The Year in Blog

Overall, the blog approaches half a million hits. 

September was the biggest month although October 18 was the biggest day. 

The top 3 posts for the year (interesting that Waldrop was voted as World Fantasy grandmaster--more of a correlation, probably, with perhaps similar a cause).

1. "Night of the Cooters" by Howard Waldrop
2. "King of the Beasts" by Philip José Farmer (reassessed--one comment asked for more information, esp theme, so here it is)
3. "Fair Game" by Howard Waldrop (this needs some reassessing--after rereading and watching the Hemingway bio)
    
    
   Top 3 posts for new stories:
   
   
   
   
   "A Prize in Every Box" by F. J. Bergmann
   A Word That Means Everything by Andy Dibble
   Cat Rambo's "Crazy Beautiful" in F&SF Feb 2021 
   

 

The Art of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings--Fellowship of the Ring: The Title

 

I'd always thought of Sauron as the title's "Lord of the Rings" and thought of Frodo's band as the fellowship of the first book's title. 

While both can exist, they necessarily contrast. One convenes for good, while the other for bad.

Yet couldn't someone else be the lord of the ring(s)? Who is the lord? And what kind of ring are we talking about? There are many types of rings here. All could apply--not just physical metal bands, but also a group of creatures who band together. 

Who rules? The one who holds the ring? The one who destroys it? Or the ring itself? Does not the metal band also lord over rings of men?

Meanwhile, could there not also be other fellowships apart from Frodo's? Sauron's, too, with vastly different designs. Gollum also has a fellowship, albeit a rather small one that temporarily expands only to collapse again. Surely, we are meant to compare and contrast them all.

- - -

Related posts:

The Art of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings--the proem

Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part one (age, WWI)

Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part two 

Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part three

 

 

Wheel of Time vs. Lord of the Rings

Season one of The Wheel of Time is complete. I was fond of episodes two, three, and eight. 

Here was my hopefulness about the series after episode 3 of the Amazon series. Ah, youth.

I seem to have parted ways with viewers, in terms of episodes. They love four, and eight seems to have been their least favorite--not that eight is my favorite, but it offered me hope for season two when my faith in the series was waning.

Hopefully, they'll get another season to develop the characters...

Trent's law: "If you abandon basic storytelling in one area, make up for it elsewhere."

I'll be rereading book one. Here were my initial thoughts on reading it.

- - -

Stephen Colbert celebrated the 20th anniversary of Lord of the Rings' opening night. I find this less interesting for the humor than the claim that it is the #1 trilogy, beating out Star Wars and Godfather. Maybe? They're hard to compare since they all have different territories they mark.

I will say that I was disappointed yet hopeful at the first movie's ending.

On a rewatch, I noted how slow the opening was and how Gandalf remarks to Bilbo that he hasn't changed, but though Ian McKellen as Gandalf does flash some grim concern, it comes off as casual conversation. Besides he does look changed from earlier scenes. Not a major point, but interesting.

Krampus (2015)

Some minor spoilers. 'Tis the season.

Several movies have tried on the old legend (Wiki). If the IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings are to be trusted (6.2/10 and 66%), this is the best of them--a slice above tolerable, although horror usually does get lower ratings. 

As a family unites and divides over the Christmas holidays, Krampus and his little helper wreck havoc on a family that's already torn apart.

The writers, who were nominated for a few speculative awards, have done animation, kaiju, and superheroes. They display brilliance mixed with suspect choices. It seems to be the story of one person although it shifts through many--some of whom don't make logical choices, or at least we are not privy to their logic.

The final frames show the film could be interpreted two ways--asking viewers to reinterpret the movie a bit--but each possibility is undermined by earlier events, so the way of interpretation is up in the air.

In some ways it's very much a Christmas film, in other ways it's warped (although some might maintain any horror movie about Christmas warps the Christmas spirit).

Interesting effort, nonetheless. Watch for the brilliance, and roll with the less admirable choices.

The Art of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings--Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part three

The Art of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings--the proem

Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part one (age, WWI)

Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part two (The Hobbit, sequel and comparative mirror, character, foreshadowing)

- - -

I need to address several threads I started in part two, but what is the point of this opening, anyway? 

