John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 90
January 8, 2018
The Mind Boggles
So, I'm still working my way through the Milne biography, and came across an assertion* that made me do a double take.
Writing of the time when Milne and Wodehouse were still on friendly terms (i.e., before Milne slandered Wodehouse with accusations of treason), Thwaite relates how the two men sponsored a mutual acquaintance to membership in the Garrick Club. But unlike Milne, who enjoyed men's clubs, Wodehouse hated clubs, she says, and soon quit this one.
The creator of the Drones Club, probably one of the two most famous Clubs in fiction,** didn't like clubs? I'd never have guessed it. It's a good reminder that we tend to think authors are like their characters. Even when we know this is not true as a general rule, we tend to project a character's opinions onto the author himself or herself. That Wodehouse's narrative voice is so guileless tends to make us forget that PGW is not Bertie any more than he is Jeeves, though as author his point of view is nearer the latter: the behind the scenes manipulator who pulls together all the strings to bring the story to a satisfactory ending.
--John R.
*p. 310
**the other I'd say being the Diogenes Club of the Mycroft Holmes stories
Writing of the time when Milne and Wodehouse were still on friendly terms (i.e., before Milne slandered Wodehouse with accusations of treason), Thwaite relates how the two men sponsored a mutual acquaintance to membership in the Garrick Club. But unlike Milne, who enjoyed men's clubs, Wodehouse hated clubs, she says, and soon quit this one.
The creator of the Drones Club, probably one of the two most famous Clubs in fiction,** didn't like clubs? I'd never have guessed it. It's a good reminder that we tend to think authors are like their characters. Even when we know this is not true as a general rule, we tend to project a character's opinions onto the author himself or herself. That Wodehouse's narrative voice is so guileless tends to make us forget that PGW is not Bertie any more than he is Jeeves, though as author his point of view is nearer the latter: the behind the scenes manipulator who pulls together all the strings to bring the story to a satisfactory ending.
--John R.
*p. 310
**the other I'd say being the Diogenes Club of the Mycroft Holmes stories
January 4, 2018
When is a Fredo not a Frodo
So, amid the news stories generated by the current administration and its friends' shock that reactionary provocateur Steve Bannon sometimes says bad things about his allies and fellow travellers, I was amused by one tiny throwaway line in a piece on Politico.
In the main text of the piece, it notes that in the new forthcoming Wolff book, Bannon is said to have had an unflattering nickname for Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law:
Kushner, whom he privately referred to as “Fredo,” the traitorous brother of “The Godfather.”
A correction at the bottom of the page, however, shows that the original version of this piece mistakenly included a Tolkien reference:
CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story misidentified the fictional character name Bannon uses to refer to Jared Kushner as Frodo, a “Lord of the Rings” reference, rather than Fredo, a reference to “The Godfather.”
It's easy to see how the confusion might arise, given that Bannon is a Tolkien fan, as I touched on in an earlier post about the weird phenomenon of the Alt-Right's recent embracing of JRRT. And as such we wdn't expect him to call someone he was belittling by Tolkien's hero's name.
Here's the link to the original story
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/03/bannon-trump-white-house-alliance-322624?lo=ap_f1
--John R.
current reading: the A. A. Milne biography, which is over 500 pages but feels much longer.
In the main text of the piece, it notes that in the new forthcoming Wolff book, Bannon is said to have had an unflattering nickname for Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law:
Kushner, whom he privately referred to as “Fredo,” the traitorous brother of “The Godfather.”
A correction at the bottom of the page, however, shows that the original version of this piece mistakenly included a Tolkien reference:
CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story misidentified the fictional character name Bannon uses to refer to Jared Kushner as Frodo, a “Lord of the Rings” reference, rather than Fredo, a reference to “The Godfather.”
It's easy to see how the confusion might arise, given that Bannon is a Tolkien fan, as I touched on in an earlier post about the weird phenomenon of the Alt-Right's recent embracing of JRRT. And as such we wdn't expect him to call someone he was belittling by Tolkien's hero's name.
Here's the link to the original story
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/03/bannon-trump-white-house-alliance-322624?lo=ap_f1
--John R.
current reading: the A. A. Milne biography, which is over 500 pages but feels much longer.
