I started reading On Fairy Stories again, and I don't know why it never occurred to me before that the concept of "alien" and "elf" overlap.  The way Tolkien talks about Faerie and its inhabitants is not unlike some portrayals of aliens; the species removed from our own, with its own morality and interests, possessing powers we don't have and don't ( Read more... )

Hope y'all had as good a Thanksgiving as I did.  Laid back as usual, and fun.  In keeping with my parents' wedding anniversary, Mom had the relevant photo album out.  Which meant a nostalgia fest for Aunt Beth (who was only dating Dad's brother at the time, but as a friend of Mom's, was therefore involved).  The spread for the meal proper was ( Read more... )

Another observation about Tolkien's writing that I hadn't made before: he uses small words.  Seriously, for all that he was a philologist, and can lapse into an old and high form of English when the story calls for it, he doesn't bother with the long and flowery even in his most evocative descriptions.  Though he takes longer than, say, C.S. Lewis ( Read more... )

You guys, Pauline Baynes passed away.  If you know who that is.  She was the illustrator for C.S. Lewis' Narnia books and several of Tolkien's stories (including Farmer Giles of Ham).  Her illustrated map of Narnia is famous.  One of my childhood memories is when my dad would read us The Chronicles of Narnia before we went to bed, and we'd always ( Read more... )

Y'know, sitting in my room on my bed with a fuzzy blanket, a cup of tea, The Hobbit, and a good CD is a splendid way to get my creativity going.  And is also very calming.  Though I can't seem to finish the tea before it goes cold.

But I was thinking about the mundane and the fantastic.  ( And how they live side-by-side. )

Yesterday I was reading quotes from LotR (books, not movies, I don't quote the movies), and I'm sitting there thinking, man that's good language. It's like, every once in awhile I forget why I am first and foremost a Tolkien fan, and then I go back and read bits and say, "Oh yeah! That's why!"

That book is hardwired into my brain. Really. I ( Read more... )

I have not been so taken with a fictional universe in quite a long time, but I'm totally gorging on Stargate at the moment. It really hasn't been this bad since I first got hooked on Harry Potter. I just want to keep watching episodes and stuff. I'd dip my toe into fanfiction, except I don't know any good sites or have heard much in the way of ( Read more... )