This post is part of a series on the Virginia Edition of Robert A. Heinlein’s works. It’s been almost a year since I reviewed the first volume of the Virgina Edition, I Will Fear No Evil. I didn’t intend for there to be such a long hiatus, but things got in the way. Also, there is the … [Read more…]
I have written before about my obsession with Benjamin De Casseres. I lay the blame for this obsession squarely at Mythgard‘s feet, as I first discovered him through a 1936 pamphlet he wrote titled “The Individual against Moloch” while researching the paper I went on to present on Moloch at Mythmoot II. And I blame the … [Read more…]
The Guardian book blog posted a piece earlier today arguing that fantasy cannot build its imaginary worlds in short fiction. The crux of the argument is that fantasy authors need not just novels, but mega-novels (single stories split into multiple volumes, like The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire) to build out their ideas. Rather than simply acknowledging that … [Read more…]
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…]
So, I’m home from Mythmoot III, where yesterday I presented my paper on Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Overall, I think it went pretty well. Twenty minutes always goes by fast. I spent a little too much time on the setup rather than my argument and examples, but I was at … [Read more…]
So in an hour or so, I’ll be off to Baltimore for Mythmoot III: Ever on…, the third installment of the (nearly) annual academic/fan gathering for the Mythgard Institute. As with last year, I will be presenting a paper. This year, my subject is Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, specifically about her descriptions 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…]
This won’t be a long post. Because, what exactly does one write about someone you never knew, but who made you laugh, think and cry more than anyone else in your life? Robin Williams died today at the age of 63 from apparent self-asphyxiation. Excepting people I’ve known, the news of his death has probably … [Read more…]
In my last post I noted that Ruth Graham’s argument distinguishing young adult fiction from more weighty stories is a perennial lamentation made by stalwarts of Literature. In a previous iteration last December, Terry Teachout descried the critical attention being given to “pop culture” over “high art,” and in my response I showed that such … [Read more…]
A couple days ago, Terry Teachout wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal denouncing the praise given to Elmore Leonard as a “great American artist” and an increased critical attention on “pop” art to the detriment of “high” art. “It used to be that we didn’t take popular culture seriously,” Teachout writes, “but now … [Read more…]