My Socks Don't Fit

Christianity and Fantasy, Fall 2012 Schedule

ayjay:

8.30 Introduction to course

Progenitors

9.4 George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin

9.6

9.11 G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

9.13

Inheritors

9.18 C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

9.20

9.25

9.27 Lewis, The Great Divorce

10.2

10.4 Lewis, Till We Have Faces

10.9

10.11

10.16 J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings I-II

10.18

Fall Break

10.25 Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings III-IV

10.30

11.1 Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings V-VI

11.6

11.8 concluding discussion of Tolkien

Revisionists

11.13 Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials, 1st book

11.15 Pullman, His Dark Materials, 2nd book

11.20

Thanksgiving Break

11.27 Pullman, His Dark Materials, 3rd book

11.29 concluding discussion of Pullman

12.4 John Crowley, Little, Big

12.6

12.11

12.13 Conclusion to course

Oh, how I would love to take this course. I’ve read everything on the list except for The Man Who Was Thursday. I am particularly intrigued by the inclusion of Little, Big by John Crowley. I read it earlier this year and wrote the following in my review:

Ultimately, I have no idea what this book is about… For the entire book, I felt like I was on the outside of a secret that ultimately was never revealed, an understanding never explained, a truth hinted at but never fully developed. I felt constantly on the cusp of “getting it,” and it never delivered. The prose was elegant and archaic (I’ve never had to look up so many words in my life), but never exciting, and never about anything. The story read like what someone else’s dream would look like to an outsider: totally coherent to the person dreaming, but everything contextually important is assumed and never explained; as the reader I was left confused and dissatisfied. A total disappointment.

One of my best friends took a course in college in which they read and discussed the works of Rowling, Lewis (Narnia), Tolkien, and Pullman. I was (am!) beyond jealous.