Happy 116th Birthday to Tolkien: photos, letter #328, and a reflection.

Jan 03, 2008 15:15

~*~

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
January 3, 1892 ~ September 2, 1973


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tolkien's birthday, fan fiction, tolkien, lotr, frodo

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Comments 55

shirebound January 3 2008, 21:34:43 UTC
I love that picture with J.R.R. and his son. What a dear moment.

I'm in awe of the enormity of the fan art (fiction, sculpture, paintings, music, dance, etc.) that has emanated from the original. I believe that most of us expand on the Professor's vision with respect and love, and do our best to allow that same light the space to emanate for other eyes to see, hear, touch, feel... Perhaps LOTR is the phial, and we are the hands that hold it up and pass it along.

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mechtild January 4 2008, 00:49:39 UTC
I believe that most of us expand on the Professor's vision with respect and love, and do our best to allow that same light the space to emanate for other eyes to see, hear, touch, feel... Perhaps LOTR is the phial, and we are the hands that hold it up and pass it along.

Gosh, Shirebound, that's beautiful. "We are the hands that hold [the phial] up and pass it along." I love that!

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mithluin January 3 2008, 21:50:33 UTC
Thank you for reminding me! I had already planned to watch RotK with my brother tonight, and now it seems quite fitting to do so, as it's the professor's birthday ( ... )

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mechtild January 4 2008, 00:56:39 UTC
Mithluin, are you the Mithluin who used to post at TORc (and, perhaps, still does)? I thought your comments were always interesting, if so.

This made me laugh:

I could see "But all the fools are not in the other camp," applying to some fanfic stories I have read ;).

Perhaps that's how I should look at fic that I think has taken the Professor's child and thrashed it black and blue. It's not that they are doing it out of malice, they are merely benighted.

Or maybe I should apply it to my own stuff: "She really loves the Professor and his work, in spite of the appalling tripe she writes."

In any case, your post makes me feel more merciful, towards myself as well as others. As you say,

None of us write [in] such a way that our work would be mistaken for Tolkien's, and so we are all of us doing something different from what he did. But I think that many fans of LotR have captured that sense of hope, and put it into their own stories, and that is A Good Thing, I think.

I wish that to be so.

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mithluin January 4 2008, 05:19:13 UTC
Yep, I'm MithLuin from TORc. I still post there, and remember your monster posts about Frodo fondly. I am fairly new to livejoural; I joined this past summer, and am still learning my way around.

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mechtild January 4 2008, 14:15:02 UTC
Well, then, I must have seen your post there on my last lurk. I haven't opened the site for ages, but Lembas Junkie sent me an email to let me know people were beginning to talk about The Hobbit. I browsed the threads and must have seen a post by you. I am not very emotionally invested in "The Hobbit" as a book, so it's difficult to imagine getting the same level of intellectual excitement going for it as I did for LotR, yet I would love to see a good film (films?) made of it if one is being made. So I may be back.

I feel as though I've seen your LJ icon somewhere esle, though. I am betting it was in Pearl's LJ, since people from TORc post there off and on. Was it in the Harry Potter (Snape's role in the story) discussion?

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rakshi January 3 2008, 22:09:45 UTC
As always, the gifts you bring stagger me with their rich meaning... and the gift of your thoughts not least among these.

Thank you. I hope your new year is bright and beautiful.

Love...

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mechtild January 4 2008, 00:57:45 UTC
Thank you, Rakshi, you are gracious, as always. I appreciate it. Happy New Year to you!

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hobbitlove83 January 3 2008, 23:33:11 UTC
Thank you, darling Mechtild!!

And bless the professor-
may he live in our memories forever and ever!!!

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mechtild January 4 2008, 01:11:41 UTC
We owe him so much happiness and inspiration. I really am humbled by it. Thanks for posting!

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mechtild January 4 2008, 01:15:19 UTC
Shirebound is Janet, right? If so, she wrote some beautiful stuff up there, you're right. Your own love for Tolkien is evident in your every LotR-related post, Mews. I could see it in the fanfic I read and reviewed last year for MEFA. You must be a long-time reader, and a fan of long-standing. Your dedication to his secondary world, I am guessing, won't be going away any time soon. :)

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