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Benjamin I. Espen 🏛 Profile picture
Benjamin I. Espen 🏛
@BenEspen
Physicist turned engineer, Thomist philosophy, Student of millennial movements. I write book reviews, mostly of sci fi and fantasy, and re-post The Long View.
Sep 9 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
Friend @cirsova is surely too modest here, as he is also no slouch at doing thematic and structural analysis.

But why don't we talk about criticism? I do this as a hobby, and I can't cover everything. More critics would be a good thing.

The function of a critic is something I only gradually understood.

I borrow my understand of criticism in part from Susan Rogers "This is What it Sounds Like". Image
Feb 22 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
This is a great thread and you should read the whole thing. I'm a STEM guy who's always been interested in the humanities, and you all should consider what has been said.

My 🧵will be about my own favorite subject: adventure stories. In secondary and tertiary schools, it is pretty clear that stories are selected in just the manner described in the QT: specific didactic purposes are held up and sensational or lurid trash is excluded. Image
Dec 24, 2024 • 63 tweets • 15 min read
Frieren and Dungeon Meshi: Beyond Romance's End

A thread of comparative criticism, link in first post of thread. Image benespen.com/frieren-and-du…
May 8, 2024 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Friend Aaron tagged me in to a newsletter about magic in fantasy.

I find it a very interesting post, but I do want to suggest that it is not a general theory of how magic "works" in fantasy, but rather a good description of how it works in contemporary fantasy. What I mean by that is contemporary fantasy is dominated by systematic, even gamified concepts of magic.

One of the best introductions to this topic I know of was written by Emperor Norton.

emperorponders.blog/2019/03/21/you…Image
Mar 30, 2024 • 41 tweets • 11 min read
Northrop Frye on Symbol as Image 🧵

The third phase of Frye's phases of literal symbolism is the formal phase. This will be Frye's briefest section in the second essay, but don't let it fool you. Image benespen.com/northrop-frye-…
Feb 27, 2024 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
Frye's Second Essay: The Theory of Symbols

In the 1st essay, which Frye subtitled "Historical Criticism", Frye created his categories by looking at the hist development of heroes and themes. In the 2nd essay, Frye will turn to the different contexts in which we interpret symbols Image benespen.com/northrop-fryes…
May 18, 2023 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
I recently re-read Jurassic Park for the first time in decades. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Michael Crichton's books, and the movies based on them. I read every book of his that I could find. Image After a while, I drifted away, looking for variety in my reading. Without giving it much thought, I thought that perhaps it was just a juvenile phase.
May 17, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The Widow’s Son by Ryan Williamson is a weird western, a tradition going back to at least to Robert E. Howard’s “The Horror from the Mound”. Image Westerns were popular for more than a century, oftentimes [loosely] inspired by the real-life adventures of men like Kit Carson, but where usually about more mundane conflicts. Image