by Dave
Jamie and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls Thursday night. I won’t linger over a review of the film — if you’ve read the criticism on the web, I would agree with some of the more moderate takes on the film. Not as good as [...]

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by Johnny
Michael Ward is the author of Planet Narnia, a groundbreaking work in C.S. Lewis and Narnia studies, which is stirring excitement and discussion. In his book, Ward argues that each novel in the Narnia series corresponds to one of the seven planets of Medieval Cosmology. I met him at the February 2008 meeting of [...]

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by Johnny
I came across an interesting article by Devin Brown on Christianity Today, which shows some similarities between the title character Prince Caspian and the life of C.S. Lewis.
Brown, who is a Professor of English at Asbury College, wrote:
Lewis and Caspian share another element—one more significant than all the others, for it changed the direction [...]

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by Johnny
The film release of The Golden Compass last December brought to the forefront the novel on which it was based as well as the rest of the His Dark Materials trilogy. The author and outspoken atheist Philip Pullman has raised concern over statements concerning Christianity throughout his fantasy trilogy, particularly in the last installment, [...]

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Common Grounds Online has a lengthy write-up on Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia.

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by Dave,
I give a presentation at the College English Association in a couple of weeks discussing storytelling in relationship to videogames. In all my reading for this, one book I’m focusing on is by Marie-Laure Ryan, titled Narrative as Virtual Reality. In one part of her book, she begins discussing how immersive a [...]

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by Johnny
Anyone reading the literary criticism of The Chronicles of Narnia will notice that C.S. Lewis scholars have no answers regarding the supposed disorganized, “hodgepodge” (as Tolkien referred to his friend’s creation) that characterizes the series. That is until Michael Ward and his seminal work, Planet Narnia came along. Ward believes that the popular explanation [...]

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by Travis
In many ways, I’m just coming to the discovery of the wonder of George MacDonald. I became an instant fan of his “Princess” stories, and his musings on the Imagination are must-reading for all who would study fantastic literature. He is a key mentor for three of my favorites: Tolkien, Lewis, and [...]

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An Orthodox lecturer is arguing that Rowling’s Voldemort is the full realization of Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment. That seems a big stretch to me; there’s a ton of human left in Raskolnikov all through the book, in my opinion.
I made a very generalized thematic link between Crime and Punishment and Harry Potter [...]

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by Dave
A standard literary trope is to set characters against each other, playing one’s personna in relationship to another. Typically, we find the “arch”-nemesis, especially in adventure or heroic stories. The main character is opposed by a primary antagonist, and the juxtaposition of these characters reveals something about one or both to the [...]

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Christian Mythmaking: Why did Tolkien, Lewis, L’Engle, and Rowling create? How is story true? How does it make meaning? How does it place us in this world? The Christian “myth” is examined in light of fairy tale-tellers.
You can subscribe to the Hog’s Head PubCast through iTunes, and VOTE for the month [...]

 

 Standard Podcast [23:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2083)

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An Author and Her Story; Did Rowling borrow from LeGuin?; L’Engle: “Obey the Story”
You can subscribe to the Hog’s Head PubCast through iTunes; you can also write a review there. Vote for the Hog’s Head PubCast at Podcast Alley! (See the VOTE link on the left side). Let’s get this podcast much [...]

 

 Hog's Head PubCast #42: Author, Servant of Story [22:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1031)

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by Dave
Harry is a hero. That Harry Potter draws from long established literary heroic traditions is well documented. Nearly every book length treatment or anthology concerning the series addresses this subject and examines the link between Harry’s more traditional literary roots in alchemical and mythic-heroic traditions and his postmodern deconstruction of the hero [...]

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by Travis
I was suddenly taken back to our Lovecraft month today as I listened to this week’s story from The Classic Tales: Guy de Maupassant’s “The Horla” (text here). It’s a great reading by B.J. Harrison of a truly chilling tale, and it strongly reminded me of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu stories. As I [...]

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by Dave
The Runcie documentary that’s caught some attention here and at HogPro is a mixed bag for me as a Potter reader. Stylistically, the film is as engaging as any documentary I’ve ever seen — which is quite a few because I’m a big geek (I even watched a documentary on the Sundance Channel [...]

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