Monthly Archives: August 2021

Great and Little Men: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Letter about C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

For much of the last week, I have been fighting through the relationship between C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot. In my 2015 post about Eliot’s striking lyrical poem, “…In the Vacant Places,” I was more than a bit optimistic when … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged A Grief Observed, A Preface to Paradise Lost, An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, E.M.W. Tillyard, F.R. Leavis, I.A. Richards, J.R.R. Tolkien, Reflections on the Psalms, T.S. Eliot, The Inklings, The Personal Heresy, The Waste Land | 33 Comments

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Manifesto Against Genre Snobbery

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

One of our greatest speculative fiction writers, Ursula K. Le Guin, has never been one to turn down a fight. A genius in two of my favourite genres, science fiction and fantasy–especially planetary SciFi and magic-world fantasy–Le Guin has also … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday, Memorable Quotes, On Writing, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged fantasy, Frankenstein, genre, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Madeleine L'Engle, Margaret Atwood, Science Fiction, SF, speculative fiction, The Birthday of the World, The Hainish Cycle, The Lord of the Rings, Ursula K. Le Guin | 33 Comments

Marsha Daigle-Williamson’s Reflecting the Eternal and Dante in the Work of C.S. Lewis, with Thoughts about Intertextuality (Good C.S. Lewis Studies Books That Did Not Win the Mythopoeic Award Series Insert)

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

Intertextuality: The Books Inside the Books We Love to Read I am very much interested in the books that sit behind the books we read, or the idea of “Intertextuality.” I have tackled this topic before (see the list at … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Dante, intertextuality, Marion E. Wade Center, Marsha Daigle-Williamson, Narnia, Reflecting the Eternal: Dante’s Divine Comedy in the Novels of C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, Till We Have Faces, Voyage of the Dawn Treader | 24 Comments

John Garth, Maximilian Hart, Kris Swank, and Myself on Ursula K. Le Guin, Language, Tolkien, and World-building (Friday Feature)

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

Happy Friday everyone! I am preparing for the upcoming Signum University Ursula K. Le Guin course that I am precepting (for which there may be a spot or two open, and you can see a second invite here). Elbow-deep in … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Earthsea, J.R.R. Tolkien, owen barfield, Signum University, The Earthsea Cycle, The Inklings, Ursula K. Le Guin | 10 Comments

Good C.S. Lewis Studies Books That Did Not Win the Mythopoeic Award: Part 2: C.S. Lewis Biographies

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that “Tolkien Studies Projects Sweep the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award Shortlist in Inklings Studies.” This was a double-edged post that congratulated the authors of editors of five great Tolkien books while noting that, once … Continue reading →