In which I reminisce about the girl who introduced me to Narnia and how The Silver Chair helped us negotiate our friendship.
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Tag Archives: Childhood
The Silver Chair and a Childhood Love
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged C.S. Lewis, Chris Mayfield, Horse and His Boy, Silver Chair Comments closed
My Childhood Encounter with Wind in the Willows
In which I look back and recall the importance of Wind in the Willows on my childhood.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", Kenneth Grahame, Norman Finkelstein, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, wind in the willows Comments closed
Caught Up in a Flood of Remembrance
For an upcoming talk on growing up in Sewanee TN, I have been rummaging through old scrapbooks. A D. H. Lawrence poem captures some of the emotions I’m experiencing.
Pinocchio and Appalachian Hunger
When I first encountered real hunger in Appalachian Tennessee, having read “Pinocchio” helped me understand what I was seeing.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Appalachian poverty, Carlo Collodi, Hunger, Pinocchio Comments closed
My Brilliant Friend, Cure for Loneliness?
The child perspective in Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” creates a special bond with the reader.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Angus Fletcher, Charlotte Bronte, Company We Keep, Elena Ferrante, Emily Bronte, first person point of view, Hamlet, Jane Eyre, John Knowles, My Brilliant Friend, opera, penny dreadfuls, Separate Peace, Wayne Booth, William Shakespeare, Wonderworks, Wuthering Heights Comments closed
Thrown by Proust into the Past
Reading about Gilberte in “Swann’s Way” has had me thinking a lot about a girl I knew in childhood.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Chris Mayfield, Gilberte Swann, In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust Comments closed
Larkin’s Attack on Nostalgia
Larkin’s “I Remember” is an attack on Coventry for not having given him an idealized childhood.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "I Remember I Remember", Nostalgia, Philip Larkin, Thomas Hood Comments closed
See, This Coal Has Touched Your Lips
The image of God touching the lips of Isaiah and Jeremiah shows up in C.S. Lewis’s “Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged C.S. Lewis, Isaiah, Jeremiah, prophets, Resurrection, Voyage of the Dawn Treader Comments closed
Bright Shoots of Everlastingness
In “Retreat” Henry Vaughan’s childhood self is closer to God than his adult self, perhaps reflecting Christ’s admonition to receive the kingdom of God as a child would.