It had been some time since I last read the collection King Kull. Picking it from the shelf was rewarding. The general impression and memory of a Kull story is one of blood soaked battles, with a half-naked Kull butchering a dozen men with an ax. But while there is the occasional red-mist set piece,… Continue reading The Kull Dialectics
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Musings on the Lord of the Rings. An Appendix.
You read “‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.” and close the book. Or do you? There is more if you just turn the page. But why would you read material that isn’t part of the novel? If it was important, it would have been in the story. Allow me to offer some reasons. If you were… Continue reading Musings on the Lord of the Rings. An Appendix.
Commencing the New Year in Monterrey
MBW, the HA, and I jaunted down to Monterrey for the New Year. Not to stay up until midnight and toast the changing of the calendar with champagne and fireworks, but to be in town for the 60th birthday party of my brother-in-law. It’s a short one-hour flight from San Antonio. Convenient. And the notorious… Continue reading Commencing the New Year in Monterrey
The 2025 Rearview Mirror
I hope yours were merry and bright, that your halls were decked, and that any lingering reindeer pellets on your roof have ceased to smell. 2025 was…memorable for MBW, the HA, and me. But this isn’t the appropriate venue to rehash house-sale travails, or gnash my teeth over financial hiccups. Instead, I will review my… Continue reading The 2025 Rearview Mirror
Musings on The Lord of the Rings. Part II.
While following Frodo, Sam, and Gollum from the Emyn Muil to Cirith Ungol, I paused at a few passages, considering them in a new (to me) light. Perhaps you consider these old hat, having long since mulled the various permutations of meaning. But let we slow one in the back of the class proceed at… Continue reading Musings on The Lord of the Rings. Part II.
Musings on The Lord of the Rings. I
I have been leisurely reading through The Lord of the Rings. This marks my 19th, or perhaps 20th reading. (It isn’t a contest, but to those of you who read it yearly, relax. I humbly yield.) One would imagine that at some point a certain degree of unforced memorization would occur, preventing the reader from… Continue reading Musings on The Lord of the Rings. I
The Continental Op: The Hardest Boiled.
I purchased a copy of a Dashiell Hammett collection, The Big Knockover. And I’m glad I did. With a single exception, the book is a treasury of several of Hammett’s Continental Op stories. The odd man out is a partially finished novel called Tulip. If one can extrapolate from Lillian Hellman’s introduction, Tulip appears to… Continue reading The Continental Op: The Hardest Boiled.
Still Thankful
There and Back Again sums it up, I suppose. I loaded the car with the HA and MBW and made the trek from San Antonio to Lincoln. Out of deference to my passengers, each way was divided into two stages of about seven hours each, with Oklahoma City as roughly the midway point. The first… Continue reading Still Thankful
Travel to the Edge of the World with Dunsany. Travel Director, Lin Carter.
At the Edge of the World is another excellent collection of Lord Dunsany‘s short fiction, curated by that notable literary docent, Lin Carter. Dunsany’s prose is by turns, melancholy, enchanting, and elegiac, but always poetic. I’ve read some of these before, but Dunsany holds up tenaciously to re-reading. That one man contributed so much poignant… Continue reading Travel to the Edge of the World with Dunsany. Travel Director, Lin Carter.