A-Z Characters Who Transform: Z is for Zorro-Type Children

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Literature is awash with children who rush in to save the day.  The stories are mostly maudlin and patently ridiculous. When I was younger, ...

A-Z Characters Who Transform: Y is for Youth

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One of the most common transformations in literature is the transformation of the child to an adult.  Harper Lee captured this transformatio...

1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, Jacob: Grace & Works Continued

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Problem 2 In a previous post , I comment that two problems underlie religious systems--in part because they underlie all human systems:  The...

Big Bang Theory: Comic Books and the Unintentional Sexism of Amy

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One of the ongoing jokes of Big Bang Theory 's early seasons is that the comic book shop is devoid of girls. Not even Lucy comes to the ...

A-Z Characters Who Transform...Or Not

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One type of transformation tale is the characters who connect but don't meet or meet after many years. They are, in many ways, disguised...

All the Ms: Marechera to Margolis

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Marechera, Dambudzo: From a short story collection, The House of Hunger , I read “Burning in the Rain.” It is beautifully written, if depre...

Parley Baer: Great Character Actor

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Many if not most actors carry their external "I'm acting" personas with them. They get type-cast for a reason. Those actors ...

Problems of Utopia: Fear of Art, Including--Especially--Non-Intellectual Art

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Utopia novels or tracts tend to get a tad tedious--that is, they tend to turn into polemics rather than stay focused on story. The inherent ...

A-Z Characters that Transform: Westing and Other Aloof Heroes from Raskin's Fiction

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Posts about characters who transform brings me to Ellen Raskin.  Cool, calculating somewhat aloof heroes who see three moves ahead are quite...

People Don't Change: The Individual Within the Community

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Timothy Tackett is an accomplished author of the French Revolution. I recommend his book When the King Took Flight as well as The Glory and ...

1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, Jacob: The Ongoing Issue of Grace & Works

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Eden's purpose is part of the struggle. 1 Nephi 14-22: Grace & Works The Book of Nephi begins an argument over hell and grace and ...

All the Ms: Marais to Marcom

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Marais, Bianca: Hum If You Don’t Know the Words takes place in South Africa. The opening chapter engaged me. I don’t read much literature ...

Characters Who Transform: The Disguise, Girls as Boys

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One of the most classic characters archetypes is the girl disguised as a boy, and the one of the most classic examples is Violet in Twelfth ...

A-Z Characters & Transformation: Jean Valjean

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Jean Valjean is one of the best known transformed characters within literature. He became especially well-known within my generation...and n...

Problems of Utopias: An Inability to Understand Children

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In Herland , Gilman criticizes "old games." At one point, the mentors ask Van if the old games in his culture "develop the f...

Latest Publication: The Merman in Hiding

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Merman in Hiding is now available on Amazon.  Priest-detectives Rhys and Lider are currently on Earth. A family of Siphons or merpeople nee...

A-Z Characters That Transform: The Unknowns

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A few characters in literature remain unnamed: the narrator of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca ; the narrator of The Turn of the Screw by H...