John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 12

The Cat Report (Sept 15th)

 So, there's been a complete turnover in the cats in the Renton cat room since this time last week. Farewell to ROCKET, our skilled walking cat, and ANA his sister (who desperately wanted out of the room to explore the store but cd never bear to have harness or even collar-and-leash in-room on her). 

 Today we were expecting to find two adult cats and five kittens: JOHNNY (orange two-year-old) and SEAN (Siamese) with the younger generation: SHERBET, MOUSSE, SORBET, BROWNIE, and S'MORES (all four-and-a-half month old kittens). I got these thoroughly confused in my head, not to mention this report, as to who was who.

One kitten, a white calico, was already adopted and gone without our ever seeing her. Sean, the other adult cat (not sure his age, but assuming it was about the same as Johnny's , i.e. two years) was also off to his new home.

Johnny was terribly shy. We tried letting him out first, made cat burritos, tried to interest him in games, and generally give him some socialization, with little success. Looking at his paperwork it sounds like he was originally a stray, and he acts like one when forced into a situation outside his own territory where he doesn't know where he is or what's going to happen to him. There was a lot of defensive growling but no nips or swats. And no games; he just wasn't interested.

Janice rigged up a cat-blanket around three sides of Johnny's cage to give him a little privacy and Safe Place. We also sprayed down his cage with some Feliway. I shd mention that he was sitting in his dirt box when we arrived and under his small in-cage kuranda when we left, which counts as some progress. And while he was on his own he got an impressive amount of his cat-litter scooped out of his dirt box and onto the floors of both parts of his cage. He's learned how to get under the cat litter cupboard in the corner, which is pretty impressive given his size.  

Well, it turns out the kittens must have been watching from their cage from the far end of the room, since three of the four of them got under there today despite our efforts to block it up.

When it was the kittens' turn they made the most of it. One seemed less energetic than the rest and a touch shyer too, and retreated to the topmost shelf of their tall cage, coming down to join in games once in a while when a game attracted his attention. The other three played pretty much non-stop for their entire turn (about an hour and a half).    

And before I forget to put this down: the little orange kitten several times engaged in defensive purring. It was adorable.

--John R.

Dunsany Question #1

So, in my dissertation I made large claims to Dunsany's importance --not just that he was hugely influential (both directly in his own time and secondarily through writers he influenced like Lovecraft and Tolkien) but his work deserves high praise in its own right.

The question arises: if Dunsany is the best of the best when it comes to the fantasy short story in English, who are his peers or near-peers?

--John R.

Time for a New Project

 So, now that my presentation at Oxonmoot is behind me, and I've had a little down time for reading and straightening up the desk a bit, it's time to dig in on the next project(s). 

One (CLASSICS OF FANTASY) is essentially done, though I don't know how long until it's done with.

The other, which I started work on today, is to convert my dissertation into a monograph: BEYOND THE FIELDS WE KNOW: THE SHORT STORIES OF LORD DUNSANY. Here my first task is to re-familiarize myself with the text. Next comes the process of catching up on new Dunsany scholarship from the intervening years (my first impression: there's surprisingly little of it). Then to incorporate the newer material into the older core.  It'll be a lot of work, but to get to work again on a major project centered on one of my favorite authors is something I'm really looking forward to.

So, we'll see how it goes.

--John R.

--current (re)reading: THE BOATS OF THE 'GLEN CARRIG' by Wm Hope Hodgson*

*an author whose work I was introduced to by my friend Jim Pietrusz, who bought (and read) books at a prodigious rate.

Tolkien Fifty Years On

 So, thanks to Janna S. for the following link, a thoughtful musing over Tolkien fifty years after his death. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/opinion/jrr-tolkien.html

As someone who's been reading smug snippy pieces attacking Tolkien by newspaper and magazine critics on occasions of significance to JRRT for decades now,* it feels slightly unreal, though welcome, to see the tone being oddly respectful. 

--John R.

*notoriously in the case of the 'Author of the Century' polls

Nerd Nyron

 So, while we're waiting for the recordings of my various Oxonmoot presentations to become available, I thought I'd share the Coda that wrapped up my piece.

Finally, we have a short text, written by Dr. Havard at the request of Taum Santoski

and named by him  "Professor J. R. R. Tolkien: A Personal Memoir". More a short collection of memories than a full-length article (it fills but a single page of Mythlore), it ends with the baffling statement

 

 

"In conclusion,

 I would add that my experience

has resembled or echoed Nerd Nyren's, 

who woke up one day, he tells us, 

to find himself famous. I woke up one day 

to find two of my friends famous,

in many ways a happier discovery."

 

[Mythlore volume 64 (winter 1990), page 61]

 

Most of this is clear enough, but what of 'Nerd Nyron'? This little puzzle results from a literary allusion combined with a simple typo. What Havard had actually written was I woke, and found myself famous. This is the famous line of Lord Byron's reflecting his delight at waking up to find himself famous as a result of the runaway success of his new book, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812ff). I myself find Havard's handwriting difficult: apparently Glen GoodKnight, the editor of Mythlore, found it impenetrable. 

—John D. Rateliff

 

Oxonmoot 2023 

I Wander from Room to Room

So, my talk went well. Neither Dr. Tarr nor Professor Fether put in an appearance. Now I'm decompressing: catching up on email, jotting down notes of things that came up during the actual delivery, awaiting the chance to find out what people said in the Q&A, and the like. Soon I'll be getting the materials from this project filed away, to clear the deck for the next project.  

But for now it's do a lot of reading and pace about the place, sipping many cups of tea* and petting the cats even more than usual (who are vaguely suspicious of any change in behavior) while recharging and to enjoy the rare feeling of being off deadline.

--John R.

--current (re) reading: THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLANDS by Wm Hope Hodgson. My fourth time reading it, I think: this time as a mix of audiobook and hardcover. 

*Yunnan, mostly; some Keemun

Last Full Day of Oxonmoot

So, today I gave my keynote speech at Oxonmoot 2023, "Writing to Inklings", in which I presented letters and excerpts from letters in which various members of the Inklings and other, 'Inkling Adjacent' folks, discuss the group (e,g. when they started meeting, what other groups influenced them, books they liked and disliked). It seemed to go down well --at least I got a lot of positive comments posted in their online Zoom meeting's CHAT. Hope I'll have a chance to look at that to get some idea of who was in the audience and what questions they had. It all goes by so fast when you're doing the Q&A.

Tomorrow, the last day of the Moot, features the pilgrimage to JRRT's grave -- appropriately enough: I had forgotten, but today marks the anniversary of J.R.R.T.'s death (in 1973). 

More tomorrow.

--John R.

Putting the Pieces Together

 So, not much posting here on the blog these last few days because I'm now in the final stretch with the Oxonmoot presentation on Saturday. I'm now going through and making what shd be final changes: lots of small adjustments here and there, smoothing over places where a paragraph here or a phrase there had to go. Then it's putting markers in the text so the tech people know when each slide image shd be displayed. Last of all comes the third run-through, timed, to make sure it'll all fit into the time allotted. It's going well, but Saturday's not far away, so here's hoping things go planned.

--John R.

--current reading: Wm Hope Hodgson, 'The Derelict'  

We have a Draft

 So, the past few days have seen the completion of a rough draft for my Oxonmoot piece.

Now things have advanced to the stage where I'm thinking of it as a first draft.

The focus shifts now to practicing the delivery, to see if it'll all fit in to the time alotted,

and picking out the images that shd be displayed during the power point presentation.

I made a lot of progress with the images yesterday and today. Given that the draft runs a bit over nine thousand words and I have fifty minutes for the delivery (followed by a ten minute Q&A), creating a deliverable text  so I can practice delivering it comes next.

So, a lot of work to do but things look to be on-target a week out. Here's hoping they remain that way.

--John R.

THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD, fifty years gone

So, Tor Books has announced a new, fiftieth anniversary edition of Patricia McKillip's masterpiece, THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD.

I consider this one of the greatest works of fantasy literature. If I had a top ten list, this wd be on it. Not as well known as the Riddlemaster trilogy, but far better. 

Here's the announcement from Tor.

https://www.tor.com/2023/08/03/cover-reveal-the-forgotten-beasts-of-eld-50th-anniversary-edition-patricia-mckillip/?fbclid=IwAR1AOmGIUpSyd-qfZ21pqm7t3uETs0EZv8fxjJJkknpvPx-2NcePeMvBIZY 

And here's the write-up I did of it for CLASSICS OF FANTASY, more than a decade ago now:

http://www.isegoria.net/2012/02/the-forgotten-beasts-of-eld/

--John R.