John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 97
July 7, 2017
Giants in the Earth
So, over the holiday weekend I dug out a cassette tape I thought had Taum Santoski's talk from the 1983 Marquette Tolkien Conference on it. It turned out to be Clyde Kilby's guest-of-honor speech instead -- still something I'm v. glad to have but not what I was looking for.
At the end of Kilby's performance, however, Taum's voice comes on as he makes some announcements regarding the following (and final) day of the conference. In particular he calls out all the speakers giving presentations at the conference, and I found myself more and more impressed as the names roll by:
Jared Lobdell*
Karen Wynn Fonstad
Jim Allan
Lyle Dorsett
Mike Foster
Dr. Blackwelder
Darrell Martin
Gary Hunnewell
Deborah Webster Rogers
Verlyn Flieger
Clyde Kilby.
Dr. Joseph McClatchy
Lester Simons
and Anders Stenstrom (his famous exopoemic/epipoemic/empoemic piece).
That's a lot of talent in one room at one time and place. And there were other luminaries besides the speakers: it was at this conference that I met Wayne Hammond, whom I immediately introduced to Richard West, feeling that Tolkien bibliographers shd get together when the occasion offered. And of course there was Taum himself, just at that point starting to come into his own as a Tolkien linguist and resident expert in the Tolkien manuscripts at Marquette.
All these years later, some are gone (Kilby, McClatchy, Fonstad, Dr. Blackwelder, Lester, Taum himself). A surprising number are still with us thirty-eight years later, many still deeply involved in Tolkien scholarship. It was a smallish conference, but I think it played an important role in bringing together Tolkien scholars who'd been working largely in isolation and creating a kind of critical mass, the effects of which are still with us today, and in a good way.
--John R.
current reading: "Fragments of the Epic Cycle" (so that's where Lin Carter got it all from).
*whose keynote speech helped introduced the ideas of Tom Shippey to an American audience
At the end of Kilby's performance, however, Taum's voice comes on as he makes some announcements regarding the following (and final) day of the conference. In particular he calls out all the speakers giving presentations at the conference, and I found myself more and more impressed as the names roll by:
Jared Lobdell*
Karen Wynn Fonstad
Jim Allan
Lyle Dorsett
Mike Foster
Dr. Blackwelder
Darrell Martin
Gary Hunnewell
Deborah Webster Rogers
Verlyn Flieger
Clyde Kilby.
Dr. Joseph McClatchy
Lester Simons
and Anders Stenstrom (his famous exopoemic/epipoemic/empoemic piece).
That's a lot of talent in one room at one time and place. And there were other luminaries besides the speakers: it was at this conference that I met Wayne Hammond, whom I immediately introduced to Richard West, feeling that Tolkien bibliographers shd get together when the occasion offered. And of course there was Taum himself, just at that point starting to come into his own as a Tolkien linguist and resident expert in the Tolkien manuscripts at Marquette.
All these years later, some are gone (Kilby, McClatchy, Fonstad, Dr. Blackwelder, Lester, Taum himself). A surprising number are still with us thirty-eight years later, many still deeply involved in Tolkien scholarship. It was a smallish conference, but I think it played an important role in bringing together Tolkien scholars who'd been working largely in isolation and creating a kind of critical mass, the effects of which are still with us today, and in a good way.
--John R.
current reading: "Fragments of the Epic Cycle" (so that's where Lin Carter got it all from).
*whose keynote speech helped introduced the ideas of Tom Shippey to an American audience
Heyerdahl Would Be Proud
\So, thanks to Janice for sharing the link to this story about a traditional Polynesian craft sailed by Hawaiians that just completed a circumnavigation of the world:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40316930
I like that they took their time, and particularly like the part about asking permission from the local indigenous people wherever they went.
I found this all the more interesting because of my lifelong interest in Thor Heyerdahl, whom I first read along about sixth grade and whose books I read and re-read for years thereafter: KON-TIKI, AKU-AKU, THE RA EXPEDITION.
In more recent times, I was much taken with Geoffrey Irwin's book THE PREHISTORIC EXPLORATIONS AND COLONISATION OF THE PACIFIC (highly recommended), which I first found in the Kent library and later tracked down my own copy of. I came away from Irwin's book persuaded that he was in the right about the Polynesian exploration and settlement of the Pacific as purposeful: carefully planned and skillfully carried out, not a matter of setting out in a random direction and hoping for the best.*
I find myself curious as to what Heyerdahl wd make of this just-completed epic voyage, carried out v. much in the Heyerdahlian manner. On the one hand, he was the great champion who argued that we deeply underestimate prehistoric peoples, many of whom he held to be highly skilled boatmen capable of long voyages across the sea -- whether from Peru to Tahiti (Kon Tiki) or the Mediterranean to the Caribbean (The Ra). And on the other hand, his strongly-held personal thesis was that the Pacific was settled from the east, not the west.** That is, that the peoples of Easter Island &c were descended at least in part (culturally as well as biologically) from explorers who came from the Pacific coast of North and especially South America -- an argument that's now been not so much disproven as rendered moot.
