Name-checking a relic of the past (METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA)

So, I've started reading the new Aaronovitch novel, the latest in the RIVERS OF LONDON series, and found that once again he shows a deft hand at dropping in references to fantasy and sci-fi fan culture.* In this case, a character finds that his co-workers at his new job, a tech company, like to spend their lunchtimes playing rpgs.

The next day . . . 

I managed to ingratiate myself with a number of

mice [=co-workers]  and Victor invited me to join one of the floating role-

playing games that assembled in one of the satellite

conference rooms accessible from the Cage.

"Metamorphosis Alpha," said Victor, when I asked what we were 

playing. Which turned out to be an ancient game from the 1970s with a

horrible resolution mechanic but I'm not a purist about these things.

. . . [Another worker] spotted us playing in the corner of the Cage and came over

to glower at me, and then walked away shaking his head.

"I bet he prefers World of Darkness," said Victor. 

Bonus points here to Aaronovitch for the mention of METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA by Jim Ward, one of the first science fiction games ever published, which led directly to GAMMA WORLD (also by Jim Ward),** one of the earliest post-D&D rpgs from TSR.***

It's clear here that he's referring to the 1976 original and not the Slade Henson version (circa 1993)**** for the short-lived AMAZING ENGINE game. And the scorn W.o.D. gamers felt for those playing older more traditional games is spot-on, and just as funny now as it was then.

I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with over the rest of the novel. He's already worked in more Douglas Adams references than I wd have believed possible.

--John R.
--current reading: Aaronovitch (good), Nicholas Blake (bad).
--currently working on: The Ainulindale.

*like the Tolkien references in several of his earlier books in the series
**who hired me on at TSR back in 1991. thanks, Jim
***I think predated only by BOOT HILL

****which I edited

Tolkien Biopic: The Musical

So, while my attention was drawn to Kickstarter, I learned about several Tolkien-related projects, one of which I wd have subscribed for had I known about it at the time.

I've seen last year's 'based on a true story' film biography of JRRT of course, but hadn't realized there was a musical back in 2016 covering much the same ground, the title of which was either TOLKIEN or UNFOLDING TALES (the latter no doubt meant to echo JRRT's UNFINISHED TALES).

The Kickstarted relic of this project was the Cast Soundtrack of twenty-two songs, a generous sampling can be heard here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/josephpurdue/tolkien-london-performance?ref=discovery&term=tolkien

If you're interested in JRRT's biography and the sometimes strange ways it get expressed, or a fan/collector of Tolkien-inspired music, you might want to try to track this down.

--John R.
--current viewing: DEAD OF WINTER, a Chaosium-sponsored CALL OF CTHULHU adventure.

a William Hope Hodgson kickstarter

So, I've long been an admirer of Wm Hope Hodgson's work since I was first introduced to it by my friend Jim Pietrusz back in the mid-80s.* So it was good news to learn from friends Jeff, Steve, and Stan at the Monday night game that there's a Kickstarter in the works to fund an rpg
based on his Sargasso Sea stories.

Here's the link to GREY SEAS ARE DREAMING OF MY DEATH:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nachonomics/grey-seas-are-dreaming-of-my-death-william-hope-hodgson-rpg?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=william%20hope%20hodgson

From the look of it this is a minimalist rpg, pretty much a one-shot with pregenerated characters that through stretch goals is expandable into campaign mode.

Now if we cd get a Carnaki rpg as well, that wd be something.**

Dare we dream someday of a NIGHT LAND campaign? When I first heard that TSR had a setting called DARK SUN in the works as a follow-up to RAVENLOFT, I was excited by the thought it might be something truly Hodgsonesque, only to get ConanLand instead. Oh well.

--John R.

*for an example of my critique of Hodgson, see my 'Classics of Fantasy' piece on his masterpiece, THE NIGHT LAND (written circa 1905, published 1912).
**there was one in the FORGOTTEN FUTURES line, but that was a good quarter-century ago, and it took minimalism to an extreme.

Tolkien and the Nobel Prize

Now this is interesting.

Thanks to Dunsany scholar Martin Andersson -- who wrote an interesting piece on Lord Dunsany and the Nobel in 2018* -- we now know that Tolkien was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature at least three times:

in 1961, when he was nominated by C. S. Lewis.**

in 1967, when his name appeared on the (alphabetical) long list as #58 of 70 nominees.

and in 1969, when he was #90 on the long list of 103 names.

So far as I know he did not make the short list any of these times.

This was not Tolkien's first encounter with the Nobel prize. Back in 1954 he had served as a nominator rather than nominee, putting forward E. M. Foster, that quintessentially English author, for the honor.  Tolkien was clearly chosen for his position as Merton Professor of English, and it's interesting to note that his nomination of Forster was seconded by Sir David Cecil*** and thirded by F. P. Wilson, all three professors of English at Oxford.

https://old.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=17677


We know that C. S. Lewis put Tolkien's name forward in 1961, no doubt from his status as professor of Renaissance literature at Cambridge.

https://old.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=12606

 The nominator who put in Tolkien's name in 1967 is one Gosta Holm, professor of Nordic languages ("nordiska sprak") at the Univ. of Lunds in Sweden. So I suspect he knew or knew of Tolkien through their shared interest in philology.

link 3
https://www.svenskaakademien.se/sites/default/files/forslagslista_1967.pdf 

The nominator in 1969 was R. E. Wycherley, an archeologist and professor of Greek ("grekiska") at Univ. of North Wales in Bangor.

link 4
https://www.svenskaakademien.se/sites/default/files/forslag_1969.pd

Of his fellow nominees on the 1969 list, twelve did go on to win the prize:
Samuel Beckett (that same year, 1969),
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970),
Pablo Neruda (1971),
Heinrich Boll (1972),
Patrick White (1973),
Eyvind Johnson (1974),
Harry Martinson (also 1974),
Eugenio Montale (1975)
Elias Canetti (1981),

Jaroslaf Seifert (1984)

Claude Simon (1985)

and Gunter Grass (though he had to wait for it thirty years, 1999).

