Front Porch Republic editor Jeff Bilbro sits down with Joe Loconte of The King’s College for a spirited discussion of the book-turned-film A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War.  Bonded by war and steeled by friendship, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien produced works of fantasy that have guided us back to reality.      

Highlights

1:30    Loconte’s Italian immigrant family

4:00    Bleak poet learns to love goodness

7:45    Myth, not just for escapism anymore

9:30    Joe finds Frodo in his 40s

11:30  Lewis finds MacDonald on a train

13:45  Beowulf, Aeneas, and the hero who faces failure

19:00  Pagans love Christian realism

21:00  A letter to Owen Barfield

24:30  Band of Icelandic brothers

27:15  Behind the scenes

33:00  War, friendship, and imagination

36:00  Courage is key

37:15  Creative friendship, pursued deliberately

Resources

Buy the book

See the trailer

Get to know Joe

Thanks as always to Wendell Kimbrough

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John Murdock
John Murdock is an attorney and globetrotting localist who worked for over a decade in Washington, D.C.; left the Capital Beltway to write from a family farmhouse deep in the heart of the Lone Star state; taught law in South Korea; and then rode the housing waves of Boise. In 2023, John left the crisp dry air of Idaho and returned to the stifling humidity of his native east Texas. His writing is catalogued at johnmurdock.org.