On a personal note, Heyerdahl was one of my heroes for trying to actually find out if his theories were possible by practical experimentation in the field. I cd no longer accept Von Daniken and other 'unsolved mystery' types about the heads of Easter Island, for example, after reading Heyerdahl (AKU-AKU), who showed how the statues were carved, how they were moved, and how they were set up once in position, complete with top-knots. There's also a Tolkien connection, albeit a tenuous one, in that Allen & Unwin was Heyerdahl's publisher. Just was THE LORD OF THE RINGS was A&U's big hit of the 1950s, their great hit of the decade before Tolkien had been KON-TIKI. In fact, the one time I got to meet Joy Hill, she had a copy of one of Heyerdahl's ships (either the RA or, more likely, the TIGRIS) on her mantle, a gift she said from Heyerdahl, who'd become a friend of hers in the course of their dealings at Allen & Unwin.
--John R.
*his chapter on the early (30,000 BC) movements by ship from mainland asia to New Guinea and Australia was particularly interesting --mostly predicated on whether you cd see where you wanted to get to from where you were -- and possibly apropos of arguments re. the early (pre-Clovis) settlement of the Americas.
**I have, but have not read, a copy of his massive tome AMERICAN INDIANS IN THE PACIFIC (Allen & Unwin, 1953) -- though looking at it now I see he includes material on native peoples from near where I now live, like the Makah and Salish.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40316930
I like that they took their time, and particularly like the part about asking permission from the local indigenous people wherever they went.
I found this all the more interesting because of my lifelong interest in Thor Heyerdahl, whom I first read along about sixth grade and whose books I read and re-read for years thereafter: KON-TIKI, AKU-AKU, THE RA EXPEDITION.
In more recent times, I was much taken with Geoffrey Irwin's book THE PREHISTORIC EXPLORATIONS AND COLONISATION OF THE PACIFIC (highly recommended), which I first found in the Kent library and later tracked down my own copy of. I came away from Irwin's book persuaded that he was in the right about the Polynesian exploration and settlement of the Pacific as purposeful: carefully planned and skillfully carried out, not a matter of setting out in a random direction and hoping for the best.*
I find myself curious as to what Heyerdahl wd make of this just-completed epic voyage, carried out v. much in the Heyerdahlian manner. On the one hand, he was the great champion who argued that we deeply underestimate prehistoric peoples, many of whom he held to be highly skilled boatmen capable of long voyages across the sea -- whether from Peru to Tahiti (Kon Tiki) or the Mediterranean to the Caribbean (The Ra). And on the other hand, his strongly-held personal thesis was that the Pacific was settled from the east, not the west.** That is, that the peoples of Easter Island &c were descended at least in part (culturally as well as biologically) from explorers who came from the Pacific coast of North and especially South America -- an argument that's now been not so much disproven as rendered moot.
On a personal note, Heyerdahl was one of my heroes for trying to actually find out if his theories were possible by practical experimentation in the field. I cd no longer accept Von Daniken and other 'unsolved mystery' types about the heads of Easter Island, for example, after reading Heyerdahl (AKU-AKU), who showed how the statues were carved, how they were moved, and how they were set up once in position, complete with top-knots. There's also a Tolkien connection, albeit a tenuous one, in that Allen & Unwin was Heyerdahl's publisher. Just was THE LORD OF THE RINGS was A&U's big hit of the 1950s, their great hit of the decade before Tolkien had been KON-TIKI. In fact, the one time I got to meet Joy Hill, she had a copy of one of Heyerdahl's ships (either the RA or, more likely, the TIGRIS) on her mantle, a gift she said from Heyerdahl, who'd become a friend of hers in the course of their dealings at Allen & Unwin.
--John R.
*his chapter on the early (30,000 BC) movements by ship from mainland asia to New Guinea and Australia was particularly interesting --mostly predicated on whether you cd see where you wanted to get to from where you were -- and possibly apropos of arguments re. the early (pre-Clovis) settlement of the Americas.
**I have, but have not read, a copy of his massive tome AMERICAN INDIANS IN THE PACIFIC (Allen & Unwin, 1953) -- though looking at it now I see he includes material on native peoples from near where I now live, like the Makah and Salish.
July 6, 2017
The World Has Changed
So, yesterday in the foyer of the friendly neighborhood Barnes & Noble I saw that among the display of B&N-published editions of literary masterworks was THE COMPLETE CTHULHU MYTHOS TALES by H. P. Lovecraft.* And to the left of it was TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee. And to the right of it was THE ILLIAD & THE ODYSSEY by Homer.
HLP has Arrrived.
--John R.
current reading: Poul Anderson's A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST (dreadful) and fragments of lost Homeric epics (Loeb library)
*the book was shrink-wrapped, so I cdn't tell which tales they'd included, other than that there were twenty-three of them, and that according to B&N's online website they include "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Colour Out of Space", "The Dunwich Horror", "The Shadow Out of Time", and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
HLP has Arrrived.