It establishes the status quo of the story and does so in what probably felt like a small English village. In other words, apart from their visible differences, they should have felt like an average citizen who journeys into the strange other world, which makes this a portal fantasy: going from the real world into one of fantasy.

Tolkien spends a lot of time developing the shire, so that he doesn't start with the protagonist, or even the guy who starts the protagonist on his journey.

It does seem to start with Bilbo, but whose perspective are we in? Not Bilbo's. You can tell by the adjectives describing Bible I discussed in part one: "peculiar" and "well-preserved." The town is taking our hero, down a peg (cruelly, perhaps). Tolkien begins in humility: small town talking about a man whom readers of The Hobbit know has done great deeds, but who is humbled.

There is some distance from these citizens, so we are immersed in an omniscient narrator who doesn't reveal himself, but the first clear perspective we encounter is the shire's.

Tolkien's modus operandi seems to develop the shire both in the breadth of recent history, but also width of the shire, drawing on various perspectives: those opposed to and those in favor of Bilbo. While Frodo's mentioned as heir, the next perspective we get is old Ham Gamgee, who gives us a better perspective on Bilbo because he's actually close to Bilbo. Ham is a great word in connotation and denotation: hog, stocky build, performer who exaggerates, humor (a name for the meat of a pig). Both "ham" and "gam" refer to the leg, and both rhyme in an obvious humorous way. Ham could be short for "hamlet" which makes him also a representative of the village. This interpretation is backed up by how the people respect his opinion.

When we get to his youngest offspring, Sam, the rhyme's still there, so some humor remains like a distant echo, but it removes the obvious humor of ham/gam. Same carries his progenitor's traits with him: humorous yet respectable.

In The Hobbit, we get the rumor that someone in Bilbo's ancestry is fairy, which explains their desire of adventure. One might point to this and say, "Ah-ha! Genetic destiny." But surely we all acknowledge that genetics do have something to do with destiny based on genetic twin studies in which try to understand how much of who we are is nature (genetic) and how much is nurture (how we are raised). Moreover, it is a rumor--just a possibility, but never fully established. 

It makes sense to make the protagonists of a children's book small and weak since children themselves are small and weak. But why would someone do so in an adult novel? This is part of what makes this series so powerful and remains unique despite so many who have trod in Tolkien's footsteps. 

In most fantasies and throughout the superhero genre, we have people who are super-powerful, or who become powerful. In The Lord of the Rings, the main characters are all small and comparatively weak. They sometimes have advantages, sometimes not. Anyone who wants to critique Tolkien's work has to grapple with this. Whenever the protagonists might think they are important, they are put in their place: small in a very large world. Yet they remain the keys to solving the destruction of evil. How many current fantasies grapple with this paradox? Most fantasies wants their heroes to be super. Tolkien defies this and, because of this, remains unique.

Why didn't Tolkien keep Bilbo as the protagonist? Surely that would have been simpler. Have Gandalf show up, and have the dynamic duo ride off together to solve the world's problems. Two eternal beings take on a host of evil in the world: one fireball-wielding wizard dude and invisible small guy who's quick with his sword. Typical superhero fantasy.

Tolkien must have had a purpose in doing what he does, and I suggest that purpose is in the paragraphs above. Yes, Bilbo's important, but he's small and kept humble. He's been morally crippled by all the power in his life. Anyone could be crippled by it. 

Also, don't forget the title: Fellowship of the Ring. You could say that Tolkien intended one book, but he probably came up with that title himself. Leaving out "fellowship" leaves out a critical understanding of the work as a whole. It isn't going to be one person who saves the world but a team working together. There's not a good definition of the term that captures the need and power of fellowship as it is used in Tolkien's faith, but take a look all of the fellowships within Tolkien's work: often motley (different races coming together), otherwise down and disarrayed people who unite to perform a great deed.

If there's no nuance in a critique of Tolkien, jettison it. They don't understand the narrative on a basic level.

