John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 5

My Favorite Twain Quote

So, here's a picture of me sharing a bench with one of my favorite writers, taken during our recent visit to Fairhaven.*

"And then, to add insult to injury, they threw me over the Falls, and I got wet."
 --Mark Twain, A Day at Niagara

*photo courtesy Janice C

Making Tolkien into All Things for All People

 So, thanks to friend Andrew for sharing this link to a recent article in the Boston Globe. Alex Beam, the author, does a good job looking at a phenomenon that's been going on for decades but seems to be growing even larger in these tribal times: projecting onto Tolkien's work beliefs important to the modern-day reader.  Or, as Beam so aptly puts it, "LOTR is like a mirror in which critics see themselves".

In a sense this is commonplace in literature. It can even be argued that the boundary line between fiction and literature is the latter's ability to move or influence a reader, even when long stretches of time separate author and reader.

"LOTR is a work of literature, not propaganda. It belongs to no faction or ideology, despite fans' and critics' insistence on shaping it to their will"
To give Beam credit, it's not everyone who writes on Tolkien who can make a casual reference to Numenorean king ar-Gimilzor and get it right. Would that more of those who write magazine or newspaper articles on Tolkien met this standard.
--John R.

Mr. Taphouse

So, here's a sample entry in Philip Pullman's intriguing little book THE IMAGINATION CHAMBER I wanted to share. I've broken up the lines to make for easier reading. --JDR

 

 

   Mr Taphouse said one day as he ran his hand 

over a freshly-planed length of oak:

"Feel that, boy, feel how old that is," Malcolm tried,

 but all he could actually feel was the glassy smoothness

 of the bare surface. 

 

 So he imagined it: acorn, sapling, mature tree, 

a mighty canopy in the summer and a gaunt skeleton

 in winter. From then on whenever Malcolm had 

a piece of oak in his hands, or walnut, or even 

simple honest pine, he liked to think of the tree it had been. 

 

He liked to feel the immense age of it, visible 

in the growth rings, and the past of it, and the 

future too, as he thought of the acorns and walnuts

 and pine cones. He imagined it. He pretended 

he could see it. 

 

From somewhere he remembered the expression 

"the mind's eye". He imagined it, and thus he came

to see it, every time, until it became second nature . . . 

 

 

—The Imagination Chamber. Philip Pullman (2022). page 21

 

 

--John R.

 

Cat Report

I’m a little late getting this posted, but so it goes.

Cat ROOM.  June 28th    Two o'clock Friday

 

'starved we are Precious, yes.'

 

Still five cats (and the same five) as last week: 

MAVERICK & GOOSE, 

SMOKEY & JACK

and JANE MARIE (our semi-seniors)

 

They ate as if not fed since day before, and this seems to have been the case.

So after they gave due attention to their food bowls they wanted out and wanted attention. 

 

We had many viewers. Janice shared information to several about volunteering.

 

As for the individual cats,

JANE MARIE wanted OUT.  And Attention. And Games, esp crinkly paper and string. She and I were buddies today, and spent a lot of time together.  She let me know the string game met with her demanding standards. I'd say she has an ounce of pounce for every pound of cat.

 

 

SMOKEY AND JACK.

Our young and lively pair liked the string game and also as much of the crinkly as they had time with. Smokey bites paper (some cats do, but it's fairly rare). Late in the shift, Smokey and Jack showed great enthusiasm for the laser pointer.

 

 

misc

 

Jane (and Jack) showing an interest in Outside. Unfortunately too many dogs in the store today and we decided to err on the side of caution.

 

Chatted with one visitor who identified herself as a fellow volunteer from the Tukwila cat room.  Didn't think to ask her name.

 

 

HEALTH concerns.

Jane Marie: spilled cat litter all over the place. Despite this there didn't seem to be much of it.

We worked on her ears some more; think  they look much better now.

