Ben Tobin Johnson's Blog, page 4

What You and Tolkien Might (One Day) Have in Common

I never met the man, sadly, but I bet J.R.R. Tolkien was not a big metalhead.

There are the obvious problems with timing; heavy metal as a distinct genre of music was still in its infancy when Tolkien died in 1973. He would have been around to sample the first forays from Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but he evidently wasn’t keen on The Beatles’ idea of adapting his works – thanks in part to “indescribable” sounds that came from a garage band on his street.

It might have come as quite a shock to him then, to discover that his works were a frequent wellspring of creative inspiration for practitioners of the genre since its earliest days.

There were initial homages from the aforementioned Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, though the latter was of course more prolific in finding Tolkien-spiration. Progressive rock acts like Rush and Camel threw their two-cents in here and there.

Black metal, getting its tentative start in the early 80s and rising to prominence with its infamous Second Wave, boasted an increasing number of artists in Tolkien’s debt. Varg Vikernes (who additionally went under the moniker Count Grishnackh) named his solo project Burzum, after the word in Black Speech for “darkness.” Gorgoroth took their name from the barren plateau in the northwest of Mordor. The album art for Emperor’s In the Nightside Eclipse featured a band of orcs returning to Minas Morgul.

Summoning – Old Mornings Dawn (2013)

Soon an entire subgenre of black metal emerged with Tolkien at its center; band names (Nazgul, Uruk-Hai), albums (Numenor, Valar), even entire discographies (Summoning, Rivendell, Emyn Muil) therein dedicated to the lore of Middle-earth.

The obsession wouldn’t be limited to black metal, either. Before long, the list of bands and albums paying tribute to Tolkien would stretch from Isengard to Cirith Ungol to Amon Amarth; from Battlelore to Blind Guardian to Cruachan to Nightwish and…

What does any of this have to do with becoming a better writer?

Tolkien’s impetus in creating Middle-earth was not to revolutionize literature. He wrote to explore what interested him; philology, religion, mythology. He set his works in fantastical re-imaginings of places he knew and loved. In short, he wrote the kinds of things he wanted to read.

This is the essence of what is meant by “finding your voice” as a writer. No amount of books on technique or story structure, however useful, can tell you how to cultivate your voice – not even mine! And unfortunately finding your voice doesn’t guarantee your work will be financially successful, resonate with your target audience, or even be necessarily good. All it guarantees is that your material will be uniquely, recognizably yours.

Why bother then? After all, poorly written books can still be maddeningly successful, and plenty of writers make a comfortable living without becoming a household name.

But to find and cultivate that special ingredient that sets your work apart could start a chain reaction of creativity that eventually gives birth to something that doesn’t even exist yet. Committing to your creative vision – for better or worse – could influence a generation that has yet to take its first breath.

Thanks to Tolkien’s creative authenticity (which, remember, wasn’t universally well-received at first), I revel in literature, video games, and genres of music that never would have entered his wildest dreams – yet never would have existed without them.

So find your voice, write the things you want to read, and commit to what makes your writing you-esque. It won’t necessarily summon your career. But, then again, it might establish a brand new art form in your honor.

Throwback Thursday a Day Late

As the title implies, this blog currently looks like I’m either still figuring it out or just bad at blogging in general. (Archer can probably shed some light here)

So while I’m in the “sputtering start” phase of things, I’d like to apprise you of a few relevant moments from the past.

The first is my previous blog: Random Reviews Diligently Drafted. I reviewed movies and albums, one book, and one video game. Sometimes a certain post would garner a lot of traffic thanks to a reblog or because the subject in question was particularly click-worthy, but it was largely unremarkable. I have mixed feelings about it; a number of the posts are pretty bad while a few others still induce a sense of creative pride. If you’re feeling adventurous, some of the better(ish) ones include my review of Disfiguring the Goddess’ Deprive & Black Earth Child, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and my rant-laden, devil’s advocate defense of Michael Bay.

From here, we trek further back in time to my college days and a few projects I internet-birthed “way back in the day,” as we said way back in the day. Like my previous blog, these clips evoke a mix of pride and embarrassment:

 

There’s the first (and only completed) episode of a web series called The Web, which featured personified websites as the main characters. Facebook and MySpace are a couple in a deteriorating relationship, Twitter is their daughter, Craigslist is eBay’s hippie son, AOL is the cranky old neighbor, that kind of thing. Honestly, I’m still pleased with the script itself, but I made a few rookie mistakes in audio and planning that resulted in a subpar end-product. I also underestimated the staying power of certain websites, so even at five years old the clip is badly dated. (Photobucket and Flickr are main characters…how old do you feel now?) The silver lining is Christian Hughes’ performance as Facebook, which I plan to shamelessly  exploit once he lands his first Comedy Central special.

 

Then there was this little gem I made with my younger brothers back when my family lived on the side of a mountain in Montana. Filmed entirely on a crappy little Droid Eris, it was meant as an exercise in visual storytelling and I don’t mind saying it mostly succeeds (even if my youngest brother, Michael, makes for a rather fidgety dead guy). Plus it was just a fun way to spend an afternoon over my Christmas break that year.

 

Finally, the one I’m really proud of is a music video I made for Mass Effect 2 featuring a song I wrote and recorded. Its main weaknesses are the resolution and frame rate; the software I used to capture the footage was cheap in every sense of the word. But it ended up getting re-posted by the BioWare Facebook page several years ago and consequently has a decent number of views. So if you’re out there, Erika Kristine, I still owe you…I dunno, something for the momentary spotlight! The music isn’t on iTunes or Spotify any more, but feel free to email me for a copy of the mp3 if you’re interested.

And that’s all for the first official post!
Now that the obligatory memory-lane trip is out of the way, we’ll get on with the business of actual blogging in the days, weeks, and (hopefully) years to come.

Witty Title (w/ Wry Paranthetical)

In the beginning…

Opening rhetorical question?

Self-deprecating answer; elaborating independent clause.

Navel-gazing follow up commentary on society. Segue into the effects of social media on interpersonal relationships. Confessions of guilty social media pleasures replete with paraphrased witticisms. Relevant colloquial phrases like of course, of course. Circle back around to opening rhetorical question?

Insightful answer, at long last! Thoughtful, slightly manipulative pause.

By-the-numbers explanation of blog’s future; occasional nods to procrastination.

Ham-handed attempts at self-awareness throughout.

…the end.