A whole new meaning to “A Room full of Books”
Prague-based artist Matej Kren has created a room made almost entirely of books. It is part of the city gallery of Bratislava.
The giant sculpture, called Passage, also uses mirrors and special lighting to create a “surreal chamber of texts.”
Kren is known for creating a series of gigantic book sculptures. Passage is part of a wider series called “Book cell” — structures and spaces built entirely out of thousands of books.
The photo at left remind us rather strongly of the brick house built by the third little pig (you know, the industrious one). No word yet on just how well it holds up to strong breezes and wolfish intruders.
But Bellairs was more than that. He was also a first-class fantasist, whose one book for adults, The Face in the Frost, is something unique. Written before his tales for children, on its publication in 1969 it was described by Lin Carter as one of the three best fantasies to have appeared since The Lord of the Rings.
Now that Gen Con is done, it’s time to offer up some final thoughts, experiences, and, of course, games.
Pulp Adventure Roleplaying Games
The lead story for the
complete artwork comprising all the issues in 2010) is “Mannikin” by Paul Evanby. The story opens in July 1776, the date of American declared independence from British colonial rule (sidenote: the writer is Dutch and the magazine is published in the U.K.). But this isn’t about Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson, and doesn’t even take place in the colonies, but rather signifies the irony of a revolution that resulted in freedom for white Protestant male landowners who relied on the exploitation of African-American slaves to maintain economic autonomy.
Most literary criticism of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is limited to treating the work as one of the more blatant examples of Victorian sexual repression. A few more adventurous critics are eager to play Freudian detective and speculate what the book reveals about the author’s possible sexual feelings for Sir Henry Irving or his alleged serial infidelity with East End prostitutes.
Though he’s best known as the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was also a prolific essayist and an ardent defender of fantasy literature. In addition to medieval studies (The Allegory of Love) and Christian apologetics (Mere Christianity), Lewis wrote several essays about the enduring appeal of