Tag Archives: Margaret Atwood

Stephen King and the Genre of Genius

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

This year for my Stickin’ Huge Awesome Novel Winter Awesome Read (SHANWAR), I chose Stephen King’s The Stand (1978) I have never read it before and I don’t think I have ever had a conversation with someone about it. Still, … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing, Reflections, Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged 'Salem's Lot, Carrie, fantasy, genre, Harold Bloom, IT, literature, Margaret Atwood, On Writing, Science Fiction, speculative fiction, Stephen King, The Green Mile, The Shining, The Stand | 26 Comments

New Approaches to Academic Writing: An Unusual Marking Note for a Good Student

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

I am at that time of year when the marking pile on my desk is higher than my laptop screen. Like a fool, each year, I go into the marking expecting great things. So far, I have never had a … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged academic, Alice Walker, autoethnography, B.R. Myers, Christopher Hitchens, Corey Olsen, Dorothy L. Sayers, Flannery O'Connor, George Orwell, Harold Bloom, John Updike, literary criticism, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, research, Roxane Gay, Slavoj Žižek, Stanley Fish, Teaching, Terry Eagleton, theology, Ursula K. Le Guin, Virginia Woolf, writing | 15 Comments

The Problem with Moralistic Art: A Note on the Expository Demon

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

I am not an avid theatre goer, but it is something I secretly love. Rather than the grand urban stages, I especially enjoy the small, intimate theatres that we have here in Atlantic Canada and tucked away in cities … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged art, Blue Like Jazz, C.S. Lewis, christianity and culture, Duncan Macmillan, Left Behind, Lungs, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, pop culture, Steve Taylor, theatre, Theology of Culture, Till We Have Faces, writing | 55 Comments

“A Novelist’s Business is Lying”: What SciFi Can Do by Ursula K. Le Guin

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

When a re-encountered the books as an adult, I was thoroughly won over by Ursula K. Le Guin‘s Earthsea Cycle. I tend to write about writers who are rooted in deep worldviews. It is not that every good book is … 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 le guin | 28 Comments

On Embracing my Inner Nerd, Or Erasing the Division between Head and Heart

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

The phrase, “doing your devotions,” still gives me the shivers. Early in my spiritual journey, my well-meaning leaders tried to instill a little religion in me. I was the Christian equivalent of Huckleberry Finn when it came to disciplines that … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Albert Camus, Anne Lamott, Bart Ehrman, books, C.S. Lewis, Christian spirituality, Christopher Hitchens, Darwin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, evangelicalism, Hans Kung, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, Miroslav Volf, Old Books, richard dawkins, spiritual theology, St. Augustine, Stephen King, theology | 21 Comments

A Review of “The Chapel of the Thorn,” a lost Charles Williams play by Sørina Higgins

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

Libraries are sacred spaces. I have had the opportunity to make pilgrimage to some of these storied cathedrals. I sat in contemplation at the Edwin W. Brown Collection at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, not even sure what I would … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged A Grief Observed, Arthuriana, Bodleian Library, Chapel of the Thorn, Charles Williams, fantasy, Gladstone's Library, letters, Margaret Atwood, Marion E. Wade Center, narrative poetry, Poetry, religion, Science Fiction, Shakespeare | 19 Comments

The Wildwood in The Decemberists

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Brenton Dickieson

Last week I reviewed Wildwood by Colin Melot and Carson Ellis. Colin Melot, who is the literary creator of the NewYorkTimes bestseller Wildwood Chronicles, is also the chief lyricist for Grammy-award winning The Decemberists. One might wonder what children’s writing … Continue reading →