A Conversation on Difficulty and Ambiguity

From A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley by Sally Bayley, Andrew Smith

September 20, 2025 · 47 min · Episode 87

About this episode

Sally Bayley and James Bowen discuss navigating and teaching difficult literature, focusing on works by John Cooper Powys and James Joyce.

‘From Waterloo Station to the small country town of Ramsgard in Dorset is a journey of not more than three or four hours, but having by good luck found a compartment to himself, Wolf Solent was able to indulge in such an orgy of concentrated thought, that these three or four hours lengthened themselves out into something beyond all human measurement.’ We rejoin Sally this week in conversation with the producer, James Bowen, discussing how to navigate, and ultimately teach, ‘difficult’ literature, drawing on John Cooper Powys’ Wolf Solent (1929) and James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Listen for a discussion of ambiguity, pedagogy, and the role of the author in narrative resolution. More information on Powys can be found here. Sally’s fable, Worm in the Bud, will be published in November of this year by The New Menard Press. It will be available from all good booksellers. You can also find out more about James and his work here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

People in this episode

Hosts: Sally Bayley, Andrew Smith

Guest: James Bowen

Topics covered

difficult literature
ambiguity
pedagogy
narrative resolution
literary analysis

Keywords

literature
Wolf Solent
Ulysses
ambiguity
pedagogy
narrative

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The New Menard Press

Products: Worm in the Bud

Books & works: Wolf Solent, Ulysses