Tag Archives: J.K. Rowling

A Weekend of Reading to Change Your Literary Life

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

If you are like me, you have spent much of your adult life as a reader catching up on a severe lack of education. It is common that I am out with friends and when the topic of books comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Arthur C. Clarke, Charles Williams, Charlotte Brontë, Goethe, H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Kurt Vonnegut, L.M. Montgomery, Margaret Atwood, Reading, Shakespeare, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Virginia Woolf, William Morris | 19 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 | 17 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

The Words C.S. Lewis Made Up: Jollification, Uglification, and the Miserific Vision

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

We all know C.S. Lewis as the Narnian, but behind the children’s work was his experience as a teacher of English literature, a writer about the history of literary movements, and a tinker in other forms of fiction. In that tinkering, … Continue reading →

Posted in Studies in Words | Tagged A.A. Milne, E.B. White, J.K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket, lion the witch and the wardrobe, Prince Caspian, Roald Dahl, Studies in Words, The Screwtape Letters, Voyage of the Dawn Treader | 19 Comments

Tolkien’s “I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size)” in Context

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

I don’t know that there is any more famous Tolkien quote than his claim to, in fact, be a hobbit. It’s really quite a delightful statement and worth quoting more fully: I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Charles Williams, Franz Kafka, Harry Potter, Hobbit Day, I.A. Richards, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, literary criticism, literature, Lord of the Rings, new criticism, practical criticism, Stephen King, The Hobbit, Ursula K. LeGuin | 23 Comments

When Sam Gamgee Wrote to J.R.R. Tolkien

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

As far as I know, no one named Puddleglum or any Pevensie has ever written to C.S. Lewis. Has anyone named Ged or Arha ever written to Ursula K. Le Guin, if there is anyone with those names? Among the various Potter … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Arha, C.S. Lewis, Ged, Harry Potter, Humphrey Carpenter, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Patrick Rothfuss, Puddleglum, Samwise Gamgee, Ursula K. Le Guin | 11 Comments

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Put Them

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

In a recent SignumU panel on the films Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (see below), I admitted I was disappointed with the original Fantastic Beasts book. I love J.K. Rowling’s fantastic writing, and find myself hungry for more … Continue reading →