Tag Archives: Margaret Atwood

William Morris’ Nonsense from Nowhere

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

One of C.S. Lewis’ great literary conversation partners was William Morris. Lewis wrote literary criticism about him beginning in his first collection of essays (Rehabilitations, 1939, now in Selected Literary Essays). In that early literary essay, delivered first to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, C.S. Lewis, g k chesterton, George Orwell, Left Behind, libertarianism, Margaret Atwood, News from Nowhere, philosophical novel, Politics, Socialism, The Hunger Games, The Quest of Bleheris, The Well at the Worlds End, Voltaire, William Morris | 25 Comments

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 | 57 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 →