Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Infiltration, subversion and inversion of Tolkien

›
We live in a world in which all major institutions have been corrupted by New Leftism (political correctness) - and have now been substantia...
14 comments:
Tuesday, 21 November 2017

The Inklings depicted in the Bird and Baby

›
 This is a painting by Martin Macgregor displayed in the Eagle and Child ("Bird and Baby") pub in Oxford, and sent me by K...
3 comments:
Monday, 30 October 2017

Romanticism Comes of Age by Owen Barfield (1944) - From East to West

›
The first essay in Owen Barfield's 1944 collection Romanticism Come of Age  is named From East to West - and it is one of the clearest, ...
Friday, 27 October 2017

My new Owen Barfield Blog

›
I have started compiling a new blog dedicated to Owen Barfield . This will consist of a selection from my essays, posted in chronological or...

Roots and branches of reading Lord of the Rings, aged 14

›
Reading the Lord of the Rings (LotR) aged 14 was probably the most significant abstract (non-personal) event in my life. It led to many chan...
12 comments:
Monday, 16 October 2017

The nature of Tolkien's Subcreation

›
I have found it difficult to understand exactly what JRR Tolkien meant by Subcreation in his essay On Fairy Stories. Indeed, I think that i...
6 comments:
Wednesday, 23 August 2017

In his writing style, CS Lewis was essentially a sprinter/ short-middle-distance dasher (but Tolkien was built for marathons)

›
It is well known that CS Lewis wrote quickly, and revised very little. But there are limits to what can coherently be achieved (with full...
2 comments:
Saturday, 12 August 2017

Reimagining CS Lewis's That Hideous Strength

›
I am currently halfway through listening to the excellent audiobook version of CS Lewis's That Hideous Strength ('THS'), read b...
7 comments:
Saturday, 5 August 2017

CS Lewis in Newcastle and Durham - The Riddell Lectures (Abolition of Man) 23-26 Febrary 1943

›
Edited from Chronologically Lewis by Joel Heck http://www.joelheck.com/chronologically-lewis.php My editorial remarks are in [square brac...
2 comments:
Friday, 4 August 2017

Owen Barfield on advanced spiritual warfare

›
Towards the end of his magnum opus Saving the Appearances (1957), Owen Barfield makes a vital, but chilling, point about the future of huma...

You may wish to order direct from your favourite secondhand booksellers from now onwards

›
I got this letter today from Richard Johnson - an excellent bookseller with expert knowledge who provides a personal service; who specialise...
4 comments:
Thursday, 3 August 2017

Reincarnation and our ultimate divine destiny: two significant points where I disagree with Owen Barfield

›
Despite that I have been persuaded by almost all of Owen Barfield's philosophical and historical analysis; there are two important point...

The Shire is not a utopia - but Rivendell is

›
I often get the idea, from the descriptions of the place, that modern readers often regard The Shire as Tolkien's perfect earthly societ...
2 comments:
Wednesday, 2 August 2017

How to be a visionary of Final Participation

›
Most recorded visionary experiences are expansions of perception – seeing or hearing things that other people cannot. For example William ...
4 comments:
Tuesday, 1 August 2017

Coleridge's Polarity, as explicated by Barfield, re-explained as family love

›
In his masterful book What Coleridge Thought (1971), Owen Barfield identified Polarity - or Polar Logic - as ST Coleridge's core philos...
Monday, 31 July 2017

Owen Barfield in reverse

›
Owen Barfield typically explained himself by starting with evidence (for example the evidence for evolution of language, or for understandin...

Owen Barfield and Rudolf Steiner - the nature of the relationship

›
Owen Barfield regarded Rudolf Steiner as his master, as indeed one of the great thinkers of human history (of a stature comparable to Aristo...
7 comments:
Sunday, 30 July 2017

Owen Barfield's Final Participation defined simply and clearly

›
The state of consciousness of young children and tribal hunter gatherers is termed Original Participation, in Owen Barfield's nomenclatu...
2 comments:
Tuesday, 25 July 2017

Chronologically Lewis by Joel Heck: a major new Jack and Warnie Lewis resource

›
Prof Joel Heck of Concordia University, Texas - our benefactor   I was extremely excited to discover what I regard as the single most i...
2 comments:
Thursday, 20 July 2017

Trotter's feet, the moon and Tolkien's shamanistic creativity

›
Two rather shocking aspects of the composition Lord of the Rings, but which may throw light onto Tolkien's creative processes, include t...
4 comments:
Saturday, 24 June 2017

Half-way-through review of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time fantasy series

›
I am currently reading an extremely -long (14 volumes, each about 1000 pages) fantasy novel serial called the Wheel of Time, by Robert Jorda...
Friday, 16 June 2017

Owen Barfield's Metaphysics

›
Owen Barfield, much like Rudolf Steiner before him, regarded himself as doing a mixture of 'scientific/ empirical' and epistemologic...
Monday, 29 May 2017

Big honour for me! - I'm on the Home Page of the web pages of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate

›
I'm feeling highly honoured that the new Home Page of the  Owen Barfield Literary Estate web pages includes my summary of the core of Ba...