There is a mystery at the heart of “The Lord of the Rings” that continues to baffle and confuse the critics. Is it “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work,” as author J.R.R. Tolkien claimed in a letter, or is it, as he claimed elsewhere, devoid of any intentional meaning or message? The Lord of the [...]
I didn’t have to be here, I reflected, as I watched the bandit emerge from the jungle at the far end of the bridge. I could be at home—or, what was home for the moment, anyway—in Belize City, with my wife, Ariadne, and our newborn son Archie. Or perhaps I could be in Aberdeen. The [...]
Do you want to rule a world? Blow apart a sun? Test a theory of community? Explore the very depths of depravity? End slavery and misery? Destroy all empires? It is possible. . . At least in the imagination. The proper study of man is everything. The proper study of man as artist is everything [...]
“I should like to record my own love and my children’s love of E.A. Wyke-Smith’s Marvellous Land of Snergs,” reads an endorsement on the cover of that book. The endorser is J.R.R. Tolkien, and it was very kind of him to offer the guidance. Without him, it is likely we would only have visited a [...]
The past few years have shown some waning in the exceptional popularity of J.J.R. Tolkien’s fantasy writings, but the “Tolkien phenomenon” is a clearly established fact of modern literary history. I am certain that his works will be read and studied for many decades and even more certain that they are deserving of such reading and study. [...]
As a conservative who loves the arts, I often have frustrating moments when I realize that a writer, artist, or musician who I particularly admire is fervently committed to the political left. It is a cause for small personal celebration when I discover a truly great artist who publicly expresses support or enthusiasm for conservative [...]
Toward the end of her life, Flannery O’Connor was often asked to speak about being a Southerner, as though this were a peculiar condition in need of explanation. In “The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South,” a composite essay published from two of her last public talks, she sums up what she thinks of her [...]
Let’s begin our discussion of faith and fiction by playing devil’s advocate, or, at least, by giving the devil his due. It cannot be denied that the devil has had great success in convincing many people that faith and fiction are synonymous. In our materialistic age, many believe that faith in God is no more [...]
Someone once cracked wise by saying, “Everyone has a book in them…and for most people that’s where it should stay.” Therefore when someone sends me the manuscript, the book, the outline for a book, or a book idea, I usually shrink. When a friend sends me a copy of his book I shrink into my [...]
In 1990, the science-fiction writer, Larry Niven, wrote a short story titled, “The Return of William Proxmire.” In the story, the Wisconsin senator schemes to stop billions of dollars from being spent on space research by going back in time to cure Robert A. Heinlein of tuberculosis. For Senator Proxmire, the idea is simple: If [...]
It is difficult to overstate the influence of G.K. Chesterton. Apart from the numerous converts who have come to Christianity, at least in part, because of an encounter with his writings, two of the bestselling books of all time were written, at least in part, under Chesterton’s benign patronage. The Lord of the Rings and [...]
In literary terms, Gothic typically refers to that frame of mind and soul that embraces the strange, the mysterious, and the irrational—specifically, terror. Gothic novels are often set in the dark and in the wild. This is what one encounters in Andrew Klavan’s most recent novel. As I consider this novel written for a popular [...]
When I found out I was being granted the immense privilege of spending the year at the University of Colorado-Boulder, I knew immediately that one of the most important goals for my year was to meet the husband-wife, science-fiction team of Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. Not that I wanted to be a stalker or [...]
A century ago, the Great War tore European civilization apart. The self-confidence and self-regard with which European nations had conquered and colonized great swaths of the globe in the Modern Age collapsed amidst death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Darker and more virulent incarnations of arrogance and ambition would rise from the ashes of [...]