January 3, 2018
Evil in Ireland -- Tolkien and Warnie
So, back some time ago when I was asked to write a guest editorial for MALLORN, I pointed out that there are some things about Tolkien we know because of detailed contemporary evidence. Other things we have to piece together as best we can from fragmentary, sometimes contradictory, evidence. And still others we just have to more or less take on faith. An example of the last is Tolkien's statement that in Ireland you could feel the evil in the very ground, seeping up from below, held back only by the great piety of its people. I commented about this in a post from 2009
( http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2009/12/evil-emanating-tolkien-on-ireland.html ), in which I reproduced the following quote:
George Sayer tells a remarkable story about Tolkien describing Ireland as 'naturally evil.' He could 'feel,' Sayer relates,'evil coming up from the earth,from the peat bogs, from the clumps of trees, even from the cliffs, and this evilwas only held in check by the great devotion of the southern Irishto their religion.'
A year and a half later, 'BGC' posted a comment saying I'm pretty sure I have read something of this kind said by, or attributed to, Warnie Lewis (who was, of course, himself Irish) - maybe in his journal or attributed in a letter to Jack - but I can't seem to locate it.
It is certainly more the sort of thing Warnie would have said, in one of his deporessive moods; and very unlike Tolkien.
And now just a few days ago 'Wurmbrand' (Dale Nelson) shared his discovery of that passage BGC had remembered:*
here is the passage that BGC was recalling:
"There is something wrong with this country -- some sullen brooding presence over it, a vague sense of something mean and cruel and sinister: I have felt the same feeling in the hills behind Sierra Leone, and once in 1919 at Doagh in Co. Antrim. A beastly feeling. On the merely physical side, it was most depressing country. I have never seen any place so enclosed before: wherever you go, the grey road is flanked by old stone walls, and banks on the top of which grow thick hedges, the whole overhung by heavy motionless foliage on old trees and lidded with a grey brown sky. After a time the longing for any sort of escape from these everlasting tunnels became acute, and one almost fancied it to be accompanied by a sensation of choking from trying to breathe air from which the oxygen was exhausted. The natives were as depressing as their landscape: during the whole morning I did not see anyone of any age or either sex who was not definitely ugly: even the children look more like goblins than earthborns....I wonder can it be possible that a country which has an eight hundred year record of cruelty and misery has the power of emanating a nervous disquiet? Certainly I felt something of the sort, and would much dislike to see this place again....[Later in the day, after leaving Waterford on our run down the Suir River, we passed Ballyhack, where there were some early Norman castles.] There was [also] a long succession of big houses, all very shut in and desolate, of which J remarked that Walter de la Mare could write detestable stories: and we talked for some time about horror and its treatment in fiction." (BROTHERS & FRIENDS p. 111-112)
This was written in 1933, years before Tolkien himself first set foot in Ireland. And interestingly enough CSL seems to have disagreed with Warnie -- Warnie's entry for the next leg of their walking tour, in the Plymouth area recounts that
J[ack] and I argued briskly about the country [around Plymouth] we had walked through, J contending that not to like any sort of country argues a fault in oneself: which seems to me absurd . . . I suspect he was talking for victory. [ibid 112]
Congratulations to Dale N. for his connecting the dots and for sharing his discovery.
--John R.
current reading: more on Milne (who suffered badly from Conan Doyle syndrome)
*I've reposted it here because I think those who agree with me about the importance of Dale's discovery are more likely to come across it this way than if it only appeared as a comment on a post from eight years ago.
P.S.: Happy Tolkien Day, all.
( http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2009/12/evil-emanating-tolkien-on-ireland.html ), in which I reproduced the following quote:
George Sayer tells a remarkable story about Tolkien describing Ireland as 'naturally evil.' He could 'feel,' Sayer relates,'evil coming up from the earth,from the peat bogs, from the clumps of trees, even from the cliffs, and this evilwas only held in check by the great devotion of the southern Irishto their religion.'
A year and a half later, 'BGC' posted a comment saying I'm pretty sure I have read something of this kind said by, or attributed to, Warnie Lewis (who was, of course, himself Irish) - maybe in his journal or attributed in a letter to Jack - but I can't seem to locate it.
It is certainly more the sort of thing Warnie would have said, in one of his deporessive moods; and very unlike Tolkien.