Interview with Jeanette Anderson, part one

 

Jeanette Anderson may be new to novels (I reviewed her first novel here), but not new to writing. The best of her blogs share a little something about her life. Here she discusses growing up in poverty near Snake River. She expands on that with a couple of personal anecdotes here, including this description of a UFO sighting:

Unbelievable to us, our eyes took in the image of a slowly moving saucer-shaped object, with red, green and white lights blinking around the perimeter. It moved directly over our heads toward the church, and I was sure it was too low to clear the steeply pitched roof. Much to my surprise, it did not hit the building but glided over it and disappeared.  We scattered and shouted the news to the boys who meandered around in the side lot. They yelled and jumped on their motorcycles and peeled into the vacant field behind the church property to see if the saucer had landed there. They returned disappointed. There was no sign of a flying saucer.

In her bio for a book-review blog, she wrote about this experience on a mountain road:

Years ago, I was steering down the steep, windy lane from the Sundance Ski Resort when my heart began to pound. The car behind me had closed the gap between us on the mountainside. Maybe he was a psychopath who would drive me off the road, attack and stab me to death. Maybe I was being chased by my handsome lover who had begged me not to leave him, was aching to hold me in his arms and wouldn’t let me go. Maybe it was both. My hands froze on the steering wheel when at the T-junction the suspicious driver pulled up beside me. When he turned in the opposite direction, and the chase was over, I decided it was time. As an accomplished and published ghost writer with over twenty-five years of experience, my subconscious was calling me to enter the world of fiction.

These demonstrate the power of Anderson's creativity and ability to enthrall with literary thrills. Though some might suggest a measure of credulity, you'll also notice the skepticism that also governs the imagination--that it is fiction that propels us forward. Just as she navigates the Charybdis and Scylla of politics, she threads narrative creativity as a skilled pilot, testing her readers' imagination with wild aplomb.

 - - -

How did you get started writing?

My mother read literature to us as kids around the kitchen table, and I was fascinated how the words could make her cry and give me goose bumps. I picked up a pen and began journaling as a young teenager and still journal to this day. I must have a dozen volumes now.

Have you mined those journals to write new works? Or are they workshops in craft? Or just personal records?

I used journaling to hone those emotional expressions and clarify life’s experiences which as you know is a huge part of storytelling, to get all that emotion onto the page and into the heart of the reader.

 

Who were some of your favorite writers back then? now?

I loved Nancy Drew Mysteries growing up. Now I enjoy the mysteries of Mary Higgins Clark and the romance of Nicolas Sparks.

What was the origin of the novel?

It was quite unexpected, really. I met a Palestinian woman on Shepherds Hill just outside of Bethlehem who thanked me for being willing to write a story of her people and their struggle. I felt embarrassed as I reflected on her words because I realized I was not even close to describing the conflict of that war-zone. I traveled home and changed my story. Instead of trying to avoid the conflict I put my protagonist into the center of it.

 

On her blog, she expands:

[The Palestinian woman and I] sat together and talked about the despair she had experienced; the bus searches and beatings, the laws prohibiting her from ever seeing her birthplace, Jerusalem. How in her desire to worship on the Sabbath she’d snuck through a hole in the security fence to reach the Mount of Olives and been shot at by soldiers. It was chilling.

 

Part two of the interview is here.

Interview with Jeanette Anderson, part two

Part one of the interview began here.

A review of her romantic-suspense novel can be found here.

 

What did you do for research?

I spent six years researching and interviewing friends from Palestine and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and of course I traveled there and did onsite interviews. I had great support from both sides of the story.

Studying Palestinian poetry was a phenomenal experience. They have a flavor so unique and powerful that I loved playing with that.

What were some of those flavors?

The poems I studied had a unique style, with carefully placed words born of suffering which might seem angry and morbid to some, blood, death, despair and ruin, but because they were so beautifully written, they fall on your heart.

An American friend who studied there said that he had Muslim and Israeli friends with whom he freely discussed and debated important issues, whereas in the US, we're afraid to talk politics, except with like-minded sorts. What was your experience?

