Wbh Digest 2025-01-03: Welcome To The Party Pal

Welcome to 2025! When I started my commentary on Northrop Frye's The Anatomy of Criticism, I thought to myself that I could write about it for a year at least. That has absolutely come true, with the first post coming just over a year ago now, and I'm only just now getting to the end of the second of four essays in that relatively short book.

As I move into 2025, one of the things I will be pondering is how to continue to manage the disparate streams here at With Both Hands, which combines the John J. Reilly Re-posting Project, my own book criticism, and explication of Northrop Frye.

I had known that Canada used to have a proud martial tradition, but I hadn't seen it put together in such a striking fashion as on the pseudonymous John Carter's Substack. I hope that my northern brothers are able to find themselves again.

This 2025 reading list is spectacular. I've read about a third of these books, with many of the rest already being of interest to me.

One of the themes that I wish to develop in 2025 is a better argument for why adventure fiction is culturally important. Adventure fiction is low art, and it should be low art, but it is a mistake to dismiss or denigrate this kind of art because of that.

The real definition of science fiction is not the genre that deals with the social consequences of physical science, but the genre that deals with theological questions in an age which, officially, has little use for theology.
--Thomas Bertonneau, Monstrous Theologies: The Theme of Anti-Sacrifice in the Sci-Fi Pulps

Frieren and Dungeon Meshi: Beyond Romance’s End

The society emerging at the conclusion of comedy represents, by contrast, a kind of moral norm, or pragmatically free society. Its ideals are seldom defined or formulated: definition and formulation belong to the humors, who want predictable activity. We are simply given to understand that the newly-married couple will live

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen

Extending the form of the adventure story is an important part of recapturing its magic.

Several important D&D books have come out recently, including On Wine Dark Sea by Daniel J. Davis/Brain Leakage. This book shows to get a campaign rolling in the aftermath of the Trojan War.

Stephen P. Smith/World of Weirth offers us The Wargame Paradigm. I'll let Stephen describe this zine:

This zine contains what I believe are the most important Substack essays on the results of my research into how the games known as Blackmoor and Greyhawk were played. This is the culmination of over three years of research into old wargaming rules, studying old newsletters and zines, and building on the research of historians like Jon Peterson and Dan Boggs.

Last but definitely not least is Brozer: Island of War and Winter, which shows you how to run your own Braunstein-style event, a long-forgotten bit of D&D history that turbocharges campaigns.

Letter to a Lonely-Hearted Zoomer

Can I give better dating advice than the Boomers? Maybe not.

Letters from Fiddler's GreeneDave Greene

As a married Gen Y man, I am sympathetic to the plight of younger generations who seem unable to successfully find people they want to marry. From my older guy perspective, this seems like decent advice.

Northrop Frye on Symbol as Archetype: The Mythical Phase

With my recent comparison of two D&D-inspired anime using a method of genre analysis, this is a good time to get into Northrop Frye’s fourth phase of interpretation, the mythical phase. In the mythical phase, we will interpret literary symbols as archetypes. This phase of interpretation speaks deeply to

With Both HandsBenjamin Espen

The basics of the genre analysis I did on Frieren and Dungeon Meshi can be found in this commentary. I think a deeper dive on genres might be in order.

Happy New Year!