I have now read Dune. I first conceived the ambition more than a year ago, and at last I have done it. So, do I recommend it? Well, yes, but not without reserve. Dune is written with undoubted skill and
In philosophy’s halls, relatively few provide reason to be remembered as artists, not just philosophers. Solomon, Plato, the author of Job, these have that distinction. The second half of the nineteenth century brought its own candidate: Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche, unlike
Beowulf is a poem famous for, among other distinctions, having no faithful film adaptations—famous, also, for its connection to J.R.R. Tolkien, who both revolutionized the Beowulf scholarship of his day and incorporated copious influences from it into his little-known The
I’ve no familiarity at all with the work of Wyndham Lewis, this article’s partial subject, or Dr. Gilfedder, its author, and my knowledge of Shakespeare is small. men against darkness, published in Islander #5 doubtless possesses certain interests for the
Eowyn stands as perhaps my favorite female character in all of fiction. A few there are which stand near her- Harriet Vane, for instance- and a few I will acknowledge as being, to my experience, as well written- Orual (Till
Hollywood stories have been getting a bad reputation- ‘Hollywood’ being a catch-all for the big money film industry, here. The Rings of Power show, for instance, possibly had greater cultural impact in how its critics pulled it apart than in
Last week covered the foundations of symbolism (symmetry, sameness, and difference), as well as the levels of intentional present in narrative uses of symbolism. This week I promised to discuss…. Analogy Analogy is symbolic, though it is not symbolism proper.
Choosing details is a critical part of writing a narrative. They can make or break a scene, can build a character or destroy him, can draw the reader in or break his suspension of disbelief. This is true in all
Have you heard of Twilight? The financial success of the series cannot be doubted. Its writing? If it has a claim there, it rests in creating a successful blank-slate everyman protagonist (or everywoman). The same can be said for many
Last week we discussed two issues common in modern writing: failure to take it seriously and disregard for realism. Today we’re continuing the topic with another issue endemic to the failures of popular media, particularly films and TV shows. We