The more things change the more they don't

[bellatrys]

It is something of a blog tradition with me to post on this anniversary one of the two things we actually have of St. Patrick that aren't accretions, aren't legends merely - the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, a British Christian king or warleader of fifteen-hundred-plus years back who didn't let that stuff in the Gospels about living and

Comments

[randwolf]

"The world isn't falling - it's turning."

Just wanted to admire this sentence.

[acaciaonnastik]

Oh, man- I remember watching the Daily Show interview with the guy who wrote that. The undisguised elitism was mind-boggling. I think Jon owned him pretty well at one point, but I can't recall.

Maybe it's on YouTube. ^_~

[anonymous]

Okay, this a weird one for you. Not relevant to this post, but I wanted to ask.

You wrote an essay once concerning Tolkien's writing that I looked at and for various reasons would like to look at again. Unfortunately, the _only_ sentence that comes to mind is the phrase "Arda is Arda Marred." Not the title or even the theis of the essay come to mind. Does that ring any bells? I suppose it might not've been written by you but I'm damn near positive it was.

[sajia]

It sounds like it might be the essay responding hostilely to the Middlearth/"Those who leave Omelas" fanfic some professional fantasy writer posted on Livejournal years ago. I forget the exact point of contention, but I do remember the fanfic was linked to by Deiseach.

Since it obviously happened longer than ten minutes ago

[deiseach]

I've forgotten all about it, though some dim notions are swimming up from the murky depths of the back of my head. Wasn't it some idiot writing up a 'let's all skip off to Valinor la, la, la and all that went before will be forgotten and all in Valmar and Tirion is happy, happy, joy, joy! because of course there were no such things as the Rebellion of the Noldor or the Kinslaying, nevermind the Halls of Mandos being chock-full of dead Elves from several millenia worth of fighting and dying in Middle-Earth, and thus nobody is one teensy bit traumatised or needing to heal and the poor sods left behind still fighting and dying - pah! what care we, as we wreath ourselves with roses and fill the winecup? and of course this story is by no means to be taken as prima facie evidence of me Not Having The Foggiest about what Tolkien *actually* wrote'.

Something vaguely along those lines, which made me want to choke the perpetrator with his/her/its own intestines?

Re: Since it obviously happened longer than ten minutes ago

[sajia]

Sounds exactly like it. Although I stayed out of that fight, because I hadn't read LOTR in 10 years and never managed to get into the Silmarillion.

[fledgist]

I concur with randwolf, that's a wonderful aphorism.

From Istanbul to Japan

[deiseach]

"http://www.embassy-avenue.jp/ireland/spirit/profile_eng.html... )