I have spent a lot of time on this blog picking apart the things I loved as a kid to see what makes them tick. Usually that means an episode of Smallville or a movie I can't stand. This time it means something a little older and a little stranger: the actual belief system quietly … Continue reading Yellow Brick Road to Enlightenment: How Much of Oz Is Actually Theosophy?
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Dorothy, Ozma, and the Feminist Blueprint Hiding in Oz
There's a moment in most people's childhoods, usually around the third or fourth viewing of the 1939 film, when it hits you that something about The Wizard of Oz is a little different. Dorothy doesn't need a prince. Nobody is waiting for a man to fix things. The most powerful people in the entire story, … Continue reading Dorothy, Ozma, and the Feminist Blueprint Hiding in Oz
The Evolution of Severus Snape: From Antagonist to Tragic Hero
There is a moment in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that nobody remembers, because it has nothing to do with Severus Snape. A baby is left on a doorstep. A scar is described. A nosey cat goes uncommented on by passing Muggles. But J.K. Rowling has said that by the … Continue reading The Evolution of Severus Snape: From Antagonist to Tragic Hero
Could Back to the Future’s Time Travel Actually Work?
Everyone knows the rules by now, even people who haven't watched the trilogy in years. You need a flux capacitor. You need 1.21 gigawatts of power. And you need to hit exactly 88 miles per hour at the moment it all comes together. Say those numbers out loud to almost anyone and they'll nod, maybe … Continue reading Could Back to the Future’s Time Travel Actually Work?
The Question I Couldn’t Stop Asking (And the Book It Became)
I was five years old the first time I saw Back to the Future, sitting in the back of my family's car at a drive-in theater. I didn't understand half of what was happening on screen. I definitely didn't understand the science, or the lack of it, behind a souped-up DeLorean hitting 88 miles per … Continue reading The Question I Couldn’t Stop Asking (And the Book It Became)
Hogwarts Houses: Stereotypes, Unity, and Personal Growth
There is a question that has followed Harry Potter fans around for nearly thirty years now, surviving playground arguments, Pottermore quizzes, and at least a dozen personality tests designed to help you figure out whether you belong with the brave ones, the loyal ones, the clever ones, or the ambitious ones. The question is deceptively … Continue reading Hogwarts Houses: Stereotypes, Unity, and Personal Growth
Life Finds a Way… But Should It?
There's a moment near the beginning of Jurassic Park — the novel, specifically — where chaos theorist Ian Malcolm sits across from the park's creator, John Hammond, and delivers what amounts to the entire thesis of the book in a single paragraph. He explains, with the patient condescension of a man who has done the … Continue reading Life Finds a Way… But Should It?
The Last Battle: C.S. Lewis’s Vision of the Apocalypse and Heaven
There's a version of The Last Battle that reads like a nightmare. A beloved world is crumbling. A con artist ape has convinced an entire civilization that God has been replaced by a corporate entity. The heroes are outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and increasingly out of options. Most of the characters you've grown to love over six … Continue reading The Last Battle: C.S. Lewis’s Vision of the Apocalypse and Heaven
Following the Yellow Brick Road: An Oz Series Retrospective
There is something almost unreasonably magical about the Land of Oz. I don't mean that in a throwaway, greeting-card kind of way. I mean it specifically and literally: the world that L. Frank Baum built across fourteen novels is so richly imagined, so internally consistent, and so overflowing with invention that it genuinely defies easy … Continue reading Following the Yellow Brick Road: An Oz Series Retrospective
The Portrayal of Different Races in Middle-earth: Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and Men
A man, an elf, a dwarf, and a hobbit walk into Mordor... Stop me if you've heard this one. Except it's not a joke—it's the premise of one of the greatest stories ever told. And unlike most fantasy setups that feel like they're checking boxes on a diversity requirement form, Tolkien's four races of Middle-earth … Continue reading The Portrayal of Different Races in Middle-earth: Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and Men