--John R.
current reading: Poul Anderson's A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST (dreadful) and fragments of lost Homeric epics (Loeb library)
*the book was shrink-wrapped, so I cdn't tell which tales they'd included, other than that there were twenty-three of them, and that according to B&N's online website they include "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Colour Out of Space", "The Dunwich Horror", "The Shadow Out of Time", and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
June 29, 2017
The D&D Gnomes pursued
So, recently I posted about being curious about the origins of the D&D gnome, when all the other 'demi-human' player character races in AD&D/early D&D all too obviously derive from Tolkien.*
The last comment on that post (by Paul W) said
I'd love to hear more about that discussion on how gnomes became a PC race for D&D.
It's an unfortunate fact that inconclusive researches are harder to sum up that successful ones, but here goes a sort of brief interim report.
(1) for most of the twentieth century 'gnome' seems to have been a generic word very like 'goblin' or 'imp' or 'fairy' or 'elf'. When one did appear, it was generally in a comic context.
(2) the Dutch gnomes of the picture books I posted about a while ago are definitely not the basis of the D&D gnome. They are the inspiration of the Forest Gnome, created by Douglas Niles for PHBR9. THE COMPLETE BOOK OF GNOMES & HALFLINGS (1992),** which I edited.***
(3) there's a long tradition of 'gnome' as a name for humanoid earth elementals, but D&D obviously didn't choose to go that route. Though interestingly enough it has both salamanders (as a non-humanoid fire-creature) and fire elementals, the former poss. inspired by the rampaging salamander in Poul Anderson's OPERATION CHAOS, which I'm currently reading. But the gnome/earth elemental just isn't there in the race's core concept. The xorn or even the umber hulk wd have been closer.
(4) my interim conclusion: gnome was added to the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK player-character races as a token non-Tolkien character. Then anytime someone made the case to Gygax that an awful lot of his game --the player-character races, a third or so of the core monsters, the very concept of a multi-racial multi-class player-character party -- were all borrowed directly from Tolkien, whose works Gygax eventually came to disparage, he cd point to the gnome as non-Tolkienian. And ask Tolkien Enterprises to please not sue him.
In short: I put it on par with 'mithral'. They're not fooling anybody.
(5) my guess: if there is any direct ancestor for the D&D gnome, it's likeliest to be found in UNKNOWN and its descendents/derivatives.
So here's a question I'd like to know the answer to: where does the first gnome NPC appear -- what adventure? And when does the first gnome pre-generated PC see print?
--John R.
current reading: OPERATION CHAOS by Poul Anderson.
*even using Tolkien's preferred elves over the then-standard elfs and Tolkien's own invention dwarves over the pre-Tolkien universal usage dwarfs. Not to mention Hobbits > Halflings.
**(Pity we didn't port over the cannibal halflings of Athas instead)
***I told them it'd sell a bunch more copies if they called it THE COMPLETE BOOK OF HALFLINGS AND GNOMES. I still think I was right, too.
The last comment on that post (by Paul W) said
I'd love to hear more about that discussion on how gnomes became a PC race for D&D.
It's an unfortunate fact that inconclusive researches are harder to sum up that successful ones, but here goes a sort of brief interim report.
(1) for most of the twentieth century 'gnome' seems to have been a generic word very like 'goblin' or 'imp' or 'fairy' or 'elf'. When one did appear, it was generally in a comic context.
(2) the Dutch gnomes of the picture books I posted about a while ago are definitely not the basis of the D&D gnome. They are the inspiration of the Forest Gnome, created by Douglas Niles for PHBR9. THE COMPLETE BOOK OF GNOMES & HALFLINGS (1992),** which I edited.***
(3) there's a long tradition of 'gnome' as a name for humanoid earth elementals, but D&D obviously didn't choose to go that route. Though interestingly enough it has both salamanders (as a non-humanoid fire-creature) and fire elementals, the former poss. inspired by the rampaging salamander in Poul Anderson's OPERATION CHAOS, which I'm currently reading. But the gnome/earth elemental just isn't there in the race's core concept. The xorn or even the umber hulk wd have been closer.
(4) my interim conclusion: gnome was added to the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK player-character races as a token non-Tolkien character. Then anytime someone made the case to Gygax that an awful lot of his game --the player-character races, a third or so of the core monsters, the very concept of a multi-racial multi-class player-character party -- were all borrowed directly from Tolkien, whose works Gygax eventually came to disparage, he cd point to the gnome as non-Tolkienian. And ask Tolkien Enterprises to please not sue him.
In short: I put it on par with 'mithral'. They're not fooling anybody.
(5) my guess: if there is any direct ancestor for the D&D gnome, it's likeliest to be found in UNKNOWN and its descendents/derivatives.
