The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner Dill is no stranger to hardship. He’s dirt poor, financially supporting his mother, and seems to have zero future prospects. His father, a snake-handling preacher, is in prison; many of his former parishioners blame Dill. Yet Dill has two things that keep him getting up in the morning – … Continue reading The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner
John Tenniel* This is a continuation of the theme I began on Chapters I and II of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In chapter IV, we see the first evidence that Alice’s feistiness grows and shrinks with her size. When Alice is small she rushes off to do the White Rabbit’s bidding, so frightened by him that … Continue reading Alice, the Caterpillar, and the Serpent
Fiction (Adult) Adams, Douglas Shada Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi Half of a Yellow Sun Atwood, Margaret Handmaid’s Tale Austen, Jane Persuasion Beckett, Chris Dark Eden Bunyan, John Pilgrim’s Progress Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451 Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre Buck, Pearl S. Sons Butcher, Jim Aeronaut’s Windlass Butler, Octavia Bloodchild and Other Stories Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote Cronin, … Continue reading Fiction Reviews
That Artsy Reader Girl hosts a weekly meme in which we respond to a pre-determined prompt. As the prompts seem interesting, I thought I’d give it a whirl. This week’s prompt is books that surprised me. My top 10 in no particular order are: I usually don’t like celebrity memoirs because they are so full … Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday
The second chapter of Genesis expands upon the story of the creation of man, which is introduced in the first chapter. This second chapter takes place in a slightly different order than God’s acts in the first chapter – the two chapters are attributed to different authors. Like Chapter 1, Chapter 2 is also filled … Continue reading The Fall
Him the Almighty PowerHurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky,With hideous ruin and combustion, downTo bottomless perdition, there to dwellIn adamantine chains and penal fire,Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms.Book 1, 44-49Gustave Dore (Source) Since I am having trouble interpreting Paradise Lost, I am painstakingly going through and interpreting it. I can then use … Continue reading Paradise Lost – Book I Lines 1 – 191
John Tenniel* As I said in my previous post on Alice (Alice, the Caterpillar, and the Serpent), Lewis Carroll used asterisks to denote metamorphoses in Alice. The last row of asterisks in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was when she shrunk back from a serpent to a reasonably-sized girl at the end of Chapter V. This sudden … Continue reading The Confidence of Alice
I read a critique that claims the Alice stories are allegories for puberty–specifically, Freudian analysis suggests that they are about Alice’s change from innocence to a sexual being. I’m generally skeptical of Freudian analysis, but was surprised when I read the first two chapters of Alice in Wonderland and found evidence that the book may, … Continue reading Alice’s Adventures in the Circle of Life
