So, yesterday I got a message from a friend, Jared Lobdell, who's been dead from three years or so. At first I thought this might be the result of his having set up some automatic notification --something I know happens with Facebook occasionally. But this was an email and there seems to be no particular significance in that particular day. Then too on closer look the message was purposefully vague, almost certainly some spammer's putting together two random email from/to two random people. So, delete unopened. But it has brought back memories of Jared, one of the strangest and most erudite among my Tolkien friends.
--John R,
who will probably be re-reading one of Jared's pieces within the next few weeks
Your description of Jared as "strange and erudite" is spot on. During the years that he and I attended the same conferences (Wiscon and others), we always got along. I know that others have strongly negative feelings toward him, but I never had similar experiences with him. Jared is someone I have long viewed as both incredibly intelligent and deeply flawed, with the latter limiting how much impact the former had on others.
ReplyDelete"Jared, one of the strangest and most erudite among my Tolkien friends" --
ReplyDeleteAn anecdote! An anecdote!