So here's a question I'd like to know the answer to: where does the first gnome NPC appear -- what adventure? And when does the first gnome pre-generated PC see print?
--John R.
current reading: OPERATION CHAOS by Poul Anderson.
*even using Tolkien's preferred elves over the then-standard elfs and Tolkien's own invention dwarves over the pre-Tolkien universal usage dwarfs. Not to mention Hobbits > Halflings.
**(Pity we didn't port over the cannibal halflings of Athas instead)
***I told them it'd sell a bunch more copies if they called it THE COMPLETE BOOK OF HALFLINGS AND GNOMES. I still think I was right, too.
June 28, 2017
Two Cat Reports in One (6/21 & 6/28-17)
So, I wrote up my cat report last week but then got busy and didn't post it. So here it is, followed by this week's week-in-cats. --JDR
[WEDN. JUNE 21st]
Just three cats this morning: AVERY and MINERVA (Harvey) and TABITHA. They pretty much got along (not without some hissing when they felt it called for), even when two cats wound up in the same cage from time to time. All had used their litter boxes, but none was interested in a spoonful of wet. One did lick a little of the sauce off, but that was it.
To my surprise, Minerva came right out. I’d brought in a box for cats to jump in and a little bag of catnip to sniff, which she discovered while I was still cleaning and seemed to thoroughly approve of. Also to my surprise she scratched at the door wanting to go for a walk. And once out she did a lot of walking, down past the fish tanks and right up to the front door. When picked up and carried away to a different spot, she worked her way around to the door from a different direction, and then did it yet again. She clearly has her mental map of the store and knows where she wants to go (out). It was a long walk and she did really well on it.
Avery was a little shy about walking until I took her over to the training room, where she prowled about with great satisfaction, purring when I talked to her (she likes the sound of her name). She behaved very differently when in the inner or outer room (friendly, relaxed) vs. when in her cage (tended to swat at hand reaching towards her). I stayed an extra half-hour because she had a visitor who came down from Lynnwood to spend some time with her.
Tabitha doesn’t like walks. She’ll let herself be carried all around, but after a while the mewing starts and it’s time to come back in. She likes to do her exploring in the cat-room, and loves pouncing games. A guy met her during her walk who had a lot of questions about her and took her picture before he left. Think he’s interested but is about to go on a trip to Hawaii; we might see him again when he’s back if Tabitha is still with us then.
On the whole, a fairly quiet morning in the cat room.
health concerns: Avery got in various dirt boxes several times and dug around but only did any business once or twice.Minerva/Harvey does have a little trouble jumping up and seems to favor her back legs. But she had no problem walking. Moving her to the bottom row was a good idea.
—John R.
[WEDN. JUNE 28th]Back on my normal (11-to-1) routine today, last week having been the last for me taking the (9-to-11) morning cleaning shift, and so had lots of time to socialize the cats. When I got there Emma and Lisa already had them out and well taken care of, so I plunged right in with TABITHA. She did the same anxious mew mew mew as last week for about half of the walking time, then she got distracted and interested, and forgot to mew while she did some exploring. I took her down to the training room at the far end of the store and she relaxed in there, treating it kind of like a big, big cage.
AVERY was reluctant to let me put the leash on; once out I took her straight to the training room, where she relaxed and did a lot of prancing about, rubbing legs, and asking to be petted. When it was time to leave the room she navigated her way back to the cat room without any trouble, so looks like her mental map now includes pretty much the whole store.
As for CHESTER, what a beautiful, friendly, charismatic cat. Quite the charmer. Hard to believe someone would give him up for adoption; don’t think it’ll be long before he’s in a new home. He’s clearly been out on a leash before and did really well. He’s the kind of cat who walks up to people and asks for attention, which they were happy to give him. Oddly enough, when towards the end of my shift I decided to give him a second short walk, he kicked up a terrible fuss at the idea of having the leash on again so I gave up the idea.
Avery went into her cage after her walk and pretty much stayed there, hissing and swatting at my occasional offers to pet her — she’s clearly adjusting to her plans to become boss-cat of the room having collapsed with the arrival of Chester. Think she’ll settle down over the next few days. Tabitha (‘Queen of all String Games’) demanded games, and Chester wanted to join in. She’s perfectly okay with getting close to him, but he’s wary of letting her close and sometimes hisses her back. I brought in a paper bag, which they all ignored. By contrast, the cat-nip spray was a big hit (except with Avery, who thought it might be a spray-the-cat water-bottle). Both Tabitha and Chester loved the string game and the mouse-on-a-stick game (I left that behind as a gift). In addition, Chester showed great enthusiasm for the feather-duster. In short, both cats got to exercise their inner predator without anyone getting hurt.
Speaking of which, I feel bad for Minerva. AND the person she bit. Twice! She had been so much better last week getting out and about on the leash that I hoped she was opening up. It’s hard to be a senior cat in a cage. Hope she does better at the next cat-room.
