Tag Archives: fantasy

Little Rooms of Imagination with Madeleine L’Engle and C.S. Lewis (Friday Feature)

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

I tell my students often enough to read the fore-matter in their textbooks. “That’s where the good stuff is,” I argue. “That’s where the author shares his or her vision for writing.” Now, I suspect that students rarely heed my … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday, Memorable Quotes, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Wrinkle in Time, books, C.S. Lewis, children's literature, fairy tales, fantasy, imagination, lion the witch and the wardrobe, literature, Madeleine L'Engle, wardrobe, writing | 3 Comments

Madeleine L’Engle’s Remarkable Accomplishment in The Wrinkle in Time

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

By all accounts, the young Madeleine L’Engle did everything wrong. First, she was a woman writing in a man’s genre in the 1950s and 1960s—and writing soft SF under a feminine name without the ambiguity of initials to hide behind. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections, Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Wrinkle in Time, fantasy, film, film adaptation, Madeleine L'Engle, Oprah Winfrey, Science Fiction, SF | 22 Comments

Philip Pullman as a Reader of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

Philip Pullman is for me a hot-and-cold writer who, fortunately, usually leads with heat. His accomplishment in drawing modern fantasy readers into the worlds of Milton and Dante with the His Dark Materials trilogy is an important one. Lyra in The Golden … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Dante, fantasy, Golden, Golden Compass, His Dark Materials, J.R.R. Tolkien, Milton, Narnia, Neil Gaiman, Paradise Lost, Philip Pullman, The Book of Dust, The Last Battle, The Problem of Susan | 36 Comments

“A Novelist’s Business is Lying”: A Farewell to Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018)

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

I have just heard that Ursula K. Le Guin has passed away. I could be humble about my opinion, but I want to impress upon you that she is one of our very greatest imaginative writers of the last 50 … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, On Writing | Tagged Arha, C.S. Lewis, Earthsea, fantasy, feminism, gender, Harry Potter, homosexuality, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, literature, Margaret Atwood, Narnia, Science Fiction, sex, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin | 15 Comments

A History of Magic with J. K. Rowling (A New BBC Documentary)

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

Just in time for Hallowe’en, and in concert with the British Library’s “Harry Potter: A History of Magic” exhibit, BBC has produced an hour-long Potterlicious documentary. I saw this film on Twitter yesterday, and thought it was worth sharing–and not … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday, Fictional Worlds, News & Links | Tagged books, British Library, fantasy, Fictional Universes, folklore, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, magic, writing | 6 Comments

Wormwood Reborn? A Screwtapian Look at The Gates by John Connolly (A Little Hallowe’en Demonic Lit)

Posted on October 31, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

One of the great perks as a university teacher is that I am constantly in conversation with students about good books. While this occasionally gets me into conversations about Twilight (which I did read, but only with great commitment to my … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Reviews | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Dante, demons, Douglas Adams, fantasy, hell, John Connolly, Lemony Snicket, literature, Philip Pullman, Screwtape, Teaching, Terry Pratchett, The Gates, The Screwtape Letters, Twilight | 10 Comments

Why I Didn’t Finish IT as a Teen

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

I was a couple of years older than the kids in IT when I picked it up the first time. The novel is filled with sexual content, gory violence, and profanity—very little of which was carried over to the Hollywood … Continue reading →