Brian Jacques, Story Teller, Dead at 71

February 11, 2011 by 2 Comments

I have read The Chronicles of Narnia to my children, and The Lord of the Rings, Artemis Fowl, the Little House books, Moody’s Little Britches series, and, of course, Harry Potter. All of them are special to us; the books and their authors are like distant family members you think about much more often than you see them and about whom you always feel fondly.

None of these very special writers and book series, not even the Hogwarts Saga, mean to my younger children what Brian Jacques does and will, despite his passing of a heart attack last Saturday, news we only learned today. There are 23 Redwall novels (and counting) and we have read twenty of them aloud together. The boys and my youngest daughter have read them to themselves and listened to them on tape and CD many more times. Today’s news, consequently, was devastating.

We even met him once and he showed a special kindness to my son, Timothy, a tale I’ll save for another day. Today I just want to say “thank you,” cry a little for the loss and for the great pleasure this wonderful story teller gave me and mine, and open the comment boxes for you to share your favorite Redwall novel or how you first met Martin the Warrior, with whom I hope Brian is enjoying a hearty meal tonight. May the greatest pure story teller of our time rest in peace.

“Somewhere Jacques is slurping hotroot soup and eating a big slice of deeper’n’ever pie, rinsing it down with Dandelion Cordial and October Ale, and crunching dozens of candied chestnuts for dessert.”
— Matt London

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

There Be Dragons

February 10, 2011 by 1 Comment

[Editor’s Note: Welcome to the next title in the HogPro Book Club: C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. To get things started, Professor Pazdziora offers some reflections on literary and spiritual themes in the book. So, grab your copy and your reading memories, and get ready for a great series of challenging discussions on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.]

There Be Dragons

A Reader Remembers
The Voyage of the
Dawn Treader

I know nothing about cartography. So maybe that’s why it’s always seemed to me like a strange and mystical science. There’s poetry in maps. I stare at those squiggled lines and neat text—geological tortures reduced to splotches of ink—the Sahara to Yellow 5 and the Nile to Blue 47—and wonder: have the mapmakers really been there? Did they sketch this from memory? From travellers’ tales?
From dreams?

It’s no surprise, really, that maps are central to modern fantasy literature. Tolkien began it, of course, perhaps following the example of Rider Haggard and the researches of (ahem) Allan Quartermain, or the legendary map that sent Squire Trelawney and the good doctor on their ill-fated adventure.

Any edition of The Lord of the Rings is incomplete without a large foldout of Christopher Tolkien’s painstaking and perfect maps of the Shire, Middle-Earth, and Mordor. Bilbo Baggins began his adventure with a map, of course. A map that showed where the treasure was hidden, a map with a secret door. And on the edge of the map—at the end of the journey—was the dragon.

And so the mapmakers gave us the warning:

Here there be dragons.

That was the legend on the edges of maps, the signifier that admitted fear of the unknown. The ancient cartographers drew dragons around the boundaries of the world. The quarters inaccessible to human voyagers were realms of deathly peril. Sea Serpents. Giant Squid. Sirens. Kraken. And dragons.

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Filed Under: C. S. Lewis, John Patrick Pazdziora Tagged With: , , , ,

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen Go to University: The Scandal of Teaching Twilight as Literature

February 9, 2011 by 10 Comments

Last fall saw the first big surge of Colleges offering classes with Stephenie Meyer’s Forks Saga on the required reading list. Seven schools from Harvard to the University of South Carolina on the East Coast to Occidental on the Left Side and University of Iowa holding down the heartland offered courses about Twilight or with it as an important part of the course’s theme. Note that the reporter in the article makes clear, though, that this must be a function of school’s pandering to Generation Twi-hard:

So is academia responding to a cultural phenomenon or pandering to a powerful market group? That will depend on the course structure. But one thing is certain: the classes are totally going to sell out.

On my Deathly Hallows Speaking Tour last fall, I spoke to the class in South Carolina. Those students were right on board with trying to figure out the artistry and meaning that has caused Twi-mania. They admitted, of course, that it was almost consensus on campus that they couldn’t be serious. Which goes to show once again that what the herd thinks, especially the critical, media, and academic herds, is nearly guaranteed to be off base (and not a little lazy). But it gets better.

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Filed Under: Twilight

Taking ‘Shared Text’ Vocabulary to the Movies!

February 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

“I’ll explain it to you. And I’ll use small words so you’ll be sure to understand.” The Princess Bride

Standardized tests are generally considered so terrifying that only “IRS” could be considered a scarier acronym than “SAT,” but Brian Leaf takes the big test to our favorite movies and gives us a big tub of popcorn to make learning frequently tested vocabulary  as fun and effortless as a Saturday matinee. In Name that Movie: A Painless Vocabulary Builder, Leaf uses the approach that he has taken in Defining Twilight, Defining New Moon, Defining Eclipse, and Defining Breaking Dawn: he delves into the stories we already know and love and pulls out the words we ought to know.

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Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Movie Thoughts, Shared Text

Was Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein an Alchemist? Introducing the ‘Potter as Pearl Harbor’ Thesis

February 4, 2011 by 4 Comments

The News from Summit Entertainment this week (H/T to James!) is that the Twilight film makers understand something of what made the Forks Saga the bonanza it has been for them. I’m pretty confident they’d call it “paranormal romance” and “love triangle” rather than “literary alchemy” or “soul triptych” but those of you who have listened to my talks on Harry Potter and Twilight that I gave last weekend at the Eighth Day Institute will recognize the features. From the MTV article, ‘Summit Entertainment To Bring Frankenstein to Life:‘

Summit Entertainment’s already worked box office magic with vampires and werewolves, but can they do the same for Frankenstein (the mad scientist, not the monster)? According to Deadline, the studio behind “The Twilight Saga” has acquired the screen rights to the upcoming YA novel “This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein” by Kenneth Oppel, which hits bookstores August 23.

The novel is a prequel of sorts to Mary Shelley’s classic “Frankenstein.” The plot centers around young Victor Frankenstein and his quest to save sick twin brother Konrad. He seeks help from a mysterious alchemist, who sends Victor and his friend Elizabeth on a dangerous journey to find the three ingredients needed to create a serum called the Elixir of Life that will heal Konrad. Like any YA novel worth its salt, the inevitable love triangle ensues.

Checking out the Amazon page Book Description, we learn the trio’s hero journey has three stages:

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Filed Under: HogPro Book Club, Literary Alchemy, Shared Text