Monthly Archives: July 2014

The Tangled Path Before Us: A Review of Matthew Dickerson’s “The Rood and the Torc”

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

When I walk into a bookstore and scan the historical fiction section, I am inevitably met with dozens of book jackets featuring Amish women in bent grass landscapes or mysterious looking Elizabethan courtiers ready to be betrayed (or to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Till We Have Confusing Book Titles: Guest Post by William O’Flaherty

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

William O’Flaherty is like a digital C.S. Lewis handshake. He is a technological rainmaker, drawing together Lewis resources through his various posts, blogs, podcasts, interviews, and news items at Essential C.S. Lewis, a feature site of the Middle Earth Network. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

The Sea a Sham Born of Uniformity: On Subverting the Normal with Gene Wolfe (#WritingWednesdays)

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Classic SciFi authors will cringe when I admit this, but I am reading Gene Wolfe for the first time. It just hasn’t come across my path until I found a dozen Ursula K. LeGuin and Gene Wolfe books at a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, On Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

The Sorrows of Young Goethe

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Let me tell you a story. In the summer of 1772, 245 years ago, a young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe took a position articling in Wetzlar, Germany. He wasn’t a very good lawyer, however, and spent most of his time … Continue reading →

Posted in Thoughtful Essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“The Myth of Empty Space” by Dallas Willard

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

I was at my extended family’s house yesterday and saw Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy on a side table. It is a bookish home, and I’m a bookish person, so I’m often flipping over books and picking up where people … Continue reading →

Posted in Memorable Quotes, Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Remembering Christopher Mitchell

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Originally posted on Off the Shelf:
Chris Mitchell, former Director of the Marion E. Wade Center, 1994-2013 It is with great sadness that we announce the unexpected death of Christopher W. Mitchell, Director of the Marion E. Wade Center from…

Posted in News & Links, Reflections | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

On Mixing Fantasy with Real Life, A Lesson from Sesame Street (#WritingWednesdays)

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

This is the latest in a series called “Writing Wednesdays,” focusing on writing resources from the common to the unusual. This one is perhaps a little unusual. For work I am reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (2000). It’s been … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Two Different Prefaces to C.S. Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength”

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

I am certain that within long I will be accused of being obsessed with Prefaces. I have posted great prefaces to C.S. Lewis’ The Allegory of Love and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, and I have even published the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 51 Comments

“Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to be Said” by C.S. Lewis

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

This post is part of an ongoing series Called Writing Wednesdays.  Perhaps no one would be more surprised than C.S. Lewis himself at the success of his classic children’s stories, The Chronicles of Narnia. Hundreds of millions of copies of … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Writing, Fictional Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments