Reading
- fantasy as a kind of displaced vision of Catholicism as seen by a Protestant culture
- similarly, Walter Scott’s medievalism as a predecessor and template for fantasy
- William Morris
- Michael Moorcock
- Jack Vance
- Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
- John Crowley’s Little, Big
Finished reading: What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade, which I wrote about, at some length, here. 📚
Finished reading: Fantasy: A Short History by Adam Roberts. An outstanding survey. I’m amazed first of all by how many fantasy novels Adam has read, especially among the hyper-prolific and hyper-expansive post-Tolkienian set. Hundreds of thousands of pages, I imagine. The chapter on “Children’s Fantasy” is a particular highlight for me, but Adam is also notably brilliant on
I just wish he could have gone on longer about some of this stuff, but that’s what his various blogs are for. 📚
Finished reading: Lonely Magdalen by Henry Wade. A remarkable Golden Age detective novel that starts as a police procedural, then around halfway through turns into a social novel about events from twenty years earlier — then becomes a procedural again. It reminds me in several ways of Ian McEwan’s Atonement. 📚
In the middle of Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett, I came across a funny/insightful passage I thought I might blog about — only to discover that it has its own Wikipedia page. 📚
Teaching The Nine Tailors to 16 first-year students and they are into it. I am rather shocked by their enthusiasm. We’re three-fourths of the way through — I wonder how they will feel about the ending. 📚
Currently reading: Passions of the Soul by Rowan Williams. This book is exactly what I need right now. 📚
Finished reading: France on Trial by Julian Jackson. A vivid and powerful story. What a unique figure Pétain is. 📚
I’ve been listening to Stephen Fry reading the Sherlock Holmes canon and it’s just irresistible. 🎧📚
Currently reading: History of England (6 volumes) by David Hume 📚
Finished reading: Charmed Lives by Michael Korda. One of the most remarkable memoirs I’ve ever read, full of amazing stories. The ones about (a) Orson Welles and (b) a decrepit member of the Rothschild family are worth the price of admission by themselves. 📚
Currently reading: The Studio by John Gregory Dunne. This little book has a hundred great stories but my favorite is this: When planning the television series Custer, 20th Century Fox TV execs knew who they wanted to play Crazy Horse: Toshiro Mifune. This did not happen, for good reasons, but I can’t help wondering…. 📚
Currently reading: The Debate on the Constitution. Reading through these documents, so brilliantly chosen and edited by Bernard Bailyn, my two dominant thoughts are (a) Neither the Federalists nor the Antifederalists believed in the honesty or decency of their opponents, and (b) Quiet little James Madison is terrifyingly brilliant. 📚
Finished reading: Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard. Teaching this today. It is, every time I read it, a dazzling and disturbing book. 📚
Finished reading: 3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan. A brilliant book, but in its later stages immensely sad. 📚
Reading this because it’s discussed, with considerable energy, in Sayers’s Gaudy Night. 📚
Currently reading: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I wrote a post about returning to this great book. 📚
High is Adam Roberts in his thriller mode. Think: Mission: Impossible on Mars. Brilliant. So much fun. 📚
Currently reading: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken. This will be my third complete reading of this great book. 📚
Finished reading: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. A lovely novel, at once melancholy and hopeful, about learning to cope with a changed world, and about the many forms and meanings of family. 📚