And now just a few days ago 'Wurmbrand' (Dale Nelson) shared his discovery of that passage BGC had remembered:*
here is the passage that BGC was recalling:
"There is something wrong with this country -- some sullen brooding presence over it, a vague sense of something mean and cruel and sinister: I have felt the same feeling in the hills behind Sierra Leone, and once in 1919 at Doagh in Co. Antrim. A beastly feeling. On the merely physical side, it was most depressing country. I have never seen any place so enclosed before: wherever you go, the grey road is flanked by old stone walls, and banks on the top of which grow thick hedges, the whole overhung by heavy motionless foliage on old trees and lidded with a grey brown sky. After a time the longing for any sort of escape from these everlasting tunnels became acute, and one almost fancied it to be accompanied by a sensation of choking from trying to breathe air from which the oxygen was exhausted. The natives were as depressing as their landscape: during the whole morning I did not see anyone of any age or either sex who was not definitely ugly: even the children look more like goblins than earthborns....I wonder can it be possible that a country which has an eight hundred year record of cruelty and misery has the power of emanating a nervous disquiet? Certainly I felt something of the sort, and would much dislike to see this place again....[Later in the day, after leaving Waterford on our run down the Suir River, we passed Ballyhack, where there were some early Norman castles.] There was [also] a long succession of big houses, all very shut in and desolate, of which J remarked that Walter de la Mare could write detestable stories: and we talked for some time about horror and its treatment in fiction." (BROTHERS & FRIENDS p. 111-112)
This was written in 1933, years before Tolkien himself first set foot in Ireland. And interestingly enough CSL seems to have disagreed with Warnie -- Warnie's entry for the next leg of their walking tour, in the Plymouth area recounts that
J[ack] and I argued briskly about the country [around Plymouth] we had walked through, J contending that not to like any sort of country argues a fault in oneself: which seems to me absurd . . . I suspect he was talking for victory. [ibid 112]
Congratulations to Dale N. for his connecting the dots and for sharing his discovery.
--John R.
current reading: more on Milne (who suffered badly from Conan Doyle syndrome)
*I've reposted it here because I think those who agree with me about the importance of Dale's discovery are more likely to come across it this way than if it only appeared as a comment on a post from eight years ago.
P.S.: Happy Tolkien Day, all.
Happy Tolkien Day
Happy anniversary of Tolkien's birthday (January 3rd, 1892), all.
--JDR
--JDR
January 2, 2018
Bad Old Days at TSR
So, a while back I was interviewed for a piece by Ben Riggs of GEEK AND SUNDRY, an rpg website whose focus seems to range from the era of Gygax days through Third Edition. They were putting together a piece on the TSR buyout and contacting various people who'd been there at the time. My perspective is a slightly unusual one, given that I was there before and after but not during. However, I gave them my uncensored opinion and waited to see the results. And here it is: an article that ranges from the creation of D&D through the collapse of TSR, the buyout by WotC, the 'Open Gaming' license, and the rise of Paizo. I'm not directly quoted but it's nice to see my name among the acknowledgments at the end.
Here are the links to the three parts that make up the piece:
https://geekandsundry.com/the-story-of-dd-part-one-the-birth-death-and-resurrection-of-dungeons-dragons/
https://geekandsundry.com/the-story-of-dd-part-two-how-wizards-of-the-coast-saved-dungeons-dragons/
https://geekandsundry.com/the-story-of-dd-part-three-how-3rd-edition-became-the-mother-of-many-rpgs/
--John R.
current reading: a life of A. A. Milne by Ann Thwaite (1990)
Here are the links to the three parts that make up the piece:
https://geekandsundry.com/the-story-of-dd-part-one-the-birth-death-and-resurrection-of-dungeons-dragons/
https://geekandsundry.com/the-story-of-dd-part-two-how-wizards-of-the-coast-saved-dungeons-dragons/
https://geekandsundry.com/the-story-of-dd-part-three-how-3rd-edition-became-the-mother-of-many-rpgs/
--John R.
current reading: a life of A. A. Milne by Ann Thwaite (1990)
Sir Ringo
So, it was from Janice that I heard the good news that Ringo Starr has just become Sir Richard Starkey. It's sometimes hard to get my head around the fact that I live in a world where the two surviving Beatles are senior citizens of 77 (Ringo, the oldest member of the group) and 75 (Paul).
Too bad George passed away before his turn came; suspect he wd have been Sir George by now. John, of course, took himself out of contention when he returned his MBE medal as a publicity stunt.
--John R.