 

--John & Janice 

Mass Shooting in Arkansas

So, I heard today* about the mass shooting in Fordyce, where we lived the year I was in third grade and my sister in seventh and my father the high school principal.  We left after only a year later and didn't keeping in touch with folks from there, but I still have some good memories because there we were all back together again as a family for the last time.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2024/06/21/shooting-grocery-store-fordyce-arkansas/stories/202406210123

The shooting took place in the parking lot outside The Mad Butcher, a local grocery store (actually a small southern chain), only about a block and a half from where we lived in the Delcro Apartments (#7).

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/21/arkansas-grocery-store-shooting#img-1 

Not much reporting re. who was the shooter, and why: just what have become the standard in such cases: the number killer and wounded, a closing comment about some bill, currently before Congress or some other legislative body (say a state government) that wd place some mild restriction on gun ownership or pious comment on computer games,  Occasionally some particularly heinous details of this particularly or that murder comes to light (like shooting small children). 

For those of us who remember, it's reminiscent of the Quagmire that was Vietnam, where we cdn't win and wdn't lose.

--And so it goes
--John R. 

*thanks to Pam R. for the news

 

Re-reading books

So, I've been enjoying going through the expanded edition of LETTERS of JRRT. 

One passage that made me really realize how different the experience of reading differs from reader to reader came in a letter from Tolkien to a reader (11 April 1956; LETTERS page 359).  Tolkien writes (emphasis mine):

. . . I am a very 'unvoracious' reader, 

and since I can seldom bring myself

 to read a work twice I think of the 

many things that I read -- too soon! --

Nothing, not even a (possible) deeper 

appreciation,  for me replaces the bloom 

on a book, the freshness of the unread.

 Still what we read and when goes, 

like the people we meet, by fate   

This made me realize who different JRRT's experience is from my own. If I like a book, I will read it again, sometimes repeatedly. Such was the case with WATERSHIP DOWN, FACE IN THE FROST, THE BOOKS OF WONDER, PERSUASION, of course Tolkien, and many another. I don't do it as much anymore, but that's largely because my eyesight is worse and partly because I now have more books available.

It's interesting to note that this is one of the many ways in which Tolkien and Lewis differed. Lewis loved to reread old favorites, and counted occasions when his doctor ordered a few days of bed rest one of life's not so little gifts. This was a trait he shared with his brother Warnie, who from time to time notes in his diary about re-reading specific books.

As for THE HOBBIT and LORD OF THE RINGS: by this point I have no idea how many times I've read both. I'm always reading them, in a sense.

--John R.

Currrent Reading:

TALKING TO DRAGONS by Patricia Wrede (the sixth time I've read it, according to my notes).

THE WIFE SAYS:

Lucky for Tolkien that his fans didn't feel the same way.

TSR Women of Fantasy Calendar

So, I've been enjoying Steve (Stan) Brown's weekly podcast on the history of TSR as told by people who worked there at some point over the last fifty years, with each weekly episode illustrated by a cartoon rendering of an iconic piece of D&D art.

This week's guest was Karen Conlin (Karen Boomgarden back when I knew her, from '91 to '96). It was good to see her after all these years and to hear her perspective on what TSR was like in back in those times. There was one story I was sure they'd bring up that didn't get told. Thinking back, it was before Stan's time. So I thought I'd share. Here's how I remember it.

A tradition at TSR every Christmas was the Tacky Gift Exchange, in which all the designers and editors who wanted to take part drew names from a hat and then traded presents on the last day before Christmas. There was a mathom that got traded around each year, but as might be expected from a great big room stuffed with creative people a few were memorable. *

This particular year, 1993 or 1994, had seen the release of TSR's WOMEN OF FANTASY calendar, in which the staff artists had outdone themselves in the scantiness of the scanty outfits on display.  Whoever drew Karen's name had an inspiration: he or she got one of these cheesecake calendars, then went through a clothes calendar like Land's End and cut out clothes to cover the inadequate bits. He or she then taped into place the comfy sweaters and sensible slacks. The juxtaposition between what we might call the Caldwell school of illustration and what those characters might actually wear was hilarious.

