Monthly Archives: April 2014

Why Do They Quote Shakespeare on Mercury?

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

E.R. Eddison‘s challenging and infectious epic, The Worm Ouroboros, has a curious set up. The story itself is about a series of adventures between various warring countries. To begin with, the names of these countries are odd. The primary battle … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Original Research | Tagged C.S. Lewis, E.R. Eddison, fantasy, Fictional Universes, J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle Earth, Philip Pullman, Planet Narnia, Roger Zelazny, Shakespeare, The Worm Ouroboros | 30 Comments

Affirming Creation in the Lord of the Rings

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Perhaps it isn’t that surprising that J.R.R. Tolkien’s books are so environmentally sensitive. Like Sam Gamgee, Tolkien loved things that grow and good tilled earth. He loved walks–long walks beyond his garden through English towns and villages and vast, untouched … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections | Tagged creation, creation care, Earth Day, environment, fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Legolas, literature, Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Treebeard, WWI | 20 Comments

The Grand Miracle, Or Easter in Everyday Life

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

On this week 69 years ago, C.S. Lewis preached a sermon called “The Grand Miracle” at St. Jude on the Hill Church in London. The talk was published two weeks later in The Guardian–following the last episode of The Great … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | 3 Comments

6 Surprising Celebrity Audiobook Narrators

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

I first discovered audiobooks while taking graduate courses by distance in Japan. I received these world-class lecture packages in the mail, pulled the cassette out of its cellophane wrapper (yes, a tape!), and then popped it into my car’s tape … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged audiobooks, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cornelia Funke, Franz Kafka, Jack Kerouac, Johnny Cash, Madeleine L'Engle, Nicole Kidman, On Writing, Rob Bell, Stephen King, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf | 29 Comments

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Memoir in Poetry by G. Leibholz

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Dietrich Bonhoeffer remains such an intriguing figure. A pastor who stayed in Germany in WWII so that he might resist Hitler and Nazism, he is one of the more original and evocative 20th century theologians. The 70th anniversary of his … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged books, concentration camp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hitler, martyrdom, Memoir, Nazism, self-death, The Cost of Discipleship, theology, WWII | 31 Comments

Out of the Silent Planet, the comic book. By AaronTP

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

I’ve blogged about the crazy book covers for Out of the Silent Planet, and I’ve talked about its meaning in my War of Worldviews series (Part 1 & Part 2), as well as “There’s No Such Thing as Space” and … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, comics, fantasy, Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom Trilogy | 7 Comments

The Imaginative Landscape of The Worm Ouroboros

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison is one the most important early fantasy works of the twentieth century. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote: I read the works of Eddison, long after they appeared; and I once met him. I heard him in … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections, Reviews | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, E.R. Eddison, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, literature, myth, myth of sisyphus, The Worm Ouroboros | 17 Comments

Adventures in Geekland: Book Collecting and C.S. Lewis

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Warning: You are about to experience C.S. Lewis geekery brought to a new level. Now, I have gone down this road before. After all, I travelled to New York city to spend four hours with a handwritten manuscript of The … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged book collecting, books, C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Edwin W. Brown, first editions, In Pursuit of C.S. Lewis, Kathryn Lindskoog, Light, literature, The Screwtape Letters, Walter Hooper | 16 Comments

Somebody Who Gave a Damn

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

It was an age when Kurt Cobain’s suicide made some sense. Not his own personal death, of course, distilled, slipping from faded light to darkness. It is easy to forget the icons as souls sometimes. It seemed, though, like a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged 1990s, Come As You Are, Foo Fighters, Foolish Games, Jewel, Kurt Cobain, Pieces of You, Poetry, pop culture, Soundgarden, suicide | 3 Comments

Sometimes It’s Hard To Know What God Wants: A Response to Noah

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Sometimes it is hard to know what God wants. Set aside for a moment the strengths and weaknesses of the new film adaptation of Noah featuring Russell Crowe. And leave for another day the questions of myth and history, of … Continue reading →