I imagine when your life is rooted in conflict and you are living in a war-zone you are not afraid to share your opinion. They disagree with each other, for sure and will correct you when they think you’re wrong. I found the opinions of people in Palestine well informed through their personal experience.

The novel did feel like you'd worked hard to understand the culture(s). In one part the community protects a criminal of their people, but at the same time tries to help a woman find her child. People make grave mistakes and feel shame with no way to atone--and are treated as if the mistakes were purposeful.

It is a complex society and my experience is limited, but I loved being with them. I found these people extremely loving, caring and helpful on both sides of the conflict.

How many of these events are based on stories you've heard?

This story was definitely inspired by the people I interviewed. I worked hard to get as many of their stories into the work as I could. The true stories from the book Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef really touched me and informed my story.

 

Have you heard back from anyone from the area about the novel--or friends whose stories helped shape the novel?

Yes. They’ve asked for boxes of books for their friends. Some Palestinians wished I would have told more of the atrocities they had endured. Some of my Israeli friends felt I was a bit tough on the Israelis. I’d hear, “I can tell you’ve been talking with your Palestinian friends!” Then I would hear, “No. An Israeli doctor would never do that,” from the Palestinian side. Yet, I personally interviewed the Israeli director of surgery at the facility where the surgeon plugged the bullet hole in the student’s heart with his finger, and saved her, while the Palestinian shooter was in a stall down the hall. This doctor had personally flown with a Palestinian father and his child who was dying of cancer to a special facility and overseen his treatment. I wish I could have told all their marvelous stories.

What were some of the difficulties you had in writing it?

I had a hard time walking the line between being anti-Israeli or anti-Palestinian. I am neither. My goal was just to get people to think about their thinking. Open some minds to a new way to see this battlefield. Expose them to something they hadn’t thought of before. It seems to have been successful in that way.

It was also hard to figure out which genre this story fit into. It was not a good fit for romance because of the thriller aspect, but in the end, I chose to go with romantic suspense and hoped people would find it refreshingly different.

It is refreshing and different. I was constantly surprised when sections became a thoroughbred thriller. Who are some of your influences?

Everyone close to me, my husband, children, extended family and friends, all believed in me and encouraged me, and said that I could do it. What a blessing.

I definitely would have to say that my greatest mentor is David Farland. I have no idea how someone can write so stunningly. I started out careening from wall to wall trying to figure this writing process out, but he was right there with me. He has coached and edited and corrected and nudged me along this path and always with profound kindness. I couldn’t have done this without his expertise and encouragement.

What are you working on now?

This time I am taking the story to Southern Spain. I was on one of the southern beaches collecting shells when I saw my next love interest. He came out from an abandoned hotel and with a spear in his hand waded out to claim his catch. I asked myself. Who is this squatter and what is his story? I named him Marcos and he is a fascinating character in my next novel.

Good luck to your current and follow-up novels. I look forward to reading what you conjure up next. Thank you for the interview. 

My pleasure,Trent.

Love Behind Enemy Lines by Jeanette Anderson

 

Here's a contemporary romance thriller or thrilling romance for those who have a penchant for thrillers and romance. Both play a significant role. 

Glancing at the cover, I assumed that the novel was primarily romance, and put it on the back burner--to read as soon as I'd read these others. Romance fascinates me but usually as part of a mix, so the title and some of the subtle imagery should have suggested the strong impact of the thriller genre. 

In the novel, Jannah has a reason to become an activist. Effron and she make mistakes and hide secrets that get them in trouble. But even in a desert, they will bloom.

The strength of the writing took me by surprise. Anderson takes on a bestselling style, as expected for the genres she's mining, but puts effort into making her scenes vivid, more than most bestselling writers do.

Let's prove this by opening the book at random and picking a passage that illustrates this:

"When Shaphier came into view, Jannah’s heart quickened. She cranked the window down and leaned her head out to feel the stiff breeze on her face. Though home to 23,000, to an outsider, it appeared a backward town with unpleasant residents. She admitted it was a broken-down community. The power cables sagged between pine-log poles and gusting wind cartwheeled plastic grocery bags across the fields of gray stubble—after being a prisoner, it was a sight to be cherished."

