Oh, cliches! Everyone tells you to avoid them in your writing, but how do know which are cliches and which are archetypes? Which are cliches and which are reverend time-honored anchor-tropes? The real proof of a cliche is that dull thud with which it lands in the mind when we read it. It happens because a cliche was never really resonant to begin with. It was always lacking, accepted for a time simply because it was new. Here are five time-travels situations that are quite dull. And why they thud… Read more Five Time-Travel Cliches to Avoid Like a Cursed Child →
One reason I like Tolkien’s mythology so much is its approach to the relationship between freedom and evil. Generally, when a Christian thinker is asked why evil occurs and is allowed to influence the world, the answer comes down to “freedom.” Tolkien, on the other hand, strongly associates compulsion and slavery with evil, and freedom with goodness and righteousness. Much better. In the common view, people can’t be truly free unless they have a genuine opportunity to do evil as well as good. I don’t really understand this approach. It’s… Read more The Lord of The Rings and The Book of Job →
Is there something in your life you care so much about that you can’t speak politely on the subject? For me, poetry is that subject. Perhaps that is why I so largely look for virtues rather than defects when I work with individual poets. When you can’t be polite, you must be good, or burn it all down. I am not in favor of burning it all down. But every now and then I must let my feelings out to give the popular poets a good verbal flogging and remind them how… Read more Poetry I Can’t Be Polite About: Also, “Wicked Poets” →
Slow Literature 