And while it’s too bad not to get to meet Kit/Luna — never seen whiskers that long on a cat before — I’m glad she got re-united with her owner so quickly. Can we have the whole story on that someday?
no health issues, but happy to report a donation from a PetsMart customer; I pinned this to the calendar.
And that’s it for another week.
—John R.
UPDATE Wednesday evening
I just have to add that upon returning home I found our cat FEANOR thinking he was due a walk himself, so I obliged. He doesn't go far these days, just around the back porch and into the side yard, but he enjoys smelling outdoors things, watching birds or bunnies, and eating some grass. It was his day for seeing other animals up close -- first our next-door neighbor's dog Sidney (whom he knows pretty well, they having stared at each other a lot from our respective balconies) and then The Grey Cat, a neighborhood cat who seems fascinated with Feanor and comes up and watches him sometimes when he's out. This time he got to within about a cat's length of him whereupon Feanor mewed a time or two. Then they went their separate ways. Hastur, meanwhile, was upstairs on the desk in a box; she only ever wants to go out when it's getting dark (which is a bad time for me).
[WEDN. JUNE 21st]
Just three cats this morning: AVERY and MINERVA (Harvey) and TABITHA. They pretty much got along (not without some hissing when they felt it called for), even when two cats wound up in the same cage from time to time. All had used their litter boxes, but none was interested in a spoonful of wet. One did lick a little of the sauce off, but that was it.
To my surprise, Minerva came right out. I’d brought in a box for cats to jump in and a little bag of catnip to sniff, which she discovered while I was still cleaning and seemed to thoroughly approve of. Also to my surprise she scratched at the door wanting to go for a walk. And once out she did a lot of walking, down past the fish tanks and right up to the front door. When picked up and carried away to a different spot, she worked her way around to the door from a different direction, and then did it yet again. She clearly has her mental map of the store and knows where she wants to go (out). It was a long walk and she did really well on it.
Avery was a little shy about walking until I took her over to the training room, where she prowled about with great satisfaction, purring when I talked to her (she likes the sound of her name). She behaved very differently when in the inner or outer room (friendly, relaxed) vs. when in her cage (tended to swat at hand reaching towards her). I stayed an extra half-hour because she had a visitor who came down from Lynnwood to spend some time with her.
Tabitha doesn’t like walks. She’ll let herself be carried all around, but after a while the mewing starts and it’s time to come back in. She likes to do her exploring in the cat-room, and loves pouncing games. A guy met her during her walk who had a lot of questions about her and took her picture before he left. Think he’s interested but is about to go on a trip to Hawaii; we might see him again when he’s back if Tabitha is still with us then.
On the whole, a fairly quiet morning in the cat room.
health concerns: Avery got in various dirt boxes several times and dug around but only did any business once or twice.Minerva/Harvey does have a little trouble jumping up and seems to favor her back legs. But she had no problem walking. Moving her to the bottom row was a good idea.
—John R.
[WEDN. JUNE 28th]Back on my normal (11-to-1) routine today, last week having been the last for me taking the (9-to-11) morning cleaning shift, and so had lots of time to socialize the cats. When I got there Emma and Lisa already had them out and well taken care of, so I plunged right in with TABITHA. She did the same anxious mew mew mew as last week for about half of the walking time, then she got distracted and interested, and forgot to mew while she did some exploring. I took her down to the training room at the far end of the store and she relaxed in there, treating it kind of like a big, big cage.
AVERY was reluctant to let me put the leash on; once out I took her straight to the training room, where she relaxed and did a lot of prancing about, rubbing legs, and asking to be petted. When it was time to leave the room she navigated her way back to the cat room without any trouble, so looks like her mental map now includes pretty much the whole store.
As for CHESTER, what a beautiful, friendly, charismatic cat. Quite the charmer. Hard to believe someone would give him up for adoption; don’t think it’ll be long before he’s in a new home. He’s clearly been out on a leash before and did really well. He’s the kind of cat who walks up to people and asks for attention, which they were happy to give him. Oddly enough, when towards the end of my shift I decided to give him a second short walk, he kicked up a terrible fuss at the idea of having the leash on again so I gave up the idea.
Avery went into her cage after her walk and pretty much stayed there, hissing and swatting at my occasional offers to pet her — she’s clearly adjusting to her plans to become boss-cat of the room having collapsed with the arrival of Chester. Think she’ll settle down over the next few days. Tabitha (‘Queen of all String Games’) demanded games, and Chester wanted to join in. She’s perfectly okay with getting close to him, but he’s wary of letting her close and sometimes hisses her back. I brought in a paper bag, which they all ignored. By contrast, the cat-nip spray was a big hit (except with Avery, who thought it might be a spray-the-cat water-bottle). Both Tabitha and Chester loved the string game and the mouse-on-a-stick game (I left that behind as a gift). In addition, Chester showed great enthusiasm for the feather-duster. In short, both cats got to exercise their inner predator without anyone getting hurt.