What a keen eye for choosing the right word to carve out an image.

This is no easy love story. Setting it in one of the most controversial regions on the planet would probably not occur to most. But that challenge becomes a draw.

Does it accurately portray the conflict in the Middle East? That I cannot address. It feels like she has made a valiant effort to portray the conflict with difficult and admirable nuance, but those closer to the issue might have another perspective.

The opening sample might suggest whether you'd be interested:

Chapter 1

Wrongly Accused

For too many days, Jannah al-Jorbouni lay on a frayed and smelly mattress in her dim jail cell in Lachish Detention Center. The corridor light cast a yellow glow on a colony of ants climbing through the concrete cracks. Their black oval bodies darted into the bedding, food, and clothing.

Jannah clutched a handful of knotted sheets as the pain in her stomach spiked. A bizarre fever had raged through her body all night.

Like ice crystals on a frosty windowpane, she was freezing cold one moment, clutching the thin blanket under her chin, then suddenly, burned hot, her bedding drenched in sweat. The noxious odors of sweaty bodies and sewage further sickened her, and she felt like a caged animal.

She licked her cracked lips, which did little to moisten them, and stared at the two swallows of water left in the cup she held.

She leaned up, took a sip, swished it around to let the liquid bathe her tongue, then held it in her cheeks before swallowing.

As the gray days passed behind bars, each day drearier than the one before, a kind of hopelessness gripped her. She struggled against despair more than she did against the pain in her abdomen and ran her hand over the tally marks scratched into the wall near her bunk. Six months in this hellhole. How much longer can I hold out? she wondered.

The first few months at Lachish, she’d believed she could handle anything, but her Christian spirit had been drained. Too much wrath and retaliation had left her soul riddled with holes. The only evidence that she had not been entirely broken was when she left the boiled egg yolk or crust of bread on the dinner tray for Besan, who was more sister than cousin.

The Art of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings--Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part two

The opening of The Fellowship of the Ring accomplishes a number of things. One, being a sequel, ties up loose ends that, though not critical, some may have wondered what had occurred in Hobbiton in the intervening years. Second, the novels shift in tone from a children's adventure to a darker adult tale, so there needs to be a transition that gets the reader comfortably situated in a similar tone before shifting gears. Finally, even if we start with this novel, the opening is a sort of portal fantasy that leads us from a world not too unlike our own, to the wider, wilder world.

The Hobbit ends on an auction conducted by the Sackville-Baggins, selling off all of Bilbo's stuff as if he were dead. Bilbo suspected they kept his silverware. The people of the town think him "queer" because he associated with different sorts of people--dwarves, elves, wizards, et al.

Not only does Tolkien wish us to compare and contrast The Lord of the Rings opening to The Hobbit's closing, but also its opening. The Hobbit opens with a chapter entitled "An Unexpected Party" while The Lord of the Rings opens with "A Long-Expected Party". In both openings, the term "party" plays on all of its meanings: a social gathering, a political group, one side in an agreement or dispute.

When Tolkien brings us back to Bilbo's hometown after his long retirement, we listen in on the gossip of the hobbits. The Sackville-Baggins are still on the outs with Bilbo--unlikely to inherit what they'd so desired to possess--while nephew Frodo is in, heir not only to Bilbo's worldly possessions but also his adventures, in a few different ways.

This returns us to The Hobbit:

"[Gandalf] had not been down that way under The Hill for ages and ages, not since his friend the Old Took died....

[Gandalf said,] "To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son, as if I was selling buttons at the door!”  

“Gandalf, Gandalf! Good gracious me! Not the wandering wizard that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never came undone till ordered?....

“ 'Dear me!' [Bilbo] went on. 'Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures? Anything from climbing trees to visiting elves—or sailing in ships, sailing to other shores! Bless me, life used to be quite inter—I mean, you used to upset things badly in these parts once upon a time. I beg your pardon, but I had no idea you were still in business.” 

“ 'Where else should I be?' said the wizard."

There's quite of bit suggested here. Gandalf is familiar with Bilbo's family--his grandfather Old Took who seems to be a fondly remembered patrician, and Old Took's daughter and Bilbo's mother, Belladonna--but unfamiliar with Bilbo.
 
Bilbo used to be more like his rube neighbor's--or at least he tried to be. He interrupted his statement about life being interesting with Gandalf in order to state that Gandalf upset the town--despite the many wonders Gandalf brought to the people. Gandalf occupies a strange niche within the community--both admired and shunned, liked and disliked, perhaps at the same time. This creates a fascinating mystery both within Bilbo, but also on the figure of Gandalf himself, who smiles about it, taking it in stride. Today, Americans would take offense at the prejudice, but here Gandalf finds it amusing.

Another further suggestion is that Gandalf keeps returning to this little village of little people for the purposes of taking them on adventures. Perhaps he took Old Took on one. It suggests that Tolkien may have already had Frodo's adventure in mind even while writing The Hobbit, seventeen years earlier.

The Art of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings--Fellowship of the Ring, Ch 1 "A Long-Expected Party", part one

On my first attempts at cracking this book as a kid, I bounced off this chapter. When I did finally read it, I wasn't much taken by it. On the reread, I'm surprised not just by how much is implied, but also by the point of view: the people of Hobbiton. 

Bilbo is "peculiar" and the unnamed narrator [narrators?] focuses on Bilbo's disappearance and "unexpected" return. Apparently if you disappear, you aren't expected to return. Moreover, there's disapproval of his being "well-preserved" despite his generosity. One senses jealousy--perhaps Bilbo is only generous with the poor, not with the narrator.

There's a throw-away comment about Frodo "still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three."

This is a curiosity that can play a number of ways. They have a comparatively extended childhood. Do they need the longer childhood? Or do they have that simply because they can? Is it a comment on our extending childhood where earlier generations were expected to be adults at younger ages?

If we map this on to our own lives, we can divide the ages by, say, between 1.4 and 1.8 to get an approximation of translation of what the human ages might be. If "tweens" = teens, then 1.5 is probably the best choice, but it would depend on what Tolkien's age thought "coming of age" was. 18 is the age where one can drink alcohol and join the army, so does 33=18 (then ~1.8)?

The human age would put Bilbo between 55-70 when he decided on an heir and in his 60s or 70s for his grand party, so that would be a little odd to see some looking like a younger man at that age. 

But it's also odd to be jealous of someone else's good fortune as these villagers seem to be. The village's comments are as much a comment on themselves as on Bilbo himself. Those who make negative comments tend not to seem aware that negativity can reflect back on themselves.

[SIDE BAR: As I perform the calculations and compare them to the comments, I'm now leaning toward an age-converting factor between 1.6 and 1.8, so that Bilbo seeks an heir between 55-62, and throws a party between 62-70--when his youthful appearance might seem peculiar but perhaps not too shocking. However, Bilbo plans a permanent exit, so would that be 62 (1.8)? 70 (1.6)? or 79 (1.4)? 

A little research reveals that life-expectancy for men in 1950s England [when and where the novel was finished] was around 65, so maybe 1.7 or 1.8 is the proper conversion factor. You'd want to exit before people think it's too strange (62-65). Choose an heir between 55-58. Come of age at 18 or 19. Become irresponsible from about 11 or 12 until coming of age. These feel about right. [ETA: Except when you get to Old Took who lives only to 130, which would only be 72, which doesn't seem an impressively old, so perhaps 1.4?]

However--and this could be just an invented cultural thing--the 111th birthday sounds like the quinceañera, a commonly and publicly celebrated birthday (along with Frodo's coming of age at 33), so while it may be near the end, it seems many do get to celebrate this age.]

All of this talk of prolonged youth brings up a question that isn't properly addressed: How do hobbits live so long? What or who protects them?

I've always felt the villagers were the rubes back home that never left to fight in a world war (as Tolkien had, reluctantly, in WWI) and now looked upon the youth returning home with disapproval--not just at war, but their venturing into the grander world for any reason. Peter Jackson addressed some of this in his WWI documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old: