The Virginia Edition is the definitive collection of the works of Robert A. Heinlein. Authorized by The Heinlein Prize Trust – the author and his wife’s estate, which includes most of the copyrights to his work – the set includes “authoritative” texts of Heinlein’s writings, along with several volumes of correspondence and introductory essays to each volume … [Read more…]
Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea is a story about a boy, Ged, and his experiences as he becomes a wizard. At one point during his education, Ged accidentally releases a shadow-spirit from the underworld and spends the rest of the novel alternately hiding from, running from, and chasing after it. It’s not until the end of … [Read more…]
I’m always fascinated when seemingly different subjects of my academic focus intersect in unexpected ways, as happened to me recently with Ursula K. Le Guin and Benjamin De Casseres. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised: It may be that I am drawn to both subjects because I had already identified certain similarities subconsciously. However, the rising to consciousness of those … [Read more…]
Everything new is old, as evinced by Ruth Graham’s recent Slate article admonishing adults who read “young adult” (YA) fiction. Her basic argument is that books like The Fault in Our Stars “could plausibly be said to be replacing literary fiction in the lives of their adult readers,” and that such replacements are inferior to … [Read more…]
I haven’t read anything by Cory Doctorow since Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town first came out. Part of that is because that story blew. Part of it is also because my best friend was banned from Boing Boing after making a perfectly reasonable, but contrary, comment on one of Cory’s posts at that … [Read more…]
I’ve wanted to read this for awhile, and eventually decided to pick it up during my recent Dresden Files sprint, to cleanse the palate between Harry Dresden’s various lengthy and often amusing beat-downs. It took me awhile to finish, but honestly not as long as I thought it would, which is perhaps a testament to … [Read more…]
Yesterday, I finished George Orwell’s classic work of dystopian psychological horror, 1984, which I read for the Mythgard Institute’s Dystopian Tradition class, taught by the estimable Amy H. Sturgis. It’s the second time I’ve read the book, though I’m not entirely sure when I first read it. In college, perhaps? In any case, it was … [Read more…]
I just finished Tom Shippey’s excellent book, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, which I have wanted to read for some time now. In it, Shippey’s primary argument (as implied by the subtitle) is that twentieth century literature was dominated by the fantasy story, and that Tolkien holds the premier place of authorship among … [Read more…]
So, my latest class at The Mythgard Institute is over. It was the second part of a two-part History of Science Fiction class, taught by the preeminent Dr. Amy H. Sturgis. Both semesters are now available as course packs from Mythgard. Anyway, I wrote my final paper on Ursula K. Le Guin’s excellent novel The … [Read more…]
A recent post on the Goodreads Blog explored the question of whether stories in books are better than their adapted movies, noting that half of this year’s Academy Award Best Picture nominees were based on books. The good folks at Goodreads tried to get an objective view by comparing a set of books’ average ratings … [Read more…]