A first clue to something big, tucked into a choice of children's books
I was once part of a group dedicated to reading children's stories (primarily fantasy) aloud. At one point the group decided to read Patricia Wrede's Dealing with Dragons. I had a visceral reaction to the book as something warped, but when I tried to explain it to the group by saying that it was like the Un-man in Perelandra. I was met with severe resistance from two men in the group. Despite this, and after lengthy further discussions, I was able to persuade them that the analogy was at least the best I could manage in a tight time slot.
I was puzzled at some mysterious slippage that had intelligent Christians who appreciated good literature magnetized by works that were, well... warped. And that mysterious slippage seemed to keep cropping up at other times and circumstances.
Why the big deal? I will get to the Un-man's message in a moment, but for now let me say that little girls are
sexistway too romantic. And this beingsexistway too romantic motivates girls to want fairy tales, to want some knight in shining armor or some prince to sweep them off their feet. And seeing how thissexistdeeply romantic desire cannot easily be ground out of them, feminists have written their own fairy tales, but...
Read more of Un-man's Tales: C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, Fairy Tales, and Feminism.
This site is a showcase of creative works and writing by Christos Jonathan Seth Hayward that have been collected for a couple of decades. The sections of the site About (includes What's New?), Et Cetera, and an online library featuring Orthodox Books and More.
Orthodox Books and More: This collection includes Eastern Orthodox Christian theology, and literature. It is by far the largest section of this website, and possibly the most interesting.
The collection includes smaller sections of Orthodox theology, articles, assorted creations, journals, miscellaneous nonfiction, novels, Orthodox humor, satire, short stories, Socratic dialogue, and technology. If you're looking for a place to explore, why not begin with one of these links?
Books & eBooks: All the best works from this site are available in books and eBooks. And really, this is the kind of writing that works more nicely from a paperback or Kindle than the charming, romantic light of a fluorescent computer screen.
Et Cetera: A motley collection of artwork, games, humor, open source software, a role playing game, web services, and other miscellaneous works.
About: About the author Jonathan Hayward, and this site, which is his pride and joy. Includes a list of What's New?
As over a decade has gone by, Orthodox Books and More has grown to be much more than one section of the website among others. It has several sections of its own, and it has become the crowning jewel of the site, with a great many of its author's favorite works.
Years back, one friend, Cynthia, explained why she will never own a furry pet. An editor, her work often allows her to be in her apartment building during business hours, and when she walks through the halls, she hears so many whimperings, whinings, barks, and the like, every one of them saying, "Will you come in and be with me?"
Read more of In Celebration of Tribbles, posted Sunday May 17, 2015, the author's fortieth birthday.
This site represents a collection of thousands of pages over decades, and they have been on the web almost from the beginning. But however much they may be available on the web, they were meant to be curled up with.
There are many books drawn from this website, both in paperback and Kindle. Let's pick one example you might consider reading:
The Best of Jonathan's Corner
The Best of Jonathan's Corner collects the best this website has to offer—a hand-picked sampling, about 15% of the total—and brings it together in one volume.
If you buy one title from this site, you will almost certainly want this one.