This text looks at the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, examining the background to his works in terms of the poetry of language and myth. The works covered include The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The Lord of the Rings.
This text looks at the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, examining the background to his works in terms of the poetry of language and myth. The works covered in...
The fifteen essays collected in Hard Reading argue, first, that science fiction has its own internal rhetoric, relying on devices such as neologism, dialogism, semantic shifts, the use of unreliable narrators. It is a "high-information" genre which does not follow the Flaubertian ideal of le mot juste, "the right word," preferring le mot imprevisible, "the unpredictable word." Both ideals shun the facilior lectio, the "easy reading," but for different reasons and with different effects. The essays argue further that science fiction derives much of its energy from engagement with vital...
The fifteen essays collected in Hard Reading argue, first, that science fiction has its own internal rhetoric, relying on devices such as neologism, d...
