Tag Archives: Stephen King

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 | 14 Comments

Octavia Butler’s and Robert Heinlein’s Rules of Writing

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

My most significant alien encounter this year has been in the science fiction of Octavia E. Butler. I have only dipped into her work, enjoying her Xenogenesis Trilogy (1987-89) and a collection of short pieces, Bloodchild and Other Stories (2nd ed., … Continue reading →

Posted in Memorable Quotes, On Writing | Tagged Afrofuturism, Black Panther, Octavia Butler, On Writing, Robert Heinlein, Science Fiction, SF, speculative fiction, Stephen King, Stranger in a Strange Land, writing, Xenogenesis Trilogy | 7 Comments

2017: A Year of Reading

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links | Tagged academic, C.S. Lewis, Discworld, feminism, George MacDonald, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, L.M. Montgomery, Margaret Atwood, PhD Research, Ransom Trilogy, Reading, Stephen King, The Quest of Bleheris, William Morris | 17 Comments

Stranger Thing Season 2, October 27

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

Stranger Things season 2 drops this weekend. I’m not the only one who is excited. Stranger Things won the Best Ensemble Drama at the 2017 Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, as well as MTV’s TV Show of the Year and a few Emmys. Clearly, … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, News & Links | Tagged Buffy the Vampire Slayer, David Harbour, intertextuality, IT, Stand By Me, Stephen King, Stranger Things, The Body, Wynona Ryder | 3 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

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 →

Posted in Creative Writing, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Carrie, fantasy, fire, Horror, IT, mimesis, realism, Stephen King, The Dark Half, The Dark Tower, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Green Mile, The Shining, The Stand | 14 Comments

The Mythogenic Principle, Or Why Reading Zombie Lit at the Beach is a Very Bad Idea

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

It’s one of the reasons watching horror films is so fun, isn’t it? Though the possibility that a serial killer who has spent too much time collecting comic books or reading 19th century engineering reports is hiding behind your couch … Continue reading →