Reindeer are the only cervines (members of the deer family) to be domesticated by humans. As such, they enjoy a cozy, familiar status like chicken, ducks, pigs, and domestic pets do. But, like Santa whose sled they haul each December, they have a darker side despite their cheer and competence. Let’s take these odd toys …
Category: Fantasy
Can’t a man have a little privacy?
Japanese demons, or yokai, invade the personal space of this very aghast male bather.
All Things Charn (Part III)
Previous parts of this essay: Part I Part II Since it’s pretty certain that Charn had biblical origins, can we say the same of Jadis? Is she the same as the infamous Whore of Babylon, or is she something more? One thing Jadis is not, is European. In her own element she wore no tight …
Carnival Style
“Why yes, they’re veneers. I’ve got a good dentist.” Carnival in Bolivia, with sumptuous masks and costumes.
Tash the Inexorable
Tash is the antithesis of Aslan the lion. In The Last Battle he’s the principal god of Calormen, a horrid epitome of an ancient Middle Eastern deity who receives sacrificial victims in bizarre and novel ways, like being tied up inside a brass bull which is heated by a wood-burning fire from below. He’s cut …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/30/20: Narnia XVIII
In The Last Battle, Lewis introduces the reader to Narnia’s equivalent of Satan: Tash. Tash is the foremost deity of the desert nation of Calormen, mentioned first in The Horse and His Boy. However, in that book we are not told what he looked like, only his temple: it has a silver-plated roof and sits …
Tapestry
Tapestry designed by Narnia illustrator Pauline Baynes for Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. It was part of a series that took 40 years to stitch, and the subject of recent controversy.
All Things Charn (Part II)
Lewis heavily drew on pulp SF and fantasy tropes to create the masterpiece that is Charn; but he also drew on the good old-fashioned fire and brimstone of The Bible. Since it was, and may still be, the most-read book in Western Civilization, it’s natural that many of its stories influenced fiction of a fantastic …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/16/20: Narnia XVI
Lewis never again got as exotic in the Chronicles as he did in with Calormen. The Valley of Ten Thousand Perfumes, Lake Mezreel, the crossroads city of Azim Balda, the Flaming Mountain of Lagour… these places don’t come into the plots, they are mentioned only in passing. But they do add to the richness. Writing …