“The plague novel is the place where all human beings abandon all other human beings”
The structure of the modern plague novel, all the way to Stephen King’s “The...
Tag Archives: Literature
“the existence of books, no matter how grim the tale, is itself a sign, evidence that humanity endures, in the very contagion of reading”
In the long centuries during which the plague ravaged Europe, the quarantined, if they...
“Britain’s pagan religions and the stories that form their liturgy never really disappeared…”
Britain’s pagan religions and the stories that form their liturgy never really disappeared, the...
“Maybe a world not fixated on atonement and moral imperatives is more conducive to a rousing tale”
In Scotland, Bateman, in turn, suggests the difference between the countries may be that...
“Landscape matters: Britain’s antique countryside…lends itself to fairy-tale invention. … America’s mighty vistas, by contrast, are less cozy, less human-scaled, and less haunted”
Landscape matters: Britain’s antique countryside, strewn with moldering castles and cozy farms, lends itself...
“Popular storytelling in the New World instead tended to celebrate in words and song the larger-than-life exploits of ordinary men and women”
Popular storytelling in the New World instead tended to celebrate in words and song...
“American fantasies differ in another way: They usually end with a moral lesson learned…”
…the British have always been in touch with their pagan folklore, says Maria Tatar,...
“If British children gathered in the glow of the kitchen hearth to hear stories about magic swords and talking bears, American children sat at their mother’s knee listening to tales larded with moral messages…”
If Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn were each to represent British versus American children’s...