We Buy a New Car

So, after months of planning and years of saving, we finally took the plunge yesterday. We decided about two years ago that both our cars were getting a bit long in the tooth (1992 and 1995, respectively) and, while they were still running well, it was better to make plans to replace them before they started giving out than during or after. Since I work at home and Janice walks to work, this also seemed a good time to start the transition from being a two-car family down to just one. And since we care about the environment and don't think gas is going to get cheaper anytime soon (or indeed ever), a hybrid seemed the way to go. If it'd been available, I would have gone for an electric car, but the US auto and oil industries have made sure between them that that's not an option (see the documentary WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR for the gruesome details). And since we don't need a big car, it essentially came down to three options: a conventional compact (for the comfort factor and proven technology), a Toyota Prius (their smallest hybrid), or a Honda Civic (ibid). In the end we've taken the plunge with the Honda, picking up our new car earlier this evening. There'll be an adjustment period as our resident Luddite (me) gets use to the new touches, but I think we've made a good choice. If nothing else, we've essentially just doubled our gas mileage. Now come the difficult part (stage one) of saying goodbye to one of the old cars.

More later

--JDR

2007 Blackwelder Lecture

It's official. I've been invited to give this year's Blackwelder Lecture at Marquette University. The date will be Thursday, October 4th, starting at four o'clock in the new Library building. The evening before (W. Oct. 3rd) I will probably be doing a presentation and signing at one of the area bookstores, but the details for that are not yet finalized; more as it develops. I'm certainly following in good footsteps: the first speaker in the series was Tom Shippey (2001), then Doug Anderson (2002) and most recently Eduardo Segura (2006).

My tentative title is "A Kind of Elvish Craft: Tolkien as Literary Craftsman"; my topic is looking at HOW he wrote rather than what or why (areas that have already received a lot of attention). The key quote I'd like to use as a springboard comes from "On Fairy-Stories":

"To make a Secondary World . . . commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labour and thought, and will certainly demand a special skill, a kind of elvish craft. Few attempt such difficult tasks. But when they are attempted and in any degree accomplished then we have a rare achievement . . . indeed narrative art, story-making in its primary and most potent mode"

Using the wonderful resources at the Marquette Archives, and the riches of the History of Middle-earth series, we can now get a very good idea of Tolkien's writing habits, and how they shaped his works, clearing up a lot of misconceptions along the way.


If you're in the area, drop by and say hello. The lectures are open to the public, although you might have to show an i.d. to get in the library building. See you there . . .

--JDR

Tolkien in Who's Who

Did a spot of research in the university library (Suzzallo-Allen) the Sunday before last to resolve a question I'd been wondering about for a while: when did JRRT first come to be listed in WHO'S WHO? Most recently this came up when I was trying to work out whether children's author Arthur Ransome had written to Tolkien directly in late 1937, having gotten his address out of WHO'S WHO, or whether he'd sent the letter to his own former publisher Stanley Unwin for forwarding.

I'd discovered years back (circa 1997), while browsing in the Marquette library, that he was already listed when THE HOBBIT came out (that is, in the 1937 volume), and supposed it must have been for his BEOWULF essay ("The Monsters and the Critics"). However, more recently I'd read that all Oxford (and Cambridge) professors were listed, and realized his appearance must go much further back.

Checking the old volumes on the shelves confirms this, but reveals a few interesting details I hadn't expected: Tolkien first appears in the 1925 volume (page 2855), even before he was awarded the Oxford professorship, as Professor of the English Language at Leeds. The entry, which lists his recreations as "tennis, fives", had been written before the previous November, since it lists him as the father of two sons, not three. By the time of next year's volume (1926, page 2903), he's listed as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and the father of three sons, with Exeter College given as his address.

The 1937 volume, the one I was particularly interested in, does indeed give his home address (20 Northmoor Road, Oxford). In addition to the entry on Tolkien himself (p. 3359), his fellow Inklings C. L. Wrenn (p. 3684), Lord David Cecil (p. 578), and Rev. Adam Fox (p. 1162) are also listed, as is future Inkling Charles Williams (p. 3601). Nevill Coghill appears only listed as the heir in his father's entry (p. 666), while C. S. Lewis isn't listed at all, not yet having made much of a mark. Barfield is also missing, but various significant non-Inklings are there: Ransome himself (p. 2777), both E. V. and George Gordon (p. 1308 & 1309, respectively), Stanley Unwin (p. 3417), and fellow writers connected with Tolkien or the Inklings like Lord Dunsany (p. 976), E. R. Eddison (p. 994-995), and Dorothy Sayers (p. 2983). The 1938 volume is of interest because it adds THE HOBBIT and the Beowulf essay to Tolkien's write-up (p. 3381, joining A MIDDLE ENGLISH VOCABULARY and his edition of SIR GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT).

