Barbie as Portal Fantasy—and What That Means for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia Adaptation
C.S. Lewis’s adored classic now shares space with Barbie as part of the subgenre of portal fantasy.
How to Train Your Dragon: Revision, Restoration, and Edenic Longing
Even though How to Train Your Dragon should be a very silly story, sometimes very silly stories manage to say the very best things.
‘Bigger on the Inside’: How Gateway Fantasy Gives Space to Our Longings
No one who journeys through a magic portal or gateway or liminal space in such a story believes the world or worlds on the other side will be smaller.
Time in the Telling: How Stories of Time Help Us Grapple with a Fallen World
All of time itself is but a dream from which the people of Narnia—and, let the reader understand, all of us—will someday wake.
“In that enchanted place”: Stories and Permanence in an Impermanent World
The timelessness of stories reflects our longing for an existence unmarred by death.
‘It’s Not about Deserve’: Truth, Pity, and a Deeper Magic in Wonder Woman
We crave heroes like Wonder Woman who give undeserved mercy to those who deserve destruction.
A Decade of Wardrobe Malfunctions: Social Media and Pseudo-Adulthood
The ubiquity of social media today, unlike the time of Timberlake’s gaffe, is that all young adults, not simply celebrities, have endless opportunities for their own selfie-inflicted, wardrobe malfunctions.
