Laura Miller (1) (1960–)

Miller writes at times extremely movingly about the impact that reading has especially on the juvenile mind. I particularly liked her exploration of the differences between reading as a child and reading as an adult and the way in which children inhabit a fantasy world of a novel with a passion and without any degree of removal or eye towards literary criticism.

Her description of her relationship with religion and how it impacted her to realize that Narnia was about religion (and more to the point that it was rife with symbolism and additional meanings) and overall her maturation in her reading style was poignant.

Also interesting was the exploration of the relationship between Lewis and Tolkien - Miller really uses the men as foils to each other to explore their distinct religiosities and views on their manifest to write. In addition, she talks about the different approaches to writing and the relative importance of different components of a story's structure. It made clear to me that the reason I've always liked Lewis and never liked Tolkien is that Lewis is committed to a narrative, whereas Tolkien was truly a setting simulationist.

On the other hand, once she had dispensed with her central thesis, the remainder of the book really lagged and seemed to be the same key points in repetition.… (plus d'informations)

I bought this ebook at some point based solely on the title and cover. Based on those I somehow expected this would be a maybe pseudo-academic exploration of place in fantasy literature—geographical and possibly psychological place. And it actually is that, sort of, but instead of an extended essay exploring how place functions and looks and feels in these books, it’s a collection of summaries of fantasy literature with interesting settings. Sometime the summaries are interesting (whether or not they actually even address the setting), sometimes they’re full of spoilers (don’t read the Never Let Me Go summary before reading the book), sometimes they’re a little too clever. Overall though, after some initial disappointment that the book was not what I wanted it to be, I enjoyed revisiting books I’ve loved, reading about books I’ve been meaning to read, and getting a long list to add to my to-reads.… (plus d'informations)