Giants in the Oerth

 So, my presentation (via Zoom) about fantasy fiction's influence on the creation of D&D went well.

If you missed the live event last Thursday, here's the link to a You Tube recording of the whole event. 

It starts with a welcome to the event, followed on an explanation of what D&D is for those who are new to the game. Then I do my bit, followed by a Q&A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Kynx0NZQA

I enjoyed putting my piece together and hope those who like me are interested in both fantasy fiction and roleplaying games will find it worthwhile. If there's anything I didn't cover in the Q&A let me know via Comments and I'll do my best to answer it here.

--John R.

John Garth on Le Guin and Tolkien

So, thanks to Janice for sharing the link to an interesting piece by John Garth, who suggests that Le Guin paid a hidden tribute to JRRT by making "tolk" and "-ien" mean Earth (or stone) + Sea in her invented language created for her EARTHSEA trilogy. Right or wrong (and there seems to be no way to find out now) it's an intriguing idea.

Co-incidentally I'd just re-read THE TOMBS OF ATUAN the day before --the first book of fantasy I read after Tolkien himself, way back in the fall of 1973 (when it was quite a new book). This makes it the first of many books I read after being told it was 'like Tolkien'. And I've always rather unfairly judged by that standard. Re-reading it now for what I think is the fourth (or fifth) time I still find it claustrophobic and oppressive --which is the point, of course, but still doesn't make the experience of reading it any less drab and nightmarish. 

And since I've found out over time that books change depending on what books you've read before and after them,* I now find myself wishing that someone wd do a study comparing Le Guin's TOMBS OF ATUAN with another labyrinth book:: Mary Renault's THE KING MUST DIE, with which I can now see it shares a lot of what I assume are deliberate parallels. 

Source-study and influence are always tricky, though. It would seem clear to me now that Lewis's TILL WE HAVE FACES was very deliberately written in the style and mode of Mary Renault, whose work we know Lewis admired, except that the timing doesn't work out: Lewis's book would have already been written or at least drafted by the time Renault's was published. 

Here's the link:

https://johngarth.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/ursula-le-guin-the-language-of-earthsea-and-tolkien/?fbclid=IwAR2MCF9_elBRi70lQfr-QsbMAtC6e5xXEd2iA_MCu0nMPh5oTE7E8PrV87Q

--John R.

current reading: THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS by Sy Montgomery (2015)

*the old 'statues in the garden' analogy

A Forgotten TSR Project

 So, I've been skimming Flint Dille's memoir of his time in Hollywood. While it disappointing has much less about Gygax than I'd expected, it does have some glimpses of what went so disastrously wrong with TSR West Coast --that is, the first time. 

More interestingly, it makes mention of a project I'd never heard of before: THE SCEPTRE OF SEVEN SOULS. Dille describes this as "a genre-mormorphing story that connected all of TSR's franchises at the time". That is, the story began in a D&D world with a hero-vs.-evil-wizard plot. The wizard escapes at the end of the first episode/story arc, and hero and villain find themselves atop a train in a BOOT HILL setting (the wild west). From there the story(s) continue, taking in a TOP SECRET scenario, a Fu Manchu GANG BUSTERS story, a computer-gone-mad GAMMA WORLD piece, and wrapping up with, of all things, STAR FRONTIERS*

"The MacGuffin of the series was a sceptre forged by seven ancient sorcerers that divided into seven parts. Each part was a portal to a different world. I have no idea whether we thought we could fit all of this into one movie or we were selling them on seven movies or we had a 'back pocket' idea of a TV series". 

This of course sounds like it owes something to the Rod of Seven Parts, one of the powerful Artifacts listed in the AD&D DMG. 

 One hook Gygax & Dille hoped wd serve as a lure to Hollywood Powers That Be was a mooted casting of Orson Welles as the "Dungeon Master" (whether this is the same as the villain of the series is unclear). Plus Dille at least thought it cd be filmed cheaply using already-existing backlots. 

In the end nothing came of the project and Dille confesses that he's either lost or mislaid his copy. So it seems probable that no copy survives. Sad to say, judging from what little we know, I see no sign that had this actually made it to the screen there's nothing in this account that makes me think THE SCEPTRE OF SEVEN SOULS wd have been any less dreadful than the D&D Cartoon or the D&D Movie.   Pity.

--John R.

*That of course equals six. There's a suggestion that fitting in there somewhere as the seventh wd be XXVc (i.e. BUCK ROGERS)--except that came along much later (circa 1990), whereas the project described here is dated by Dille to 1984. This suggests Dille may be conflating events in his memory, as is easy to do.

My Talk on D&D This Thursday

So, just a reminder for folks who may be interested that my talk on D&D's sources in and influence on fantasy fiction is this week.* Specifically Thursday the 28th at 6 pm Greenwich Time (10 am my time). 

The event is jointly sponsored by The Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic and by The Games and Gaming Lab 

Registration is free, but you have to get a ticket, mainlyas a matter of logistics, so they know how many people to expect.

Here's the link:

https://fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk

--And now back to practicing the delivery and looking up various odds and ends.**

--John R.

*It will surprise no one that Tolkien's name comes up a time or two.

**Yes my piece has footnotes, even though I won't be delivering them. Once a footnotist, always a footnotist.

Two Years Ago for Tarkus and Tyburn

So, Janice reminds me that it's two years ago today that Tarkus and Tyburn came home with us to stay. They were gangly half-cats back then with a lot of kitten still in them. Now they're full size young adults but still energetic, loving a good game, a good warm fire, and the occasional walk. I'm glad they joined us before the pandemic: having them with us has made the quarantine easier to handle.

Though they're not going to like it when we take them in to the vet to get their booster shots sometime soon.

--And now back to practicing my talk for Glasgow.

--John R.

--current reading: THE TOMBS OF ATUAN (just finished) and THE ELUSIVE SHIFT.  Just started THE SOUL OF AN OCTUPUS and PLAYING AT THE WORLD

   

The Return of The Cat Room

So, after having been closed for the holidays and Covid crisis, the cat room is now open again for adoptions. I missed last week because of health issues but made it in today (Friday the 22nd). 

Of the five cats they reopened the room with, three had already been adopted and one gone back up to Arlington for health issues. That just left Mr. Loki, who had the room all to himself and loved it. He was out the whole two hours I was there, the first hour walking out in the store and the second playing and getting petted in the cat room. 

Having spent that much time with him one-on-one, I think that instead of ‘Loki’ (god of mischief) his name shd be Mr. Low-Key because he’s so mellow. And while he may not like other cats, he loves people. Over and over during the walk he’d go up to a customer or employee, stopping a little way off. If they spoke to him or held a hand out he’d go over and ask to be petted; otherwise he’d go off in another direction. In short he’s quite the charmer and attracted a lot of attention. Towards the end of the walk, and again later back in the cat room, he went belly-up and asked for belly rubs. For a while I held him belly-up in my lap on the bench. Luckily he’s the kind of cat who tells you when he’s had enough. 

For the rest of the time he got groomed and petted and played with. I can also confirm that he loves catnip, to the extent that he just inhales the stuff. Also that the new arrangement of stuff in the store around the cat room a great improvement, like that row of cat-trees between the cat room and the aquariums. 

Here’s a picture of him just after he’s come out to start his walk and another of him belly-up in my lap. Parker used to do that and wd even fall asleep in that position when I was in the rocker but it's rare.

A great cat who I hope will soon find a home that appreciates him.

—JDR

 

Sadness

Sadness is getting back the Thinking of You card you sent a close friend, returned to you marked deceased.

--JDR