Thursday Today I will be delivering the following talk as part of Sewanee’s Lifelong Learning series, delivered in a venue that used to be my high school and where I spoke 50 years ago. It may sound strange to some of you that a literary scholar such as myself would talk about fantasy. Aren’t we […]
Tag Archives: J. R. R. Tolkien
Fantasy and the Problem of Violence
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Beowulf poet, Carl Jung, fantasy, Joseph Campbell, Lord of the Rings, Sigmund Freud, violence Comments closed
Bilbo Back from a Long Journey
Tuesday Julia and I returned home last night after 16 days on the road. Given that we traveled from Sewanee to Washington, D. C. to southern Maryland to Pennsylvania to Cincinnati to Des Moines and back to Sewanee, I lacked the energy to write a new post. I’ve therefore repurposed an old essay on the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Roads Go Ever On and On", returning home, traveling Comments closed
Fantasy Keeps Dreams Alive
Thursday In Monday’s and Tuesday’s posts (see here and here), I laid out the outlines of my first “Wizards and Enchantresses” class, which I’m currently teaching as part of Sewanee’s Lifelong Learning Program. The first class I devoted to Merlin, the second will focus on Morgan Le Fay, the third will take up Shakespeare’s Prospero, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Arthurian tales, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, fantasy, Idylls of the King, Lord of the Rings, Mark Twain, Merlin, Once and Future King, Sword in the Stone, T. H. White Comments closed
The Uses of Fantasy
Monday This coming week I will be teaching a four-session lifelong learning course at Sewanee entitled “Literary Wizards and Enchantresses, from Merlin and Morgan Le Fay to Gandalf and Galadriel.” I’m using today’s blog post to sort out my ideas for the first class, which will focus on Merlin and his successors. Before turning to […]
Donald Trump as Saruman
Like Saruman, Trump isn’t interested in traditional alliances but wants to link up directly with Sauron (a.k.a. Vladimir Putin).
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged America-Russia relations, Donald Trump, Lord of the Rings, Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump resistance, Vladimir Putin Comments closed
Reading My Way to Adulthood
As an adolescent, I used fantasy in an attempt to hold on to my childhood innocence and hated “Catcher in the Rye.” Little did I realize that Salinger’s novel describes my struggle.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Circus Animals Desertion", adolescence, Albert Camus, Catcher in the Rye, Coming of Age, existentialism. Jean Paul Sartre, fantasy, J. D. Salinger, Lord of the Ring, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
Frodo as Newly Minted PhD
How is writing a PhD like Frodo’s journey to Mordor? Check it out.
Robert Mueller as a Savior Ent?
The Russian trolls that interfered with the 2016 election resemble the Orcs attacking Helm’s Deep in “Lord of the Rings.” Do we have a version of the Ents in Robert Mueller to save us?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 election, Donald Trump, Lord of the Rings, Russian hacking, Vladimir Putin Comments closed
Robert Mueller, the Eye of Sauron
Comedian Seth Meyers recently compared Robert Mueller’s gaze to the eye of Sauron. No wonder there is panic in the White House.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Lord of the Rings, Sauron, temptation Comments closed
