Episode 47
July 6, 2021
Charlotte’s Web
Hosted by Chris Piuma and Suzanne Conklin Akbari
“What are you doing up there, Charlotte?”
“Oh, making something,” she said. “Making something, as usual.”
“Is it something for me?” asked Wilbur.
“No,” said Charlotte. “It’s something for me, for a change.”
“Please tell me what it is,” begged Wilbur.
“I’ll tell you in the morning,” she said. “When the first light comes into the sky and the sparrows stir and the cows rattle their chains, when the rooster crows and the stars fade, when early cars whisper along the highway, you look up here and I’ll show you something. I will show you my masterpiece.”
Charlotte’s Web is E.B. White’s beloved children’s book about a young and humble pig named Wilbur, whose life is changed through the efforts of some unlikely friends/mother figures—including Fern (a young girl), Templeton (a selfish rat), and Charlotte (a wise and generous spider). Suzanne and Chris read this book and think about the distinctions we make between people and animals, and wonder whether there’s something about animal stories that make them ideal for telling such poignant stories about death and time.
Content warning: Unsurprisingly, there is some discussion of animals dying in this episode.
![[Episode artwork]](/images/podcast/art/s/spouter.png)
The Spouter-Inn E.B. White’s children’s novel, Charlotte’s Web. More episodes
Show Notes.
E.B. White: Charlotte’s Web. [Bookshop.]
Other books by E.B. White: Is Sex Necessary?: Or Why You Feel the Way You Do (with James Thurber). Stuart Little. The Trumpet of the Swan. Elements of Style (with William Strunk). Essays. Letters.
Richard Adams: Watership Down.
Helen Macdonald: H is for Hawk.
T.H. White: The Once and Future King.
Graeme Base: The Eleventh Hour.
André Alexis: Fifteen Dogs.
Michael Field: Whym Chow: Flame of Love.