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These stories have power.
— Neil Gaiman
Yes, but why?
I’ve been pondering this question for a while: why fairy tales — and I’m talking about the real fairy tales, neither the ...
by DrLori
 83 comments
on Mon Nov 12, 2018 at 05:00 PM PST
with 73 Recommends
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Nota Bene : (Latin for “listen up”)
Please consider tonight’s Language of the Night offering as a quick break — a breather, if you will — from the hard work of overthrowing fascism in ...
by DrLori
45 comments
on Mon Nov 05, 2018 at 05:00 PM PST
with 24 Recommends
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I’ve had a packed couple of weeks (some extremely interesting critical reading, and edits are coming along nicely, thanks!), so instead of hashing out a half-baked diary tonight I think it’s ...
by DrLori
26 comments
on Mon Oct 29, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 16 Recommends
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He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher — the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum. Who hold Zam-...
by DrLori
98 comments
on Mon Oct 15, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 62 Recommends
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Episode One - The Woman Who Fell To Earth
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*[ SOME SPOILERS ]*
by Angmar
77 comments
on Mon Oct 08, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 49 Recommends
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Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 is not classic fantasy. Its formal name is Fantasia scientificta climaticus — Fantasy > Science Fiction > Climate Fiction — so in the grand ...
by DrLori
66 comments
on Mon Sep 24, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 39 Recommends
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I wrote to Susanna’s editor telling her that it was to my mind the finest work of English fantasy written in the previous seventy years. (I was thinking that the only thing it could be compared ...
by DrLori
46 comments
on Mon Sep 17, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 25 Recommends
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I think we can all pretty much agree that one thing fantasy does extremely well is make metaphors literal. It presents knotty problems in ways we don’t usually consider, de-politicizes and de-...
by DrLori
45 comments
on Mon Sep 10, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 38 Recommends
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In 2013, Oxford University’s Pembroke College inaugurated the annual J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature and, in its relatively brief lifetime, the series has attracted a range of ...
by DrLori
73 comments
on Mon Sep 03, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 45 Recommends
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We’re back from hiatus — some weeks in a post-modern medieval monastery, and a couple more for Netroots. For you all who hung in with The Name of the Rose, thank you! It was a pleasure ...
by DrLori
14 comments
on Mon Aug 20, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 32 Recommends
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Or, It’s The Name of the Rose Boot Camp, baby!
Tonight is for anyone who feels a little intimidated by the size of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose , which we start in the Daily Kos ...
by DrLori
58 comments
on Mon Jun 11, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 35 Recommends
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Me and Binti
Relationship status : It’s complicated.
There is so much in Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti Trilogy: Binti, Binti: Home and Binti: The Night ...
by DrLori
32 comments
on Mon Jun 04, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 36 Recommends
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We were supposed to discuss the Binti trilogy tonight. That, however, was before Microsoft’s April 2018 update turned my working laptop into a doorstop. It’s going to the repair shop, ...
by DrLori
26 comments
on Mon May 28, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 20 Recommends
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Okorafor blends science fiction with fantasy, technology with horticulture, and politics with spirituality to illuminate dichotomies that can coexist peacefully. African culture and tradition in ...
by DrLori
39 comments
on Mon May 21, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 39 Recommends
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In so short a form as a single diary, even a long diary, it’s not advisable or practical or even possible to do more than open a conversation about the literary and cultural umbrella that is ...
by DrLori
24 comments
on Mon May 14, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 24 Recommends
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Hi, y’all! I’m walking on metaphorical clouds right now, since I finished the first draft on my most recent novel this weekend. A lot of work remains to be done to get it from 120,000 ...
by DrLori
42 comments
on Mon May 07, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 29 Recommends
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In trying to retrace my mental steps back to shadows and the discussion of shadows in fantasy, I’ve come to realize that I got lost in my own maze.
It happens. Divided attention plus time ...
by DrLori
19 comments
on Mon Apr 30, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 22 Recommends
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“They [the Nerek] are the indigenous people whose territory spanned the entire south. There were Nerek watching the first ships approach. Nerek who came to greet the first Letherii to set ...
by DrLori
16 comments
on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 16 Recommends
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Last week we started to look at one of the great underrated strengths and appeals of fantasy fiction: social critique. Unlike writers of realism, fantasy writers can examine difficult, politically-...
by DrLori
55 comments
on Mon Apr 09, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 36 Recommends
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We’ve spent more than a few weeks in psycho-mythic territory, so for a change of pace — and never fear, we’ll be going back to “These Stories Have Power Territory” — I want to look a ...
by DrLori
61 comments
on Mon Apr 02, 2018 at 05:00 PM PDT
with 32 Recommends
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Greetings! It’s that time of the week again. Just a few photos to share and a bit of blather to open a space to engage in.
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