Too bad George passed away before his turn came; suspect he wd have been Sir George by now. John, of course, took himself out of contention when he returned his MBE medal as a publicity stunt.
--John R.
January 1, 2018
A New Tradition
So, something I tend to do around New Year's each year is begin a long or complicated book I've been meaning to get to for some time -- only to have my reading of it peter out. Books I've attempted in this way include Ezra Pound's THE CANTOS, THE BOOK OF THE DEAD (specifically, the Papyrus of Ani's version of THE BOOK OF GOING FORTH BY DAY), Ovid's METAMORPHOSES, and Confucius's ANALECTS.
So this year I decided on something new. Instead of trying to get myself to tackle a difficult work I've been putting off, I re-read a favorite instead. I used to reread more often than I do now, and there are books I really love that I haven't read in a decade or more.
The book I decided to start this new tradition off with is THE FACE IN THE FROST by John Bellairs -- a book I discovered from a passage quoted in my friend Franklin Chestnut's overview of modern fantasy a few months before, just after leaving Fayetteville. I found, bought, and read a copy the first week I was in Milwaukee, from one of the now-vanished bookstores along Wisconsin Avenue (probably B. Dalton or Waldenbooks, but possibly from Harry B. Schwartz back when they were still at 5th street). I remember that having started it I cdn't stop and stayed up late reading it. It's one of those rare books that, having reached the end, I immediately starting over again at the beginning, reading it twice in succession.* I'd not only rank it one of the ten best fantasy novels ever written but one of my all-time favorite books.
Sometimes rereading a book after a gap of years is a disappointment; sometimes it's a delight. This time was a delight: so many favorite passages, so many evocative scenes. It tends to give me nightmares, but it's worth it.
So, a new tradition, off to a good start.
--John R.
current reading: John Bellairs (autographed copy!)
*THE LORD OF THE RINGS is another
So this year I decided on something new. Instead of trying to get myself to tackle a difficult work I've been putting off, I re-read a favorite instead. I used to reread more often than I do now, and there are books I really love that I haven't read in a decade or more.
The book I decided to start this new tradition off with is THE FACE IN THE FROST by John Bellairs -- a book I discovered from a passage quoted in my friend Franklin Chestnut's overview of modern fantasy a few months before, just after leaving Fayetteville. I found, bought, and read a copy the first week I was in Milwaukee, from one of the now-vanished bookstores along Wisconsin Avenue (probably B. Dalton or Waldenbooks, but possibly from Harry B. Schwartz back when they were still at 5th street). I remember that having started it I cdn't stop and stayed up late reading it. It's one of those rare books that, having reached the end, I immediately starting over again at the beginning, reading it twice in succession.* I'd not only rank it one of the ten best fantasy novels ever written but one of my all-time favorite books.
Sometimes rereading a book after a gap of years is a disappointment; sometimes it's a delight. This time was a delight: so many favorite passages, so many evocative scenes. It tends to give me nightmares, but it's worth it.
So, a new tradition, off to a good start.
--John R.
current reading: John Bellairs (autographed copy!)
*THE LORD OF THE RINGS is another
December 30, 2017
GANGBUSTERS one-shot
So, while our regular CALL OF CTHULHU game is in abeyance, I got it into my head that this would be a good time to run a one-shot using the original GANGBUSTERS rules put out by TSR back in 1982 (though I don't think I ever saw a copy until I went to work for TSR in 1991).
Don't want to give away too many spoilers, but here's the playlist for the 'soundtrack' I've been listening to while rolling up the characters and making notes on things I'll need to know about when running the adventure with oldschool rules I don't know well.
'Don't Take Me Alive' (Steely Dan)
'There Goes a Tenner' (Kate Bush)
'The Ballad of Danny Bailey' (Elton John)
'Pretty Boy Floyd' (Arlo Guthrie)
'The Night Chicago Died' (Paper Lace)
'Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress' (The Hollies)
'Bank Job' (Bare Naked Ladies)
'The Pink Panther theme' (Henry Mancini)
'A Shot in the Dark' (Henry Mancini)
'Peter Gunn theme' (Henry Mancini)
'Foggy Mountain Breakdown' (Flatt & Scruggs)
'Money' (Pink Floyd)
These are mostly just to set the mood, though some of them do give clues to the adventure; the trick wd be to figure out which ones (hint: 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown' is there for getaway music, shd it be needed). The biggest clue wd be the mini-adventure's name: 'The Bank Job'.