Of these, I have to confess that I've read only two: a lot of Beckett (all his plays and even a few of his novels) and one by Solzhenitsyn (his Nobel Prize speech, which we were required to teach to college Freshmen at Marquette).****

Tolkien doesn't have to worry on one account: the Nobel committee is famous, with the hindsight of history, for passing over many of the greats -- such as from the 1969 list not just Tolkien and Forster but also Auden, Frost, Nabokov, Larkin, and, notoriously, Borges.

--John R.

*appeariing in THE GREEN BOOK, vol. 11, 2018.
**the following year CSL nominated Rbt Frost -- an excellent choice and testimony of how highly he rather the New Engander's work
***fellow Inkling, distinguished biographer, and bete noir of F. R. Leavis
****which the students didn't much care for, though at least Solzhenitsyn fared better than Chesterton though perhaps not as well as Bronowki.

Kickstarting Tolkien Tapestries

So, thanks to Denis B for letting me know that the Aubusson Tolkien Tapestry project has plans to re-create two more of JRRT's iconic artworks from THE HOBBIT in tapestry form. Currently they're running a funding drive on Kickstarter, with a goal of 100.000 euros (about $107,000):

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/citetapisserie/aubusson-weaves-tolkien?ref=project_link


Of the two paintings chosen, one is Bilbo and the Eagle (BILBO WOKE WITH THE EARLY SUN IN HIS EYES), generally considered one of his best illustrations. The other, Bilbo and the Dragon (CONVERSATION WITH SMAUG), is one of my two favorites of all Tolkien's paintings for THE HOBBIT.*

For a closer look at what an Aubusson Tolkien tapestry looks like, take a look at the debut of their RIVENDELL -- which clip, coincidently, includes Christopher's last public appearance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=236&v=rQmh_Sfq88Y&feature=emb_logo

If this is a project you'd like to see come to fruition, the Kickstarter runs till March 21st.

--John R.

*the other being BILBO COMES TO THE HUT OF THE RAFT-ELVES, aka The Forest River, which I have hopes of someday seeing rendered in stained glass.


UPDATE March 26th
--and I have now corrected the spelling of the name from 'Aubesson' to AUBUSSON. Thanks to Denis for pointing out my mistake --JDR

Art Garfunkel's Reading List

So, while sorting out some old papers last week I came across a reference to Art Garfunkel, of Simon & Garfundel, and his reading list. A little quick research showed that what was true in 2006 is still true in 2020: not only does Garfunkel still keep up his list but he's made it easily available on his website. The total now stands at 1299 books, from Rousseau's CONFESSIONS (June 1968) through the most recent, Atwood's  THE HANDMAID'S TALE.

In addition, Garfunkel has a special list of his favorites, which itself runs to 170 books. I didn't go through his whole list, but of the favorites I've only read twenty-two out of the hundred and seventy. And while my list is longer than his* that's to be expected given that reading is a side-line for a great musician whereas it's a large part of what I do as an editor and scholar.

Here's the list.

https://www.artgarfunkel.com/library.html


*(it currently stands at 3558 from the restart date in 1981, with the previous list having gotten to 536 books between 1975 and 1981)

The Washington State Primary

So, this week we had a micro-election: only one thing to vote for on the ballot, whether to renew a school levy. Naturally I voted for this -- supporting public education is a Good Thing in my book.

Then today came the voter's pamphlet for our next election: the primary for this fall's presidential race. We vote on March 10th -- less than a month away.

The Republican side of this is simple: the only option is to vote for Trump or don't vote at all.

The Democratic side is,  predictably, messier. If anything there's an over-richness of options (rather like the Republican campaigns of 2016 and 2012). Of the twenty-three people who at some point were running for the nomination, thirteen made it this far, or at least were still running at the point when this pamphlet went to press. Ironically among those to have dropped out is Washington state governor Jay Inslee, who wd have been a 'favorite son' candidate if he'd gotten this far.

The candidates who made the ballot are

Michael Bennet
Joe Biden
Michael Bloomberg
Cory Booker
Pete Bettigieg
John Delaney*
Tulsi Gabbard
Amy Klobuchar
Deval Patrick
Bernie Sanders
Tom Steyer
Elizabether Warren
Andrew Yang

At this point my first choice is still in the running despite troubles in Iowa and New Hampshire, and my second choice is still running and doing quite well -- so I can still entertain what-if scenarios wherein one gets the nomination and the other is his or her running mate. We'll see.

I do wish the list had fewer billionaires (as in: none) and fewer old men. It does feel like some of the candidates who don't get the nomination cd make for interesting Cabinet Secretaries. Again, we'll see

--John R.
--current reading: the MURDERBOT series by Martha Wells. didn't know they wrote them like that anymore: highly entertaining.

*I thought I'd been following the campaign fairly close, but admit to not having heard of Delaney before








*among those to have dropped out