I wonder if that artifact of the past survives and, if so, who has it.  

--John R.

* P.S. For example, THE LITTLE BOOK OF ELVES, created I think by Rich Baker and given to Colin McComb; it was particularly apt because Colin had just finished PHBR6: ELVES 

Turtle Day

So,  here's a distinction I hadn't known (or needed to): 

Turtle is the all-encompassing name for all creatures of this type.

Tortoises are a subgroup, all of them land animals. 

Terrapin are another subgroup of turtles,  so named by Native Americans. 

Yesterday was World Turtle Day --a holiday I'd not heard of before. Had I thought of it in time, I would have tried to make time to have gone by one of the spots in the area where turtles can be spotted in the wild. Or, failing that, one of the parks or gardens with ponds whose resident turtles can usually be seen.

I've always loved turtles, and had them as pets as a child (bought as baby turtles at Sterlings, the local Five and Dime)* and rescuing them out of the street if I spotted one in peril.** But unfortunately having indoor turtles and cats are a bad mix. 

I did the best I cd, though, for the occasion, stopping by the turtle habitat in the local PetSmart when we spent some time taking care of the Purrfect Pals up-for-adoption cats today.

At any rate, the occasion reminds me that I still haven't read TURTLES OF THE WORLD, a beautifully illustrated book on turtles I bought myself at Elliott Bay Books the last time I was there. I'll have to see if I can devote some time to actually reading it sooner rather than later.

After all, as I think Pratchett said (or was it Gaiman?):  it's turtles all the way down.

--John R.

*Among other things, I earned the Boy Scout Merit Badge for Reptile keeping. I still remember Speedy and Swifty (who were grey rather than green), and my sister's Regina, among others. 

**including, twice, a snapping turtle, which are not to be messed around with. The key is to remember that it's neck is much longer than you'd think, and he can get you from several feet away.

THE WIFE SAYS:

Given my reputation (cf. The Catbite Incident, a.k.a. Thirteen Days in the Hospital), I shd make clear that I've never been bitten by a turtle. 

 

Quasi Moons and Planet 9

So, I was following up on a piece  of astronomical news by Bruce Cordell on his blog about a new designation of asteroids. The original article can explain it better than I could: 

 https://brucecordell.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-moons-of-earth.html 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-has-more-than-one-moon/

What particularly caught my eye is the piece about Planet X (here called Planet Nine) and the 

long and fruitless effort to locate some evidence that it exists. Instead this new approach is collecting evidence to prove places it's not, planning to solve the matter by process of elimination.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/where-is-planet-nine-its-hiding-places-are-running-out/

--John R.

The final intriguing bit for me is that observation that they might not find evidence it exists because it might no longer exist, in case they'd be looking for traces it left behind. 

Anyway, an interesting piece for those who like to put on their astronomer hat once in a while.

Author vs. Character

 So, here's an amusing piece I recently ran across called Stab Me Now. The conceit is that an author planning out her new story decides to let the heroine decide what she will do, how she will react to the main events in the enusing story. Right from the start things go not-according-to-plan, as when the main character objects to the fancy clothes the author wants her to dress up in, as opposed to the practical outfit the character wd prefer. Character and Author clash over everything from what weapons she shd carry to her failure to fall in love all over the place.  

It's not fan fic, which by definition is based on the work of others (particularly characters, but usually with setting too). It reminds me of Flann O'Brien for an internet generation.

If you want to give it a try, take a look at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEE_pqix1dQ

for this and other works by the same author; she seems particularly taken with fantasy armor and the shorthcomings thereof.

--John R.

--current reading: audiobook version of LETTERS OF JRRT, expanded edition (bogged down on the print book, so switching to the audiobook instead).