Happy [Belated] Birthday, Tolkien!

[dawn_felagund]

I am a day late on my toast because, as circumstance would have it, I was busy at work yesterday and then busy in my free time finishing up the SWG newsletter. While evidence of my membership in the "deplorable cult" would likely not please Tolkien were he alive to know my reasons for being late, I wish him a happy belated birthday nonetheless,

Comments

[heartofoshun]

I really appreciate your remarks. I have written and edited my entire adult life for a living and endured some fairly rigorous training in literature as a student, but never would have tried fiction without Tolkien.

I had never heard of fan fiction, although I was a decades-long Tolkien geek, until after the movies. My friend Gandalf's Apprentice told me she was writing Tolkien fan fiction--OMG! I was lost! I read a mountain of the good, the bad, and the ugly over the next three months and was ready to write the epic Tolkien novel from my heretic's POV. (I still am! Hope springs eternal!)

I always assumed you had been reading Tolkien from childhood. I forced it down my kids' throats. They took it nicely and share my love. The PJ movies were an annual family event for us, as were the CDs if the extended versions when they came out. Alex is the third generation, starting with his mama reading him The Hobbit and now seeing The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey he calls it in a very self-important voice. So far he has only seen The

[dawn_felagund]

I always assumed you had been reading Tolkien from childhood.

I didn't grow up in a family of readers. My mom took me to the library each week, but I was sort of left adrift to find and try things on my own. I usually picked based on subject; I read anything with a horse in it, for example. Had I picked up TH or LotR as a book read for fun and not a schoolbook, then I probably would have gotten into them sooner. It took me until The Scarlet Letter in 11th grade to realize that one was allowed to enjoy the books one read in school! :) But there was no adult in my life either to even know who Tolkien was much less recommend his books to me

[aliana1]

I also came to Tolkien's work through the movies, though I actually did read the books before, because my charmingly pushy friend told me that I "had to" read the books so I could go to the midnight premiere with her. I came in fully prepared to not like them, but like you, I was fortunately won over.

I'm so glad that Tolkien's work has provided you with a richer and more fun experience in your creative and writing life, as has certainly happened with me.

To the Professor! (You are so lovely btw! I like your necklace.)

[dawn_felagund]

I didn't pick up the books until just before RotK. My inlaws got me a huge volume of the entire trilogy for my birthday in September, and I decided I would have the book read before seeing the third movie. Of course, reading the books was what rocketed me from a fan of the movies into genuine membership in the deplorable cult! :D

Thank you for the compliment! I feel it's high praise for a webcam picture taken at work on a Friday after I stayed up too late the night before. ;) The necklace, believe it or not, came from a theme park! I spotted it in one of those overpriced shops near the entrance and fell in love. Like any good Noldo, I love me my jewelry. ;)

[wheelrider]

Funny, I know several people IRL who wanted to see the movies when they first came out, and read the books in more or less of a hurry beforehand... must be a common path!

[wheelrider]

Every now and then, a comment surfaces about how we waste our time because we can't publish or make money on our work, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

So true. I realized early on, mostly with music, that pursuing payment for your work is more or less a trap. There's so much more freedom in doing it for love. (If someone hands you money for it later, well then, bonus!)

And I joked with Huinárë about how writing "silly things" instead of what you're supposed to be writing is productive, because it gets your creative juices flowing -- but it's true! I feel like I'm more inspired in my job because of being able to write things for this deplorable cult.

[dawn_felagund]

And the sad fact is that the majority of us who practice various arts will never make anything close to a living with what we do. A few years ago, I had a short story accepted into an anthology, and I excitedly told my husband that we'd go to dinner with the payment. Except that the payment was so small that I had to revise that to: "Okay, we'll order a decent bottle of wine." ;) When I think of the hours I put into that story, I really didn't make anything to speak of on it.

So, honestly, having fun with a story--writing it and maybe sharing it later--is more valuable to me. Every now and then I get motivated and send one of my original pieces out to a magazine, but that ends up being maybe once per year, if that. It's time-consuming to prep a story for that and almost inevitably disappointing, so it's hard to justify spending the time on it at this juncture in my life.

[wheelrider]

OK, so, I'm a magazine editor, and I have to say at this point that "having fun with a story--writing it and maybe sharing it later" is also more valuable to me, in choosing articles. The best stuff comes from people who are inspired, not from people who are trying to wring out a living from our publication (and all our competitors), even in fact-based nonfiction.

Sadly, this type of thinking doesn't pay as well with advertisers, either, and so we can't afford to pay much to contributors. But hopefully that's a nugget of encouragement to you.

[rhapsody11]

I don't know how I managed to do this, but I completely forgot about this *grin*

*raises her cup of tea, belatedly*

[huinare]

Great post (and great necklace, too). I also came to Tolkien through the movies originally, and found the books slow going at first, but eventually I came to appreciate them on their own merits. And eventually read the Sil, then parts of the more obscure canon, and then I finally found that there were other people writing the type of fic I try to write/read, and now this awesome community is part of my life. ^_^

To the Professor!