Laura Miller's Blog, page 2

Longfellow and the American roots of Narnia

I'm currently sunk deep into A New Literary History of America, edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors, a massive, fabulous collection of critical and historical essays keyed to important events in American culture. (I'll be reviewing it soon in Salon.) As is often the case with this sort of book (I edited one myself), sometimes the most rewarding entries are the ones that at first look unpromising. Who today cares about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a poet who was hugely popular in the...

A cabin in the woods

I haven't posted in weeks, mostly because I was away through much of August, staying in places without Internet access. That was both intentional and unnerving, since I've been thinking a lot lately about the effect that the constant stimulation of the Net has had on my ability to concentrate, whether I'm trying to get something significant accomplished or just want to sit still and read without jumping up every 10 minutes to check email. So I sought out the fabled cabin in the woods to...

The Magicians and The Magician's Book

Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine has a long piece about The Magician's Book and two other titles -- Cheek by Jowl, an essay collection by Ursula K. Le Guin, and a new novel, The Magicians, by Lev Grossman, which comes out on August 11. Even if Lev (book critic for Time magazine) weren't a good friend, I'd be fervently recommending The Magicians to everyone who fell under the spell of Narnia or Harry Potter as a child and has been thinking about what this means to the adults we've become.

It...

Dickens, revolutionary violence and trauma

I recently read A Tale of Two Cities, which is Dickens' other historical novel, after Barnaby Rudge. Again, another petrifying depiction of mob violence, particularly in the street lynching of a heartless aristo:

Once, he went aloft, and the rope broke, and they caught him shrieking; twice, he went aloft, and the rope broke, and they caught him shrieking; then, the rope was merciful, and held him, and his head was soon upon a pike ...

I don't know much about Dickens' background, but this has...

How to identify a robot

Sitting in a car in a supermarket parking lot, bored.

Laura: Hey guys, look at that man over there.
Desmond: He could be a robot.
Nini: No, he's not a robot!
Laura: Really? How can you be so sure?
Nini: If he was a robot, he'd be shiny.

Barnaby Rudge and villainry

I recently read, Barnaby Rudge, one of Dickens' less celebrated novels. It's set in 1780, during the Gordon riots, a period of civil unrest I'd never heard of before, stirred up by Protestant rabble rousers enraged by legislation that eased some of the restrictions on Britain's Catholics. I can see why the book might strike some as unsatisfying; the bad guy is a crafty flatterer who persuades the addled Lord Gordon to act as a leader, but it's not especially clear what his motives are...

The Hebrews

I hesitate to resort to the "kids say the darnedest things" school of blog posting, but I will have a longer entry soon, and I can't resist these vignettes resulting from the twins' new course of study, Hebrew mythology.

Nini, holding a doll, to the workman who came by the house: "This is my baby, and his name is Moses. I have to save him from Pharaoh."

Nini pointing to chair in the living room: "This is the flaming bush, and Nini will be voicing God."

The ever-practical Desmond has announced...

Mythological at the Met

Nini and Desmond's mother, Leslie, is teaching the twins about ancient history, and as a result they've been very keen on, in turn, dinosaurs, Egyptian gods and now Greek mythology. Desmond wants to be Hermes and Nini wants to be Demeter. (They're particularly fond of the story of Demeter, Persephone and Hades, which coincidentally is the story I used to illustrate Owen Barfield's conception of myth -- a powerful influence on Lewis and Tolkien -- in The Magician's Book.)

Recently, they made ...

How to write in a book

One of the unsung side benefits of researching a nonfiction book is the stuff you learn that never makes it into the finished product. Reading one of C.S. Lewis' letters inspired me to revamp my note-taking, specifically the way I mark up books. I know some people regard writing in books as a sacrilege, but it's unavoidable in my profession. Much of the time the books are advance reader's copies (ARCs), unproofed printings for the convenience of journalists and booksellers and not "real...

Finally, a links page

I finally got around to adding a new page of links to the regular pages on this site. I expect I'll be adding to it as time goes by, but for now it's a pretty good snapshot of site I check in on regularly.