Palestine

So, this week Palestine became a nation in the eyes of the international community.

Better sixty-five years late than never . . .

Tolkien and Westminster

So, the news about C. S. Lewis's having a memorial in his honor put up in Westminster Abbey next year, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death, makes me wonder: what are the chances that J. R. R. Tolkien will one day also be so honored? And, if so, when?

At first I thought Tolkien would probably be passed over because the Abbey is, after all, an Anglican institution and Tolkien was Catholic. But then I looked at the online list of who's buried there and all the others who have memorials (a far greater number), and saw that Hopkins, Pope, and Wilde are there, so being Catholic is apparently no bar to membership in this particular v. exclusive club.**

There's also the fact that Tolkien wrote fantasy, which has historically not gotten much respect as a genre -- but Lewis's entry, which seems largely due to the Narnia books, seems an indicator that has changed (Lewis Carroll also got a memorial there, as recently as 1982; Edward Lear is also there). And remember this is a country which recently knighted a man explicitly for writing fantasy (Sir Terry Pratchett).

I suspect the main reason might simply be time. Lewis is being added a year from now, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death, while Tolkien only died thirty-nine years ago. True, Ted Hughes got added last year, only thirteen years after his death, but then he was Poet Laureate, which probably expedites such things. So, I suspect Tolkien's time will come, but not for another dozen years or so.

I guess we'll have to just wait and see.

--John R.


*albeit added a century or two after their deaths: Hopkins in 1975, Pope in 1994, and the notorious Wilde in 1995
**I also noted the presence of several atheists, so apparently Xianity isn't even required

The Cat Report (W. Nov. 28th, 2012)

Today found us with eleven cats in ten cages, just like last week; it's even the same eleven cats. Sorry to hear the kittens' adoption fell through, but v. pleased to see the note about Marie's pending adoption tonight. Finally got to see her special blanket too, which was great -- maybe someone can take a picture of it before it goes home with her?

Although it was the same cats, the room felt v. different when I arrived, because the cats were already all out of their cages and in a mellow and happy mood -- Eva had dropped by to pick something up and, unable to resist their appeals (piteous mews, paws reaching out of cages, &c), let them out and watched them till I arrived. Ashwyn in particular was effusively affectionate, standing up with his paws on your chest or shoulder so he could rub your face. Poor little Claire with her nose also wanted much affection. 

Since pretty much everyone was out except Jane, Niko, and Tarah, we forwent the walks this morning, though later on I did offer Mr. Brothers a brief walk just outside the room (he accepted, then quickly changed his mind). Little Claire decided late in the morning that a walk was no less than her due and insisted upon the point; she eventually got her way and was much admired, though to her displeasure she had to stay next to the cat-room, since the others were still out. 

When I arrived, Edna and Niko were in their cages. Little Clarie was on the half-stand by the door and Tarah beneath.  Ashwyn was on cat-stand #1, demanding love and affection and attention RIGHT NOW. Lemura and Marie were beneath and on the lower level of the cat-stand by the cabinet, with Mr. Brothers on the highest rung. Goblynn was atop the cabinet. As for Samurai and Ninja, their battle-cry was "We're kittens and we're out!" as they tore around with glee up in cagetop land. Once the hanging steps were in place they could come, and go, and just hang out on them to their great satisfaction (not universally shared by the shyer cats in the vicinity). 

Goblynn spent the whole morning sacked out blissfully on my coat atop the cabinet. Marie was here and there, including inside the cabinet. Lemura wanted to see each cat's food and water as it was being emptied out. The two of them get along fairly well, and kept winding up ignoring each other in close proximity (e.g., middle and top levels of the same cat-stand). 

Games: we may not have had satisfactory walks, but we did great on the games front. First there was laser tag atop the cages with Ashwyn and the kittens. Ashwyn really threw himself into the game w. great vigor. By this time he was up in cagetopland, enjoying the box and the catnip therein. We also had a most satisfactory string game, to which we had to add a second string for Mr. Brothers, Lemura, and Goblynn. Later still Mr. Brothers came down and wanted a string game all to himself, but was thrown off by the kittens' rushing in and taking over. Finally I had to put the two kittens into the cage (which was most unpopular; entreaties to my better nature were heartfelt but unavailing) so Brothers cd have a game all his own, wh. he enjoyed w. great satisfaction. Eventually Lady Clarie and the semi-team of Lemura and Marie got interested as well. Marie had a bit of a gopher game, and Tarah a little bit of string game all her own. So on the whole think we more than made up for the walks.

Health Concerns: poor little Claire's nose needs time to heal but should be okay; think it'll probably leave a scar, though. Easy to see how she cd have gotten it; Mr. Ashwyn went for her not once but twice when they were on adjacent cat-stands, even though he had to go out of his way to try to get at her (think he's finally found a cat in the room he can bully; he was also mean to Tarah later on). Mr. Niko had some dried throw-up in his food dish; looked like it was just saliva. 

