Out of the marvelous
The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise Were all at prayers inside the oratory A ship appeared above them in the air. I’ve loved Seamus Heaney’s “Lightnings viii” since first I read it. The...
View ArticleComic Book Grammar
Convention becomes tradition, and acquires weight. This guide to the workings of comic-book speech bubbles showcases how this can work. One thing not mentioned is the flowery borders used by the...
View ArticleThe riddle of Gollum
It is probably well known by any fan of Tolkien that The Hobbit was slightly rewritten to account for the changed nature of the ring in The Lord of the Rings (a book originally intended as a shorter...
View ArticleNarnia: Thoughts on Susan Pevensie
C.S. Lewis mistakenly wrote that Susan had turned her back on Narnia, but what it really seems is that Lewis had turned his back on Susan. Fred Clark (Slacktivist), “Redeeming Susan Pevensie” One queen...
View ArticleCome all ye wild and roving lads a warning take by folksongs
Folksongs truly can tell you how to live your life. TRiG.
View ArticleSexist Fantasy: It doesn’t have to be that way
History is sexist. We know that. We don’t need to be reminded. The modern day is pretty sexist too. Fantasy is fantasy. It can be sexist, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. And, of course, a sexist...
View ArticleThe Prodigal Son
An unlikeable father who takes his sons for granted, lies to them, and forgets them when the New Shiny comes along. Is it any wonder the more dutiful son resents this and the less dutiful ran away?...
View ArticleAnalysis: Art and Culture
We all like art of some kind. Sometimes, indeed, fairly often, some of that art is in some way problematic. That’s alright, but it’s interesting, and analysis of art can be an interesting and useful...
View ArticleOzymandias, Texas
Did you know that Percy Bysshe Shelly wrote “Ozymandias” after a trip to New Spain? No, nor did I. This is hilarious. And wonderful. And deeply, deeply silly. TRiG.
View ArticleCartoon Drawings and the Default Human Being; or, Why do Japanese people draw...
Had this question ever occurred to you? I don’t read much manga myself (barely any, though I do like the art style), but it does, at first glance, seem that everyone in them is white. As it turns out,...
View ArticleGoogle Glass: Privacy, Surveillance, Technology, Data
Google’s new product, Glass, will enable secret video recording. Now pretend you don’t know a single person who wears Google Glass… and take a walk outside. Anywhere you go in public – any store, any...
View ArticleKit Whitfield on first sentences
Kit Whitfield has published a large number of analyses of the first sentences of novels. (These really are analyses, not book reviews. They’re involved, detailed and based on a thoughtful close reading...
View ArticleIt Must Be Beautiful: Great equations of modern science
My current reading is rather fascinating. It’s actually a reread. I picked it up, along with Deborah Cameron’s The Myth of Mars and Venus, in a bookshop in Naas. I was in Naas for a job interview (I’ve...
View ArticleThe Princess Who Saved Herself: Book?
I’ve mentioned this awesome song by Jonathan Coulton before, when I linked to a video showing schoolkids’ drawings based on the song. And now there’s the wonderful possibility of an illustrated...
View ArticleChristian Horror Films: Horrific Christian Culture?
Any time people get worked up about a menace they believe in but can’t actually see – demons, Commies, jihadis, hordes of hoodie-wearing thugs — they’re likely to take it out on the weakest and most...
View ArticleGrowing: The Trees they Do Grow High
This is a song with many many versions. I myself associate it with hillwalking with my friends Malabarista and KB, because Mala tends to sing this one. (And many many others. Marrying old men may also...
View Article10 years of pre-Trib porno
Fred Clarke has been writing about the awful phenomenon that is the Left Behind books for ten years now. Ten years! That’s … kind of magnificent, actually. I think the apocryphal Donny is still my...
View ArticleFilm: Calvin & Hobbes
Bill Watterson has said that there will absolutely definitively not be a Calvin & Hobbes film. That’s probably a good thing. I can’t imagine that any such film could be anything less than a...
View ArticleThe Wick End of Candles at the Close of a Long Night
The Wick End of Candles at the Close of a Long Night was published in the h2g2 Post on the 21st of September 2006. It’s a rather beautiful story by ianhimself. It’s set in Northern Ireland, and manages...
View Article“Strong Female Characters”
Can a female character be a “brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, polymath genius”? Well, I don’t...
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