Preparing for Kalamazoo . . .

So, the good news is that I've now finished the draft of my paper for Kalamazoo: "Inside Literature: Tolkien's Explorations of Medieval Genres". Still needs work (not least, coming up with a better subtitle), but at least I now have a completed paper for the presentation.

The bad news? On a trial run, it took me thirty minutes to read. My available time on the panel? Fifteen minutes.

So, now it's a matter of coming up with a satisfactory abridgment for oral presentation that will make sense, not leaving out any necessary parts of the argument while also not being too jarring to the ear. Tricky, but shd be do-able.

And now to turn, a little later than I'd like, to drafting out my bit for the Tolkien Roundtable on THE HOBBIT, where I also have a lot to say and even less time to say it (about ten minutes).

-John R.

current reading: The Voyage of St. Brendan (13th century Dutch version)