Speaking of which, I feel bad for Minerva. AND the person she bit. Twice! She had been so much better last week getting out and about on the leash that I hoped she was opening up. It’s hard to be a senior cat in a cage. Hope she does better at the next cat-room.
And while it’s too bad not to get to meet Kit/Luna — never seen whiskers that long on a cat before — I’m glad she got re-united with her owner so quickly. Can we have the whole story on that someday?
no health issues, but happy to report a donation from a PetsMart customer; I pinned this to the calendar.
And that’s it for another week.
—John R.
UPDATE Wednesday evening
I just have to add that upon returning home I found our cat FEANOR thinking he was due a walk himself, so I obliged. He doesn't go far these days, just around the back porch and into the side yard, but he enjoys smelling outdoors things, watching birds or bunnies, and eating some grass. It was his day for seeing other animals up close -- first our next-door neighbor's dog Sidney (whom he knows pretty well, they having stared at each other a lot from our respective balconies) and then The Grey Cat, a neighborhood cat who seems fascinated with Feanor and comes up and watches him sometimes when he's out. This time he got to within about a cat's length of him whereupon Feanor mewed a time or two. Then they went their separate ways. Hastur, meanwhile, was upstairs on the desk in a box; she only ever wants to go out when it's getting dark (which is a bad time for me).
June 26, 2017
Facts That Aren't (Dorothy Sayers)
So, Thursday Janice and I headed up to Seattle to see a play at the Taproot Theater. It's been so long since we've been there that the theater we'd gone to last time (where we saw SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE) has since burned down and they've shifted to a new location (v. nice).
This time we had come to see BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, having heard it recommended by friend Jeff (http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2017/06/serious-wimsey.html). We enjoyed the play -- they didn't quite nail it, but it was good fun nonetheless. But my scholar's soul can't let pass one error in the program book.
In the director's notes (page A2 in the program book), he says
"Sayers intrigued me -- and as a member of The Inklings, she was surrounded by a cadre of writers like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Clearly she ran with very smart people"
--the last bit ('very smart people') is true enough, but the part about being an Inkling isn't. In the words of C. S. Lewis, cofounder (w. Tolkien) of the group, "She never met our own club [The Inklings] . . . and probably never knew of its existence" (THE INKLINGS, p. 189).
All in all, though, an enjoyable evening. I'd gladly go there again. And it got Janice and myself thinking back over the Petherbridge adaptations in the 80s -- is it really that many years ago? -- and the Carmichael ones a decade or so before that. Seeing how many classic mysteries and series have been remade in recent years, I'm surprised these haven't been redone. One can hope . . .
--JDR
current reading: THREE HEARTS & THREE LIONS (just finished) by Poul Anderson. #II.3380.
ANATHEMATA (read aloud) by David Jones.
my favorite Sayers mystery: STRONG POISON. runner up: prob. NINE TAILORS (despite the silly method-of-murder)
This time we had come to see BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, having heard it recommended by friend Jeff (http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2017/06/serious-wimsey.html). We enjoyed the play -- they didn't quite nail it, but it was good fun nonetheless. But my scholar's soul can't let pass one error in the program book.
In the director's notes (page A2 in the program book), he says
"Sayers intrigued me -- and as a member of The Inklings, she was surrounded by a cadre of writers like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Clearly she ran with very smart people"
--the last bit ('very smart people') is true enough, but the part about being an Inkling isn't. In the words of C. S. Lewis, cofounder (w. Tolkien) of the group, "She never met our own club [The Inklings] . . . and probably never knew of its existence" (THE INKLINGS, p. 189).
All in all, though, an enjoyable evening. I'd gladly go there again. And it got Janice and myself thinking back over the Petherbridge adaptations in the 80s -- is it really that many years ago? -- and the Carmichael ones a decade or so before that. Seeing how many classic mysteries and series have been remade in recent years, I'm surprised these haven't been redone. One can hope . . .
--JDR
current reading: THREE HEARTS & THREE LIONS (just finished) by Poul Anderson. #II.3380.
ANATHEMATA (read aloud) by David Jones.
my favorite Sayers mystery: STRONG POISON. runner up: prob. NINE TAILORS (despite the silly method-of-murder)
June 16, 2017
Warnie Trashes Mrs. Moore
So, the most recent volume of THE JOURNAL OF INKLINGS STUDIES has arrived, and as always there's at least one piece to which my eye is immediately drawn -- in this case, Don King's piece on a previously unknown (to me, at least) little work by Warnie Lewis, longtime Inkling and C. S. Lewis's older brother: MENS HUMANA (or 'Kilns Table Talk').
It's long been known that Warnie, who lived with his brother and CSL's common law wife, Janie Moore, despised the latter. It's also well-known that Warnie and CSL kept a collection of things their father said* that made him look stupid** -- a prime example being their claim that he believed the ancient Babylonians were Japanese, due to his inability to understand the difference between the words "Sumerian" and "Samurai".
