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Northrop Frye on Heroic Modes of Action

Northrop Frye on Heroic Modes of Action

In this post, I'll isolate one specific part from Northrop Frye's Phase Space so that we can look at it in more detail. Let's turn to Frye's model of the mode of heroic action. Frye surveys literature over time, and he classifies

Gemini Destroyer Book Review

Gemini Destroyer Book Review

This is the end. Gemini Outsider was an end. This is the end. The end of the Gemini Man story, the ultimate culmination of everything that happens. Which makes it interesting that the Gemini Man hardly appears in it. We will instead follow a petty criminal, a former follower of

Northrop Frye's Phase Space

Northrop Frye's Phase Space

I got my start on Northrop Frye through John J. Reilly's review of his most famous work, Anatomy of Criticism. Since then, I have come to appreciate Frye more and more as I develop my book criticism. I am most interested in genre fiction, especially adventure fiction written

Gemini Outsider Book Review

Gemini Outsider Book Review

In the second Gemini Man book, Gemini Drifter, I said that Matthew and Jason had the freedom to make their own path. In Gemini Outsider, that choice has now been made. The choice is to seek anonymity and normality, whatever that means for two young men who have traveled between

WBH Weekly Digest 2023-12-22: All Westerns are Fairy Stories

WBH Weekly Digest 2023-12-22: All Westerns are Fairy Stories

My theme this week is around the true value of the romance. This Twitter thread lays out the mythic reasons why Jack Reacher and Conan are the same character. The mythic resonance goes far beyond their giant, hulking portrayal, as David Carradine's Kung Fu is another representation of

Chesterton: Introduction to the Book of Job

Chesterton: Introduction to the Book of Job

A perhaps unexpected source of my style of book criticism, and how I understand popular adventure stories, can be found in G. K. Chesterton's essay "Introduction to the Book of Job". This is an explicitly theological investigation of one of the most mysterious and allusive books

Gemini Drifter Book Review

Gemini Drifter Book Review

Matthew and Jason have returned to Earth, escaped the Great Sorcerer King, killed the woman who tricked them and destroyed a building in the process. Now what? Gemini Drifter, the second book in JD Cowan's Gemini Man series, presents our protagonists with more freedom than the last. In