Showing posts with label Thoughts on fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thoughts on fantasy. Show all posts
Friday, October 11, 2024

More (mediocre) content is not better than no content: A rant

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Once in a while you’ve got to let off some steam ( Bennett) . For most, that means punching a heavy bag, screaming into a pillow, maybe goin...
16 comments:
Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Weird Tales of Modernity: Elevating the artistry of the Weird Tales Three

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Pulp and other forms of genre fiction have become not just an accepted form of entertainment, but an acknowledged outlet for meaningful arti...
4 comments:
Friday, August 23, 2024

Can you separate the art from the artist?

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The Graveyard Book and American Gods are good books. Both before Neil Gaiman became embroiled in the current controversy … and after.  Tha...
6 comments:
Thursday, August 15, 2024

The Battle of Evermore and the timeless nature of fantasy

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(early metal-ish Friday) That it is told in the language of fantasy is not an accident, or because Tolkien was an escapist, or because he wa...
2 comments:
Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Treasure Island and the powerful call to adventure

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It’s been a busy last month or so. Mostly in a good way, with some PTO combined with some busy times at work. But that means my writing has ...
9 comments:
Friday, June 14, 2024

Not all books need be movies

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I like movies. I really do. Need I say this?  I mean, not liking movies is akin to not liking ice cream. It’s un-American. Heck, it’s inhuma...
10 comments:
Monday, May 13, 2024

Why we need fantasy: Some thoughts from a Blind Guardian concert, May 11, 2024 at the Worcester Palladium

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I'm in there! Somewhere back left... No one ever dares to speak It's nothing else but fantasy It's make believe, Make believe No...
4 comments:
Monday, March 4, 2024

Our modern problems with reading

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We don’t have infinite time. The amount of reading attention any new book must compete with is getting progressively smaller. So we have to ...
8 comments:
Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Ruminations on subversive and restorative impulses, and conservative and liberal modes of fantasy fiction

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Two towers, old and new. Liberalism seeks to make anew. Conservatism desires to preserve the time-tested.  The former represents the creativ...
10 comments:
Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Are we in a new sword-and-sorcery renaissance? Not yet. At least commercially.

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Some corners of the internet are speculating whether we’re in a third sword-and-sorcery wave. This assumes a first, unnamed wave in which S&...
14 comments:
Saturday, April 1, 2023

Heroes behaving badly: The wondrous and bastardly creations of Jack Vance

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S&S protagonists: Occasionally lovable scumbags. Cugel the Clever probably isn’t a guy you want to invite to dinner. You’d be guaranteed...
Saturday, January 14, 2023

The big Excalibur post

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Up on the blog of DMR Books is the big Excalibur post I've been meaning to write for years. 2K words about not just one of my favorite f...
3 comments:
Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Raging against Twitter and the dying of the written word

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“Does anyone go sit down and read an entire blog post anymore? Most people aren’t going to go read an entire 500 word blog.” These sentences...
12 comments:
Sunday, November 6, 2022

An observation about heavy metal and sword-and-sorcery

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Blue Cheer and Deep Purple = Lord Dunsany and James Branch Cabell Black Sabbath = Robert E. Howard Judas Priest and Iron Maiden = Fritz Leib...
3 comments:
Saturday, October 1, 2022

Of Jack London, Earle Labor, and William Dean Howells

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I was listening to a recent Art of Manliness podcast in which host Brett McKay replayed “Jack London’s Literary Code,” an episode originall...
6 comments:
Friday, September 2, 2022

Fantastic! And thoughts on pastiches

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More witches! Art by Jones. Recently I picked up seven issues of Fantastic. This former digest-sized magazine ran from 1952-1980 before fol...
6 comments:
Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Getting political in fantasy fiction

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A good idea? Or, should politics be avoided? Can it ever be avoided, when authors are humans and presumably possessed of some political bent...
10 comments:
Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Some ruminations on sword-and-sorcery’s slide into Grimdark

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Sword-and-sorcery continues to show stirrings, and life. Outlets like Tales from the Magician’s Skull, DMR Books, new projects like Whetston...
8 comments:
Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Literary freedom: My stance, and an explanation

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Literary freedom is my credo. With very few exceptions, I think you should be able to write whatever you want. What does this look like in p...
5 comments:
Wednesday, July 20, 2022

S&S updates: Dunsany, New Edge, book deals, and a fine response to a troubling essay

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Hail to the King of Dreams, baby. A roundup of recent-ish news and updates on the sacred genre. My most recent essay for Tales from the Magi...
5 comments: