Classics Considered

There was no intention on my part to read two dystopian novels at the same time.  I was already in motion to read 1984 - an embarrassingly long-overdue attempt - when I heard a novelization of Pan's Labyrinth was to be released in July.  I got in the library line quickly (these things go like hot cakes), and soon, with del Toro/Funke's fantasy horror in one hand and Orwell's bleak dystopia in the other, made the abrupt leap from "light summer fluff" to "not-sure-if-I'll-sleep-tonight bedtime stories." So... What Were You Thinking!? 1984 requires little introduction.  In Western culture, at least, terms such as Big Brother and doublethink flavor our vocabulary as glib reminders that a British author back in 1948 foretold the existence of increasingly powerful, monolithic, and tech-savvy governments.  We see signs of it everywhere today, from more innocuous instruments such as traffic cameras to the disturbing birth of China's Social C...

Michael Llewelyn Davies as Peter Pan - Photo by J. M. Barrie Peter Pan - immortal, magical, and forever lonely - has his origins in a novella called Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906).  This little story predates the more famous novel Peter and Wendy by some years (the latter I reviewed in my latest podcast episode " Getting Older with Peter Pan ").  Like his fictional contemporary Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan was both a real-life figure and a figment of imagination, a character who would haunt his author for decades.  There are glimpses of this bittersweet legacy in Kensington Gardens , itself an excerpt of a larger novel, The Little White Bird .  Through this iterative story development, one easily senses J. M. Barrie 's personal connection to the Peter Pan mythos. The tale begins with an anonymous father-figure and a boy named David who take walks in London's famous Kensington Gardens.  The narrative drifts from a conversational discussion of the Gardens ...

We start off Season 2 with a journey to the Never Land - the dangerous yet dazzling world of Peter Pan, where even grownups can learn a thing or two. Links / Further Reading: J. M. Barrie's "Atrocious" Cricket Club "The Adventure of the Two Collaborators" "Perceptions of Childhood" - Reynolds, The British Library "Wendy" song - Peter Pan Live! Opening quote read by Will Ching (LibriVox)

What makes Alice in Wonderland a beloved classic?  This week, I review one of my childhood favorites and some of its creative film adaptations. Links Mentioned: "Pig and Pepper" - Disney concept "In a World of My Own" - Diana Panton  

An ancient family heirloom - and a mother's call for vengeance - sends young Leo Vincey and his adoptive father on a quest to find a mysterious sorceress, Ayesha, or She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed .  In this episode, I review H. Rider Haggard's She , a novel which influenced the fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Sources / Further Reading: How to Pronounce Ayesha? (Sci-Fi StackExchange discussion) Biography of H. Rider Haggard "The Annexation of the Transvaal" ( The Spectator archives) - Haggard directly participated in this political event. "Fawcett's Deadly Idol" Article on Percy Fawcett's disappearance (The History Channel) The Lost City of Z , by David Grann - My parents read and were fascinated by this nonfictional story of Percy Fawcett and his obsession with lost cities.  We also watched the movie by the same name , but it wasn't very well done... skip it and go straight to the book!