Now, in addition to the 100 sayings that make Albert Lewis look bad, we have seventy-two that make Mrs. Moore look bad. Except we don't: in this case we don't get the whole of MENS HUMANA but excerpts, most of them summarized rather than quoted directly.
As for the individual items, they're a mixed lot. Just as many of the sayings in PUDAITA PIE sound like jokes that flopped, some of the MENS HUMANA sound like misunderstandings, whereas a few are truly bizarre, such as this exchange:
JKM (shouting from hall): 'Warnie!'
WHL (leaves study and appears): 'Well?'
JKM: 'What's the time?'
WHL: '6.45'
JKM: 'Oh rubbish! It's 6.40'
WHL (nettled): 'Well why ask me?'
JKM: Because I thought you'd tell me right'
(entry # LIX, p. 113-114)
Oddly enough, editor King pretty much accepts Warnie's point of view as his own-- that Moore was a horrible woman: conceited, mean-spirited, snobbish, self-righteous, and petty, as well as "dogmatic, contentious, and irascible". He also conflates the Janie Moore who was suffering from dementia (probably Alzheimer's) in the final four years of her life with the person CSL fell in love with; much of CSL's comments when she was in her final decline sound v. familiar to anyone who's been a caregiver.
All in all, a curious and disturbing piece.
--John R.
*PUDAITA PIE, published the year before last in the journal VII (volume 32, p. 59-67)
**which he wasn't: not only did he have two brilliant sons but seems to have been a voracious reader and was well-known as a sharp-witted Belfast lawyer.
It's long been known that Warnie, who lived with his brother and CSL's common law wife, Janie Moore, despised the latter. It's also well-known that Warnie and CSL kept a collection of things their father said* that made him look stupid** -- a prime example being their claim that he believed the ancient Babylonians were Japanese, due to his inability to understand the difference between the words "Sumerian" and "Samurai".
Now, in addition to the 100 sayings that make Albert Lewis look bad, we have seventy-two that make Mrs. Moore look bad. Except we don't: in this case we don't get the whole of MENS HUMANA but excerpts, most of them summarized rather than quoted directly.
As for the individual items, they're a mixed lot. Just as many of the sayings in PUDAITA PIE sound like jokes that flopped, some of the MENS HUMANA sound like misunderstandings, whereas a few are truly bizarre, such as this exchange:
JKM (shouting from hall): 'Warnie!'
WHL (leaves study and appears): 'Well?'
JKM: 'What's the time?'
WHL: '6.45'
JKM: 'Oh rubbish! It's 6.40'
WHL (nettled): 'Well why ask me?'
JKM: Because I thought you'd tell me right'
(entry # LIX, p. 113-114)
Oddly enough, editor King pretty much accepts Warnie's point of view as his own-- that Moore was a horrible woman: conceited, mean-spirited, snobbish, self-righteous, and petty, as well as "dogmatic, contentious, and irascible". He also conflates the Janie Moore who was suffering from dementia (probably Alzheimer's) in the final four years of her life with the person CSL fell in love with; much of CSL's comments when she was in her final decline sound v. familiar to anyone who's been a caregiver.
All in all, a curious and disturbing piece.
--John R.
*PUDAITA PIE, published the year before last in the journal VII (volume 32, p. 59-67)
**which he wasn't: not only did he have two brilliant sons but seems to have been a voracious reader and was well-known as a sharp-witted Belfast lawyer.
New Arrivals
So, new glasses.
These'll take some getting used to.
--JDR.
current reading: THE GHOST IN THE CORNER (the new book from Lord Dunsany).
These'll take some getting used to.
--JDR.
current reading: THE GHOST IN THE CORNER (the new book from Lord Dunsany).
The Cat Report (W.6/14-17)
Great news that Mr. BOSCO found a new home. He was a charismatic fellow and I have no doubt he’s already won the hearts of his new people.
That left us with four cats in the cat-room: AVERY, MINERVA, TONKS, and TABITHA.
Everyone came out right away except Minerva, who enjoyed games (laser pointer) and petting in her cage. She’ll let you know if she wants you to stop, with a slap if needed to drive home the message. At one point we had quite a ruckus when Tonks jumped into Minerva’s cage, who proceeded to give her the what-for. There was much hissing and much swatting but after Tonks had gotten back out of there she didn’t have a scratch on her — it was intense but unarmed, so to speak. Minerva is the only one who didn’t get a walk -- even though I got her out enjoying herself on one of the cat-stands at one point, she was back in the cage when walk-time came around and I thought digging her out of the cage a second time wd just rile her up and start off the walk on a sour note. I’ll have to remember to start with her next time.
Avery was moody, although I think glad to be back in the big cage now that Bosco's adoption had freed that up again. She spent most of the morning in the outer room, keeping an eye on the other cats and occasionally joining in a game. She had a good walk over in the training room, purring all the time. Her fur’s finally grown out, just a beautiful as expected. Think maybe she needs more one-on-one attention.
