TJ West

Who’s That Lady?: Women’s Historical Fiction and the Writing of Female Subjectivity

Originally posted on Metathesis: If you type the search term “women’s historical fiction” into Amazon, you…
The Exquisite Queerness of Jackson’s “The Hobbit”

It is no secret that we queers have always had an appreciation and an adoration of…
Rude Wastes of Space: Race, Class, and the Othering of the British Hoodie

Originally posted on Metathesis: One of the more interesting parts of writing my dissertation so far…
Has the Historical Epic Lost Its Relevance?

The historical/biblical epic seems to be in something of a crisis. Both Darren Aronovsky’s Noah and Ridley Scott’s Exodus:…
Are Tolkien’s Orcs Really THAT Evil?

In the moral universe Tolkien created, good and evil, at least on the surface, appear fairly…
Christmas Classics: “The Muppet Christmas Carol”

As most of you no doubt already know, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has been, to…
The Hobbit as a Living Text: The Battle of 5 Blogs

A Pilgrim in Narnia This post is part of the Battle of the Five Blogs, or…
Why I’m Not a Tolkien Purist

We Tolkien fans are, not surprisingly, a very diverse group. There are those of us, for…
Nightcrawler: Not the Satire You Think It Is (20 Dec)

Originally posted on Metathesis: On its most basic level, Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014) is a heavy-handed…
Review: “Exodus: Gods and Kings”

Enjoyable epic fare, but not as compelling as it could have been. This was supposed to…