Friday, February 1, 2019

Finding that Lost Quote (TotS)

So, this week's work on my current project, the paper for Kalamazoo, ended on a high note when I finally found the quote I was looking for. I was sure it was in Clyde Kilby's little book, but re-reading the relevant sections and re-skimming the rest didn't turn it up. So I cast my net a little wider and, Eureka. There it is, not in Kilby's book as published but in the deleted chapter in which he synopsized the whole SILMARILLION (as it had existed in 1966, based on his notes).

Now that's taken care of it's on to Shippey.  At least here I know where to look (ROAD TO MIDDLE-EARTH, third edition, Chapter 7), thanks to preliminary work on this a few months ago. Here it's more a matter of rereading his discussion of THE SILMARILLION and extracting some memorable Shippey-esque comment from it -- or so I thought. But as sometimes happens with Shippey, reading a passage for one reason made me think of something else that sent me off on a whole new line of thought. We'll see whether it circles back around and turns out to be part of the original topic or insists on becoming the core of a new section.

--John R.
current reading: a Japanese light novel (in translation) and a collection of Charles Addams' cartoons depicting what came to be known as 'The Addams Family'

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