Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world”*…
Before dinner the Reverend Newman said grace: “Heavenly Father. What kind of a heel do you think I am? How dare you talk to me like that! Don’t give me any of your back talk, smart-ass. It’s been an of a week. I sinned and brought shame down on us. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no big deal. You don’t know dick about this—you haven’t a clue! I suppose you believe that rubbish about vampires. The allegations were false, do you understand me? Baseless allegations. I believe in ghosts. Too bad, but that’s the way it is. Why don’t you leave me alone? Go on, get lost! I’ll get mine, you get yours, we’ll all get wealthy. Amen to that!”
More stories composed entirely of example sentences for the New Oxford American Dictionary at Dictionary Stories.
* Philip Pullman
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As we channel our inner Tristan Tzara, we might recall that it was on this date in 1937 that George Allen & Unwin published J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Widely critically-acclaimed in its time (nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction), it was a success with readers, and spawned a sequel… which became the trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
Cover of the first edition, featuring a drawing by Tolkien
Special July 4th Edition: “Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop”*…
July 4 is, of course, a very special anniversary…
On this date in 1862, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a young Oxford mathematics don, took the daughters of the Dean of Christ Church College– Alice Liddell and her sisters– on a boating picnic on the River Thames in Oxford. To amuse the children he told them the story of a little girl, bored by a riverbank, whose adventure begins when she tumbles down a rabbit hole into a topsy-turvy world called “Wonderland.” The story so captivated the 10-year-old Alice that she begged him to write it down. The result was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1865 under the pen name “Lewis Carroll,” with illustrations by John Tenniel.
Readers in or around Oxford can join the celebration.
[The Tenniel illustration above, via]
* Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Too cool…
The guide to modern life for which one has been waiting: Coolness Graphed.
More.
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As we navigate our lives with increased confidence, we might send adventurous birthday greetings to Edgar Rice Burroughs; he as born on this date in 1875. In 1911, after a series of unsuccessful jobs (cavalry ranger, cowboy, clerk), Burroughs was working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler. The story goes that…
Burroughs was sitting in his rented office and waiting for his crack pencil sharpener salesmen to report in, their pockets bulging with orders. Besides waiting, one of Burroughs’ duties was to verify the placement of advertisements for his sharpeners in various magazines. These were all-fiction “pulp” magazines, a prime source of escapist reading material for the rapidly expanding middle class. Verifying the pencil sharpener ads didn’t exactly take much time. The pencil sharpener salesmen never showed up, so Burroughs spent his idle time reading those pulp magazines. And an idea was born.
After reading several thousand words of breathless pulp fiction Burroughs determined ~ or so he claimed ~ that “if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines”…
Burroughs wrote a novel, Under the Moons of Mars, which was serialized in All-Story Magazine in 1912 (and introduced “John Carter”). Tarzan of the Apes came later that year. Burroughs served as one of the oldest war correspondents in the field during World War II, and died in 1950, having published almost 70 novels.
In 1915 (or 1919, records disagree), Burroughs purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California, which he named “Tarzana.” The citizens of the community that sprang up around the ranch voted to adopt that name when they incorporated their enclave– and Tarzana, California was formed in 1927.
There’s no business like show business…
… there’s no business at all.
Consider Charlie Jane Anders’ wonderful collection of the “Most misleading and fanciful science fiction/fantasy movie posters ever!“– 55 gems, including one-sheets like…
Those frightening eyes? That "scuttling, shambling horde of creatures destroying all in their path"? Bunnies.
Or, from the “Video Homage” category…
... with a bonus extra leading man!!!
Peruse the 53 other films-that-might-have-been (in several cases, films-we’d-just-as-soon-they’d-made) here.
As we revisit Rotten Tomatoes, we might recall that it was on this date in 1888, in Spa (Belgium), that the first beauty contest was held. 21 finalists vied to be named “beauty queen”; the winner, 18- year-old Bertha Sukkar from Guadeloupe, took home 5,000 Francs.
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