Tabitha was charming. She came out right away and curled up on the bench, purring whenever anyone gave her some attention. I can finally tell her from Minerva! (Minerva has an all-black nose). She enjoyed games, but she’s a lazy predator and wants to swat at things that come in range, not to have to chase after it or leave her comfy spot. She had a short walk, mostly a carry, which I cut short after she started mewing. She was happiest when someone sat beside her.
Tonks was adorable. Into everything: wanting to climb in every cabinet, play with every toy, ride on your shoulder, and see if whatever you’re doing is a good game. She had a good walk, especially when she discovered the end-cap with catnip toys: she thought it was a great idea to have them all at her level where she cd sniff each in turn. She wanted to play with everybody, but nobody wanted to play with her except me. What a great little cat.
In the still-new-at-the-Cleaner-thing department: I forgot to check off the boxes on the clipboard. Sorry about that.
health concerns: none, but I did notice that (1) none of the cats ate their wet catfood and (2) they all love to sneak into each other’s cages and use other cats’ sandboxes.
—John R.
UPDATE (Friday morning)And yesterday comes the news that little TONKS got herself adopted and by last night was settling in, already making herself v. much at home. A happy ending. Here's a picture to remember her by:
June 14, 2017
A Very Short Gnomish Glossary (non-Tolkien)
So, Tolkien's GNOMISH LEXICON is well-known,* and the Sindarin deriving from it is one of the world's most famous invented languages. Recently I became aware that there was a second gnomish language, this one poorly attested (in fact, we only know two words from it).
I am speaking of course of the once-popular book GNOMES by Wil Huygen (text) and Rien Poortvliet (art), which had a vogue in the late '70s (and was much imitated) but is now I think pretty much forgotten.
I recently tracked down a copy and reread it for the first time in many years, as part of a larger discussion (still ongoing) I've been having with some friends about the origins of gnomes as a player-character race in D&D. It does not stand up well, but I was bemused to find that it does give a little 'Gnomish' in passing.
The first occasion is when we are told about mid-book (GNOMES having no pagination) that the Gnomes' word for 'goodnight' is slitzweitz.
The second occasion comes about a third of the way from the end, on a full page with the header 'Language':
Among themselves gnomes speak their own language. But since we come in contact only with solitary gnomes, we never hear it. (They can become very difficult if asked about their language.) It is certain, however,that animals understand it. "Goodnight" is slitzweitz , and "thank you" is te diews . We did not progress muchbeyond these few words mainly because the gnomesmaster man's languages perfectly. And if they cannotplace a word, they immediately ask its meaning. Their written language is the ancient runic script.
Beneath this is a picture of a gnome saying "Slitzweitz" = Goodbye
--a slightly different gloss from goodnight but no doubt close enough.
And that's it: I don't know if they made up more words in 'Gnomish' in the books that followed (only the first few of which I read, and that long ago -- definitely a case of diminished returns) but I thought it worth sharing that they at least made the effort. Though I suspect they were inspired more by Richard Adam's WATERSHIP DOWN than JRRT.
--John R.
current reading: PRESIDENT FU MANCHU by Sax Rohmer (1936)**
*among Tolkien scholars, anyway.
**which I bought way back when working on the PULP CTHULHU project but have never read till now.
I am speaking of course of the once-popular book GNOMES by Wil Huygen (text) and Rien Poortvliet (art), which had a vogue in the late '70s (and was much imitated) but is now I think pretty much forgotten.
I recently tracked down a copy and reread it for the first time in many years, as part of a larger discussion (still ongoing) I've been having with some friends about the origins of gnomes as a player-character race in D&D. It does not stand up well, but I was bemused to find that it does give a little 'Gnomish' in passing.
The first occasion is when we are told about mid-book (GNOMES having no pagination) that the Gnomes' word for 'goodnight' is slitzweitz.
The second occasion comes about a third of the way from the end, on a full page with the header 'Language':
Among themselves gnomes speak their own language. But since we come in contact only with solitary gnomes, we never hear it. (They can become very difficult if asked about their language.) It is certain, however,that animals understand it. "Goodnight" is slitzweitz , and "thank you" is te diews . We did not progress muchbeyond these few words mainly because the gnomesmaster man's languages perfectly. And if they cannotplace a word, they immediately ask its meaning. Their written language is the ancient runic script.
Beneath this is a picture of a gnome saying "Slitzweitz" = Goodbye
--a slightly different gloss from goodnight but no doubt close enough.
And that's it: I don't know if they made up more words in 'Gnomish' in the books that followed (only the first few of which I read, and that long ago -- definitely a case of diminished returns) but I thought it worth sharing that they at least made the effort. Though I suspect they were inspired more by Richard Adam's WATERSHIP DOWN than JRRT.
--John R.
current reading: PRESIDENT FU MANCHU by Sax Rohmer (1936)**
*among Tolkien scholars, anyway.
**which I bought way back when working on the PULP CTHULHU project but have never read till now.
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