Some of you may know March 25 is Tolkien Reading Day. Taylor University's C.S. Lewis Center held a reading from Return of the King to celebrate, I was fortunate enough to attend. Here are some photos from the event: If you like hearing about events like this, check out the Center's home page. You can …
Today, I had the pleasure of giving a compare and contrast presentation on H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien at Taylor University: Lovecraft & Tolkien: Dread, Horror, and Human Flourishing You can read the text of the presentation at the link above, or see a video of the presentation if you prefer. Here are some photos of …
Is The Lord of the Rings really that classic? Today, when over fifty years have passed since The Lord of the Rings came out, it's a valid question. After all, some fantasy authors have disregarded J.R.R. Tolkien as over-hyped and many are trying to write works that go in opposite directions from what Tolkien did in his stories. …
Some time ago I wrote about creating the kind of stories C.S. Lewis wrote – entertaining stories with very obvious Christian ideas. Now I’m going to talk about how to write like J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien, who famously said he hated allegory, usually wrote stories that had Christian ideas but they were express subtly, creating an …
Transcript from my recent presentation at The Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis & Friends. Presentation given on March 31, 2017, at Taylor University. 1. Introduction Today I'm going to discuss two well-known fantasy authors, J.R.R. Tolkien and T.H. White. a, First, we need some information on who T.H. White was. White was an English …
Continue reading The Once and Forgotten Fantasy: On T. H. White’s The Once and Future King.
“Not another elf!” Hugo Dyson said that while listening to J.R.R. Tolkien read "Lord of the Rings" in Inklings meetings. While I disagree with Dyson’s assessment, I must admit it’s been tempting to repeat that phrase when reading modern fantasy. Since Tolkien published his epic in 1954, many fantasy writers have imitated his style --British/Germanic folklore …
(Transcript of speech given on October 7, 2016, at the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis and Friends. Taylor University, Upland IN). 1. Introduction a. Most of you probably know J.R.R. Tolkien was a Christian and he played a part in leading C.S. Lewis to faith. Many people have noted that Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia …
It’s really hard to write about magic without talking about the supernatural. Yes, Arthur C. Clarke argued that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” but there really is a distinct difference between the two. Tech is science, and because science is all about what we can observe and objective facts, we can look …
G. Connor Salter 