Browsing by Author "Thompson, William"
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Item Cutting into the abyss: the subtle knife as the pharmakon in Pullman's His Dark Materials(2013) Blomquist, Gregory; Thompson, William; Wiznura, RobThe Subtle Knife as the Pharmakon in Pullman's His Dark Materials In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, the subtle knife (or Æsahættr, literally meaning "god-destroyer") is the most significant of the trilogy's three central instruments. It is both a tool and a weapon, a device which is capable of revealing the abyssal void between the parallel universes that combine to form Pullman's multiverse; and capable of repairing the damage done by the all-consuming nothingness it exposes. Almost counter-intuitive in nature, the tool aspect of the knife creates the negative consequences of its use, whereas the weapon aspect of the knife comes to signify the positive consequences of its use. Having the potential for both good and evil, construction and destruction, I argue the subtle knife is the pharmakon of Pullman's trilogy. Originally a term referred to by Jacques Derrida, the pharmakon is a paradoxical aspect of being both the poison and the cure, or a dissembler of binaries. The pharmakon does not represent evil anymore than it represents good; it is purely neutral and thus a neutralizing agent. [Honours thesis]Item Dreaming of snow(2022) Thompson, WilliamAll day the snow falls, dropping down in great white flakes that gather themselves into clinging crystalline shapes that vanish as they kiss the ground. The air is alive and thick with falling snow. He sits and watches the gathering whiteness. The snow falls and falls. It obliterates the green of pines and the brown of branches. He watches: the whiteness of the air; the whiteness of the ground. The whiteness of the whale? — summer days, reading Melville, far from now. The drift of snow at the edge of the yard is the breeching back of a white leviathan — exploding into the frozen air to swim this sea of snow.Item Felix(2021) Thompson, WilliamFelix isn't your typical national park employee. He's a bear with a drinking problem. Editor’s Note: This piece of magical realism by William Thompson is the third installment in the Parks and Profit series, which explores the complex relationship between profit and parks historically and in present-day. The story of Felix speaks to the critical tension between preservation and providing “a good show” for tourists in national parks that negatively affects bears, like Bear 148, and other wildlife.Item The mood of the Golden Age: paganism, ecotheology and the Wild Woods in L .M. Montgomery's Anne and Emily series(2016) Thompson, William; Blair, KirstieThis article discusses the intersection of pagan and Christian allusions in Montgomery’s depiction of her heroines’ love of nature, contextualising these within the renewed interest in paganism in early twentieth-century literature and concentrating particularly on discussions of trees and woods in the Anne and Emily series. It suggests that the attitudes towards nature and God displayed in these works anticipate themes in current ecotheological discourse.Item On standing in line(2021) Thompson, WilliamPre-COVID, lines were hard. Now that COVID determines how we interact, how we assemble, how we negotiate public spaces, I’m more lost than ever. But COVID doesn’t consider age, sex, gender, ethnicity, or anything else. And it doesn’t care that I’m blind. And it doesn’t care how it affects my life.Item The shack(2021) Thompson, WilliamI met our paper boy on a September day after school. There he was, Terry, a sullen, bespectacled teenager, crouching at the corner of the street and using a pocketknife to cut open a bundle. I don’t know what came over me, but I asked if he needed a helper – a bold move for me at the time.Item The touch of water(20??) Thompson, WilliamIt was his right foot, at first. He noticed it at the top of the stairs—the cold touch of water. He swore. He hated wet socks. He looked down, but nothing was there—no water, no wet sock. He wriggled his toes experimentally. They felt clammy. He reached down to touch his woolen sock. Dry.Item Transformative girlhood and twenty-first-century girldom in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables(2022) Thompson, WilliamFrom Jane Austen to contemporary fanfiction and adaptations, literary portrayals of the child and imaginings of childhood are particularly telling indicators of cultural values and when they shift. Inspired by the responsive reading practices of L.M. Montgomery herself, those demonstrated by her characters and her diverse readership, Children and Childhoods in L.M. Montgomery works with concepts of confluence, based on organic, non-linear readings of texts across time and space. Such readings reconsider views of childhood and children by challenging power hierarchies and inequities found in approaches that privilege more linear readings of literary influence. While acknowledging differences between childhood and adulthood, contributors emphasize kinship between child and adult as well as between past and present selves and use both scholarly approaches and creative reimagining to explore how the boundaries between different stages of life are blurred in Montgomery's writing. Children and Childhoods in L.M. Montgomery addresses Montgomery's challenges to prescribed assumptions about childhood, while positioning her novels as essential texts in twenty-first century literary, childhood, and youth studies.