By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Isaac Asimov (1920-92) is one of the most prolific authors who have ever lived, with several hundred books to his name (as writer and editor). He’s the only writer to have published books in nine out of ten Dewey library categories.
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reviews John Plotz’s personal reading of a fantasy classic by Ursula K. Le Guin
The American author Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) is widely regarded as one of the finest authors of what is broadly termed ‘speculative fiction’. During the course of her long writing career, she wrote novels and short stories in both the fantasy and science-fiction genres. She has also long been praised as one of the greatest stylists within these genres, with an ability to pick up, as Chesterton said of Robert Louis Stevenson, the right word on the end of her pen.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘I See You Never’ is a short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), published in 1947. One of Bradbury’s shortest stories, ‘I See You Never’ is about a Mexican man who, after two-and-a-half years living in the United States, is told he must leave the country because his visa has expired. The story focuses on his emotional farewell to his landlady.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
When is it a good idea to be nobody? There are some situations where it certainly pays to be Nobody, or rather, to claim to be ‘No One’. And one of the most famous episodes involving wily Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known to the Romans) bears this out.
But what exactly happened when Odysseus, the hero of the Trojan War, met Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops? Let’s take a closer look at this myth, and what Homer tells us about it in his great epic poem, the Odyssey.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Who were Castor and Pollux and what are the details of the story involving these two figures from Greek mythology? These two Greek heroes, who are now perhaps most familiar to people because they became immortalised in the constellation Gemini in the night sky, are the subject of a fascinating story, or rather series of stories, from ancient Greek mythology, so let’s take a closer look at the details of the myth.