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Joe Kessler

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Joe Kessler is currently reading

Danse Macabre

by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)

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Oct 16, 2026 08:38PM

Joe Kessler is currently reading

Doctor Who: Iceberg

by David Banks

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Oct 09, 2026 01:33PM

Joe Kessler is currently reading

The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia, #4)

by C.S. Lewis

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Joe Kessler said: " I'm not a big fan of the first half of this novel, in which the three protagonists -- a returning Eustace, his classmate Jill, and a rather miserable creature named Puddleglum -- are very nasty toward one another as they trek across the Narnian lands I'm not a big fan of the first half of this novel, in which the three protagonists -- a returning Eustace, his classmate Jill, and a rather miserable creature named Puddleglum -- are very nasty toward one another as they trek across the Narnian landscape. (Beyond just not being all that pleasant to read, it tends to undo a lot of our old hero's character development from the previous volume too.) But they grow more tender and loyal as the story unfolds, and the dark underworld at the end of their journey is a fascinating addition to our understanding of this realm. Really, one of the greatest strengths of the overall Narnia series is how each individual 'Chronicle' manages to stay connected with the others while practically reinventing the setting and the shape of the plot, so as to never rehash an earlier adventure.

As ever, the level of Christian allegory here can be pretty exclusionary; if you take as a metaphor for atheism the witch's taunts that Aslan and the sun aren't real because they can't be seen underground, anyone who similarly disbelieves will seem either wicked or foolish or both. Her torturous demand for the faithful to recant what they know in their hearts is also a fairly twisted version of the actual dynamic, which sees Christians persecuting and marginalizing the rest of the world far more than the opposite. But on the other hand, if you can manage to set all that subtext aside, the scene itself is a creepy display of gaslighting that is shockingly effective at demonstrating the antagonist's villainy.

It's ultimately hard not to be charmed by author C. S. Lewis, and there's some interesting thematic material that he likely hasn't intended but nevertheless feels quite welcoming to a queer reading of the text, from the children proclaiming that they've got to appear gay to their companion's insistence that he's a Marsh-wiggle and not a man. Those words may have carried different connotations back in 1953, but with a 21st-century perspective they invite a deeper consideration of gender than these books usually provide. Wrapped in a kidnapped-prince narrative that recalls fairy tales and ancient myths, this title is fun for all ages and proves that the writer still has plenty to say even without any of the original Pevensie siblings.

[Content warning for sexism, fatphobia, and alcohol abuse.]

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Jan 09, 2021 08:32PM · see review

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Joe’s Quotes

“The charitable say in effect, 'I seem to have more than I need and you seem to have less than you need. I would like to share my excess with you.' Fine, if my excess is tangible, money or goods, and fine if not, for I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

101 likes

“I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses.”
― Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

tags: metaphor, punctuation

1056 likes

“…the trouble with oaths of the form, death before dishonor, is that eventually, given enough time and abrasion, they separate the world into two sorts of people: the dead, and the forsworn.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign

tags: death, death-before-dishonor, in-the-end, inevitable, oaths, the-dead

32 likes

“I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow.”
― E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

tags: learning

177 likes

“Thomas Wolfe warned in the title of America’s great novel that ‘You Can’t Go Home Again.’ I enjoyed the book but I never agreed with the title. I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.

Home is that youthful region where a child is the only real living inhabitant. Parents, siblings, and neighbors, are mysterious apparitions, who come, go, and do strange unfathomable things in and around the child, the region’s only enfranchised citizen.
[…]

We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

tags: home, inspirational

39 likes

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