L.E. Fidler > Recent Status Updates

Ok…why can there, like, be timeouts in professional quidditch but at Hogwarts, you play until you die? That’s what I want to know.

Also, the poor Robertses…memories modified, bits exposed, brains bobbled…not a great night for the Muggles either!

Molly Weasley hate-cooking dinner because of her concerns regarding Fred and George is the mom vibes I need to bring to summer 2021.

Tonight’s chat: fat shaming is unnecessary and we strongly disapprove of weaponizing Dudley’s weight. That said, blowing up the electric fire? Classic Weasley!

We have agreed to alternate our LOTR with out Harry Potter reading, so we’re back to Hogwarts, bitches!

Or you know, gently plodding toward there since we aren’t even at the Quidditch World Cup yet,,,

Tonight’s chat? A compare and contrast of how Lord Voldemort is basically the Gollum and how precision of language matters when trying to parse the impossible.

I love my kids.

Rivers and hobbits and orcs, oh my!

We are so close to the end of the first part of the journey. Liam said the best part so far was the Balrog. He’s not wrong.

I will diminish into the West and remain Galadriel.

Gah, the bridge! Fly, you fools!

Lots of stops for connections (comparing Enola Holmes’s corset to mithrail was a favorite) and vocabulary in context (“Ori’s hand = handwriting, for example). Best chapter in the book, hands down. Doom, doom, doom!

Word of the Day: dogged

Book chatter: would you rather be Gandalf or Legolas??? Are the mines the right way or the wrong way? Whose footfalls does Frodo hear???

I keep forgetting to update as we read. Ooops. The kids still can only name two elves and are obsessed with Tom Bombadil even though we left him back in the Old Forest like 7 chapters ago. Such is the way of reading with children, I suppose.

More of the Counsel/Council, Shadowfax FTW, using context clues to decipher bitterness, attacking traditional uses of black and white imagery in perpetuating racism, the fate of the Ring is decided

Book catch up: the Nazgul, Frodo makes a poor choice, yay for Glorfindel, boo for cursed blades, a scintillating discussion of weregild, the council of Elrond makes Mommy lose her voice. Oh and somewhere in there, a kid maybe got chickenpox!

Barliman Butterbur? More like Barely Man Butterbeer, am I right, ladies?!

Hobbits and Barrow wights and Bombadil, oh my! Tonight we talked about intentional authorial ambiguity, why so many things revolve around ponies in the book, and how no matter how adorable in the story they should never call their mother Fatty Lumpkin please and thank you.

Look, I’m not saying he’s perfect, I’m just saying I want a Tim Bombadil song to sing when I get imprisoned in stone by evil barrow wights. That’s all.

Tom Bombadil has yellow boots but saying that he has a hot wife objectifies her and that’s misogynistic and rude and we don’t do that here. That said, Goldberry is a good name, according to at least one child.

Songs of the Old Forest: will we love or hate Tim Bombadil? Shall we cry because a beloved character might eventually die in the third book or smile because he lived for over 1000 pages (and lives again every time we read the books)...just kidding. We always pick crying.

#teammerryandpippin

A shortcut to mushrooms: I always forget how they do Farmer Maggot dirty in the movie, but he is the real MVP of Chapter Four.

Book chat: the differences between the book and the movie, Sam as a loyal golden retriever of a hobbit, the meaning of tread, the medieval symbol of a “snow-white lady”, Gildor the High Elvish friend we need

And we are back! Baby’s first dystopia! The twins have been discovered and Halton is a creep. See you for Part 2!!

Book chat: the dignity of calling Gollum Sméagol, Sam as the Middle Earth’s worst eavesdropper, the ring’s origin story, pity and mercy

The kids love them some hobbitses. Tonight’s chat: symbolism of numbers (111, 33, 144, etc), hobbit birthday traditions, the utter joyful pettiness of Bilbo Baggins, One Ring, Gandalf is my homeboy, those MFin’ Sackville-Bagginses, Proudfeet, The Real Pippin and Merry, Sam and his Gaffer

After a short break, we are back!
Words to know: bilious, unsubstantial, green in the face
Chitchat: what is IT trying to do? Would you rather give your mind over to IT or be really lost??? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh man. When your 7.5 year old cries for ten minutes because Calvin’s mom hits her children with a wooden spoon, you begin rethinking your decision to revisit your childhood favorites. Nevertheless, we persisted.

Chit chat: tesser = wrinkle = 🤯, not letting ourselves get bogged down by the physics, spotting Shakespeare shoutouts, connections to Bottom and centaurs, the pros and cons of two dimensional living, a whole lotta Jesus

This is getting good now: Liam sums up the exposition as “Calvin being a police officer” and I’ll never read that scene the same way again, the definition of willing, Meg’s stubbornness and why we agree with her that it’s more work to show the work in math, connections to names/Greenglass House, Mom’s first literary crush is exposed!

Meg’s no good horrible very bad day meets Mrs. Whatsit. The winner? Fortinbras whose name led to a tangential exploration of going on a pilgrimage to Shakespeare‘s grave and leaving flowers there. I love my kids.

I don’t know if we will make it through. Lots of talk about pirate poetry, rum, the likelihood of this being a true story, the curious habit of wig wearing, 18th century attitudes toward piracy, yo ho ho