   Not a major concern, but something we'll need to think about: Both Claire's ear and a paw were kind of dirty, and Tarah has dandruff -- do we need to be thinking about trying to wash them? I cleaned up the ear and paw with just a wet cloth, but that won't solve Tarah's impending problem. Not a big deal now, but may become a problem over time. 

And that's about it for this week.

--John R.

A Bird in the Hand . . .

So, today something happened that makes it the kind of day you remember.

It started simply enough: I was out on the balcony, getting ready to fill up the birdfeeder, when a little finch landed on the railing next to me. Noticing how closely it was watching me, and how little fear it seemed to have, I poured some birdseed from the half-empty feeder into my hand and held it out. After a short pause, it flew over and landed in my hand, where it stayed for several minutes, eating seed out of the palm of my hand, occasionally rubbing its beak on my fingers, and towards the end almost dozing off. I stayed as still as I could, though my arm got increasingly wobbly towards the end of it all. Midway through another finch landed nearby and gave the whole proceedings a careful scrutiny but decided it wasn't worth it and flew off again. As for the little finch, I'm sure it was a juvenile goldfinch: it had a spotted tum and the kind of endearingly clumsy movement associated with youngsters newly out on their own. I hope this one has a warm nest and is suitably wary of everybody but me.

And no, I didn't let Feanor Finchslayer (with three to his credit, or infamy, so far) out on the deck unsupervised today, somewhat to his annoyance. I'll make it up to him later.

--John R.

New Zealand live premiere

On tv right now, live streaming from Wellington, is the premiere of THE HOBBIT, movie one.

First came a half-hour set by the musician doing the closing theme music

Then two hours or so (so far) of red carpet interviews

Up next are speeches by Peter Jackson et al.

Here's one of many places where you can find a link:

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1092906/middle-earth-mania-new-zealand-capital-hobbit-debut

As soon as it's over, they're planning to re-run it in its entirety.

Enjoy!

--John R.

Lewis in Poets' Corner

So, this week came the news* that next year C. S. Lewis's name will be added to Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Janice and I were there just two months back, spending much of our last full day in London at the Abbey -- during which we had time to thoroughly explore, watch part of a service, marvel over the British appetite for putting up monuments of Nelson (of which there were already plenty in St. Paul's, not to mention Trafalgar Square), visit the tombs of England's greatest queen (who's buried with her sister, surprisingly enough, considering that the two didn't get on), and generally marvel at the place. And I finally got to see Poet's Corner, which turns out to be a rather modern conceit of eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century figures wanting memorials put up near Chaucer's tomb. Plus some of the people commemorated in the area can hardly be called 'poets' in any meaningful sense (such as Laurence Olivier).

As for Lewis, he was indeed a poet (and at the start of his career quite a good one, though he quickly lost his way**), though it's hard to imagine he's being added to the Poets' Corner on the strength of SPIRITS IN BONDAGE. Critics and scholars rarely gain that eminence either, nor do writers of science fiction or children's books or apologetics. My suspicion is that it's not on the strength of any of these things, but all of them together. Here's the announcement:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20426778

Curiously enough, Lewis will not be the first Inkling to be buried in the Abbey; as we were leaving, I spotted the floor-marker naming the first. Anyone who thinks he or she knows whom, post your guess in the comments.

--John R.


*thanks to Wendell W's post on the MythSoc list

**SPIRITS IN BONDAGE is a promising work, but DYMER is dire and thereafter he never took his poetry seriously enough.

The Die Is Cast (The Long Trailer)

So, we've now taken the plunge: yesterday we bought the ticket to see the new HOBBIT movie on opening day. I suppose we'd been holding off in hopes we might hear of someone organizing going as a group to a specific showing at a specific theatre, as was the case with the three LotR movies (where the group was most made up of current and ex-WotC folk). Which might still be the case: back in '01, '02, and '03 we saw each movie twice the same day -- the first time to just enjoy and the second to try to take it all in, looking more for specific details, given that I was asked to review each for the WotC website. That's not the case this time, but I'll still want to review it on the blog, and the watch-it-twice-in-one-day tradition worked so well that it seems a good one to preserve.

So here's where we'll be: Friday December 14th, Kent Station, 11.30 am showing.  No Imax, no 3-d: just plain unadulterated film.

No idea yet where the second showing might be later that day, but we may try for one of the Imax/3d options there. Or not, depending on time and place and availability of tickets.


Meanwhile, thanks to Janice, here's the link to a seven-and-a-half minute trailer created by fans who edited together all the footage shown in the various trailers released so far. There's a lot here I hadn't seen before, so I must have missed a trailer or two along the way. This compilation lacks the pacing of the professionally produced trailers, but you really get a good sense of the movie, though of course an incomplete one,* through watching it. The usual spoiler warnings apply.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/one-hobbit-super-trailer-to-rule-them-all

I think I'm now at the point where I can recognize each dwarf on sight. 

I'll probably be watching this every day from now till Dec. 14th.

--John R.


*i.e., it naturally focuses the attention on what's included or at least referenced, and so makes it easy to forget about scenes and characters not represented in the trailers.