firbank, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Marcel Proust, Toni Morrison, William James, Edith Hamilton, and the list could go on and on--you could be put to sleep by the list itself. But as a reader with a severe allergy to boredom, Rick Whitaker will always strive to put you to sleep with texts that will not bore you. In his quiet readings without music, these literary texts will lull you, pacify you, and induce you to sweet, smart dreams. The first episode is a reading of a 1913 story by the Swiss writer Robert Walser. Born in 1878, Walser was a dropout from school at 14. In his 50s he retired to a sanatorium where, he said, he went “not to write, but to be mad.” "Kleist in Thun" is his homage to the German poet Heinrich von Kleist. Following the Walser story, a page from James Joyce's famously inscrutable novel Finnegans Wake. But you’ll be sound asleep by then. Literate sleep.
Copyright 2025 Rick Whitaker
アート 個人的成功 文学史・文学批評 自己啓発 衛生・健康的な生活
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  • Natalia Ginzburg's "Human Relations"

    Natalia Ginzburg's "Human Relations"
    2025/05/04

    This podcast is intended to help you fall asleep. Do not listen to it while driving. It’s best to listen while lying in bed, as comfortable as you can get, and without the likelihood of being interrupted until it’s time to wake up.

    I’m Rick Whitaker, and this is Literate Sleep.

    Tonight, I’ll read “Human Relations,” an essay by the great Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg, published in 1953. Since I expect you’ll be asleep when I read the end of Ginzburg’s essay, I’ll now read the final sentence of it, which should not be missed: “We’re hurt and aggrieved, we whisper suspicious questions, all the while knowing so well how the long chain of human relations takes its course, making its long and inevitable parabola, the whole long road we have to travel to feel, at last, a bit of compassion.” Now I invite you to lie down and close your eyes, calm yourself down, relax completely, and let yourself be taken away to sleep: Literate Sleep.

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    39 分
  • Two Stories in the Style of W.G. Sebald: "The Keeper of Light" and "The Archive of Sand"

    Two Stories in the Style of W.G. Sebald: "The Keeper of Light" and "The Archive of Sand"
    2025/04/28

    Tonight I’ll read two tales created with assistance from Claude Sonnet 3.7, the AI chatbot from Anthropic. The stories were composed with minimal prompting:

    Please write a story that would be ideal for my new podcast called Literate Sleep, in which I read literary texts aloud to help listeners fall asleep. It shouldn’t be boring but also shouldn’t lead to a climactic ending.

    Claude dutifully wrote a story called "The Gentle Harbor," which featured a character named Eleanor and a lighthouse, but it had no charm nor style.

    Try writing it in the style of W.G. Sebald.

    I did some editing and found that I was very pleased with the story.

    Excellent. Please write a second story in the style of Sebald that I’ll read as a companion to this one.

    Out came "The Archive of Sand," which I carefully edited.

    Can you provide a black and white photo to accompany the two stories?

    After some back and forth, Claude referred me to the Library of Congress, where I found a photograph I liked, in color.

    I make no grand claims for these stories, which are undoubtedly inferior to anything written by Sebald himself. But Sebald is long gone, sadly, and I, for one, am grateful for a chance to read something even vaguely like Sebald’s prose. So I invite you to lie down and close your eyes, calm yourself down, relax completely, and let yourself be taken away to sleep as I read two new Sebaldian tales, The Keeper of Light and The Archive of Sand. I trust that the sound of my voice will lull you right to sleep: Literate Sleep.

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    37 分
  • Edmund White's The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir

    Edmund White's The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir
    2025/04/22

    Tonight I’ll read an excerpt from Edmund White’s recently published The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir. Edmund is a close friend of mine, and my favorite page in this book is the dedication page, which reads: To Rick Whitaker. Be advised that you will hear some vivid descriptions of gay sex, so if you wish not to fall asleep with such stuff in your head, you might want to skip this episode. Most of my friends will undoubtedly listen to it repeatedly. But if you’re OK with gay sex, I invite you to close your eyes, calm yourself down, relax completely, and let yourself be taken away, while I read to you, for a peaceful night of rejuvenating, healthy, deep sleep. I’ll read from The Loves of My Life for about half an hour. By the time I’ve finished, I expect you’ll be either wide awake and ordering a copy of the book, or sound asleep: Literate sleep.


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    39 分

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