CSL doesn't make an appearance until 1943 (p. 1842), primarily I suspect on the reputation gained from his wartime radio talks rather than the body of critical work he'd built up by that point; it's characteristic that while Tolkien's entry that year (p. 3118) is unchanged from the one in 1938, six of the nine Lewis books listed in CSL's entry were written or at least published in the years since. Lewis's 'recreation', by the way, is given as "walking"; the 'recreation' line having disappeared from Tolkien's entry by the 1937 volume.


--JDR


CORRECTION (5/1-07): The two Gordon entries referred to actually come from the 1938 volume, not the 1937 one as stated above. --JDR

A Wicked Thought

So, while we were walking home tonight my wife had what she herself called a wicked thought. Given that there are some people so vehemently opposed to the Peter Jackson movies that they boycott not just the films but the work of anyone involved with them, what do they do when faced with a new Tolkien book illustrated by one of the films' art directors -- i.e., Alan Lee's illustrated edition of THE CHILDREN OF HURIN?

Do they wait a year hoping for a paperback edition without the illos?

Do they buy a copy and tear the pictures out, discarding the dust jacket?

Do they simply avert their eyes from the artwork as they read through?

Have to admit I have no idea. Given that they can't get the Tolkien book without the Lee artwork (and very nice it is, too, I might add) I suspect they quietly put their principles aside when the alternative is going without a new Tolkien, but the thought does highlight the problems behind 'Secondary Separation'.

--JDR

I Am Put In My Place

So, I like to listen to music while I work: mostly classic rock, nice and loud. And, if there's no one around to hear me, I sometimes sing along. But yesterday I got put in my place in no uncertain terms. Rather unusually for me, I had just started whistling (while listening to Part Two of "Layla"), when I noticed the cats' reaction. Rigby was, perhaps fortunately, off in another room, apparently out of range. Feanor, in the box beside the desk, was giving me a pained, incredulous look. But Hastur, atop the cat stand, got down and came across the desk top, where she pawed me with a concerned look, apparently thinking I was making some sort of distress call (this being from a cat that can't mew, merely purr, gurgle, and squeak). Note to self: no more whistling when somebody can hear me, and that 'somebody' now includes the cats.

In any case, it's not quite as bad as the time I was asleep and, I'm told, snoring (back in the bad old days before the low-carb diet) and woke up to find that Parker, a smart cat with very low tolerance for not getting things his own way, had walked up, reached out, and put a paw on my mouth. With one claw extended and gently hook on the lower lip, just to make sure I got the message.

Somedays, as when I take them for walks or provide Warm Laundry, I think the cats wholly approve of me. Other days, not so much.

--JDR

My First Retraction

So, a few posts back I mentioned meeting some friends at the CHILDREN OF HURIN launch event at the Bellevue branch of the University Bookstore, one of whom was a fellow clarinet player.

Except she isn't. I don't know where I got the idea, but turns out it's just not so.

So this is just to set the records straight: fellow Tolkien fan, yes; clarinetist, no.

--JDR

A Thing of Beauty

So, yesterday an unexpected delight arrived: a copy of the deluxe slipcase edition of the new J. R. R. Tolkien book, THE CHILDREN OF HURIN. The text is the same as the standard UK edition, but instead of a solid blue-grey the cover is blue-grey near the spine and elsewhere grey, with the dragon-helm of Dor-lomin embossed in gold on the front; the slipcase itself is a blue-grey box with the dragon-helm in gold. And it includes a signed bookplate, autographed by Christopher Tolkien and by Alan Lee. Wow. Many thanks to the sender.

As for the book itself, I'm still working my way slowly through it. After all, it's not like I don't know how the story ends, having read and re-read the earlier publication of a good portion of this since it appeared in UNFINISHED TALES. And how many more times will I get the chance to sit down and read a new Tolkien book? Yes, there are still some treasures in the vault (The Bovadium Fragments, Sellic Spell, The Fall of Arthur), but they're mostly either short or unfinished, not the final version of one of the central stories in the legendarium like the Turin tale. It's a moment to savor, and I intend to make it last. I only wish I had an audiotape reading of the whole.

--JDR