More later when they've all chosen their characters.
--JDR
--current music: 'The Bank Job' playlist. Also Men at Work (first two albums plus lead singer's solo), who I've not listened to in a long time.
--current reading: just finished MR. PALOMAR by Italo Calvino (a gift from my friend Jim Pietrusz); just started THE FACE IN THE FROST by John Bellairs (re-reading one of my favorite books).
Don't want to give away too many spoilers, but here's the playlist for the 'soundtrack' I've been listening to while rolling up the characters and making notes on things I'll need to know about when running the adventure with oldschool rules I don't know well.
'Don't Take Me Alive' (Steely Dan)
'There Goes a Tenner' (Kate Bush)
'The Ballad of Danny Bailey' (Elton John)
'Pretty Boy Floyd' (Arlo Guthrie)
'The Night Chicago Died' (Paper Lace)
'Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress' (The Hollies)
'Bank Job' (Bare Naked Ladies)
'The Pink Panther theme' (Henry Mancini)
'A Shot in the Dark' (Henry Mancini)
'Peter Gunn theme' (Henry Mancini)
'Foggy Mountain Breakdown' (Flatt & Scruggs)
'Money' (Pink Floyd)
These are mostly just to set the mood, though some of them do give clues to the adventure; the trick wd be to figure out which ones (hint: 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown' is there for getaway music, shd it be needed). The biggest clue wd be the mini-adventure's name: 'The Bank Job'.
More later when they've all chosen their characters.
--JDR
--current music: 'The Bank Job' playlist. Also Men at Work (first two albums plus lead singer's solo), who I've not listened to in a long time.
--current reading: just finished MR. PALOMAR by Italo Calvino (a gift from my friend Jim Pietrusz); just started THE FACE IN THE FROST by John Bellairs (re-reading one of my favorite books).
December 22, 2017
Better Late . . . ?
So, the City of Rome has just rescinded the order of exile against Ovid.* Which is nice, but comes two thousand and nine years too late.
I suppose this cd be considered a case of 'better late than never'. But I'm coming to feel that the principle of 'justice delayed, justice denied' means some wrongs are so old that they can never be set right, whatever feel-good attempts we might try. So nice thought, Rome city council, but for all practical purposes the dead emperor Augustus' edict still stands.
Here's the link.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/16/ovids-exile-to-the-remotest-margins-of-the-roman-empire-revoked
--John R.
current reading: A SPECTER IS HAUNTING TEXAS by Fritz Leiber (proof that a good idea need not make for a good book).
current gaming: preparing a one-shot scenario for GANGBUSTERS
*exiled for writing poems the emperor didn't approve of and, rumor has it, for messing around with the emperor's daughter.
I suppose this cd be considered a case of 'better late than never'. But I'm coming to feel that the principle of 'justice delayed, justice denied' means some wrongs are so old that they can never be set right, whatever feel-good attempts we might try. So nice thought, Rome city council, but for all practical purposes the dead emperor Augustus' edict still stands.
Here's the link.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/16/ovids-exile-to-the-remotest-margins-of-the-roman-empire-revoked
--John R.
current reading: A SPECTER IS HAUNTING TEXAS by Fritz Leiber (proof that a good idea need not make for a good book).
current gaming: preparing a one-shot scenario for GANGBUSTERS
*exiled for writing poems the emperor didn't approve of and, rumor has it, for messing around with the emperor's daughter.
December 19, 2017
Tolkien's Father Christmas in THE GUARDIAN
So, tonight I saw in THE GUARDIAN a nice piece on Tolkien's FATHER CHRISTMAS LETTERS, the handwritten letters that Tolkien wrote for his children every year in the persona of 'Father Christmas' (the English Santa Claus). Many of the letters explain why some requested gift would not be arriving (i.e., the goblins had stolen all the train sets); more simply detail the ongoing adventures of F.C. and his friend / assistant the North Polar Bear, who was always getting into trouble of some kind.
If you're not familiar with this lesser-known but utterly charming work, check the link below for the article, which includes reproductions of several of the original letters.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/19/north-pole-middle-earth-tolkien-christmas-letters-children
--John R.
If you're not familiar with this lesser-known but utterly charming work, check the link below for the article, which includes reproductions of several of the original letters.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/19/north-pole-middle-earth-tolkien-christmas-letters-children
--John R.
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