Category Archives: Original Research

The Living Lie, But Dead Men Tell the Truth: The Screwtape Letters and Ivan Ilych

Posted on April 1, 2020 by

In Leo Tolstoy’s brilliant novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886), there is a curious pun in the English translation I use (Aylmer Maude): “The dead man lay, as dead men always lie” (96). As the title suggests, The Death of Ivan … Continue reading →

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The C.S. Lewis & Friends Conference: A Final Call and My Paper Proposal

Posted on March 6, 2020 by

I wanted to re-share the Call for Papers for one of my favourite conferences (which I describe here and here). If you are thinking of proposing a paper or creative piece, get that proposal in! They are especially interested in having … Continue reading →

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It is Easy to Teach C.S. Lewis’ “Till We Have Faces,” but It’s Hard to Blog About It

Posted on February 10, 2020 by

Though I am always nudging readers to see The Great Divorce as C.S. Lewis’ most genius work of fiction, Till We Have Faces truly is a remarkable novel. It is the dying-days journal of Orual, Queen of Glome, who sues her capricious gods … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections | Tagged , , , , | 30 Comments

When Screwtape Haunts in Eden: A Lecture on C.S. Lewis’ Fantasy Writings by Dr. Brenton Dickieson

Posted on January 21, 2020 by

In this lecture that I prepared for The King’s College in New York City, I talk about my research into C.S. Lewis’ world-building project. In particular, given manuscript evidence that links The Screwtape Letters with the Space Trilogy, I spend … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Original Research | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

2019: A Year of Reading: The Nerd Bit, with Charts

Posted on January 1, 2020 by

“With such wishes for the New Year as still seem possible” ~ C.S. Lewis to his father from the WWI trenches in France “Except at my job—where the machine seems to run on much as usual—I loathe the slightest effort. … Continue reading →

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“A Sense of the Season”: C.S. Lewis’ Birthday Pivot and the Cambridge Inaugural Address

Posted on November 28, 2019 by

In the autumn of 1954 at the age of 56, C.S. Lewis was at the height of his academic career. After nearly two decades of research and writing English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama, this magnum opus intensified … Continue reading →

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Harold Bloom and “The Western Canon”: A Note on His Death

Posted on October 18, 2019 by

I received news this week that Harold Bloom has died. Bloom (1930-2019) was an avid reader, a rapid writer, and a penetrating critic whose essays and books on literature are breathtaking in scope and exemplary in their attention to the … Continue reading →

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