“I can’t be with someone like me, I hate myself!”
—Jerry Seinfeld (via saintdrew)
July 2011
“I do not love the bright sword for it’s sharpness, nor the arrow for it’s swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
—J.R.R Tolkien (via way-of-the-warrior)
“It’s frightening when things you love appear suddenly changed from what you have always known.”
—Leah (via fide-vivit)
19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)
Gorillaz
Gorillaz | 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens”
—J.R.R. Tolkien (via cap07a)
“So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you. And also you will have Rose, and Elanor; Frodo-lad will come, and Rosie-lass, and Merry, and Goldilocks, and Pippin; and perhaps more that I cannot see. Your hands and your wits will be needed everywhere. You will be the Mayor, of course, as long as you want to be, and the most famous gardener in history; and you will read things out of the Red Book, and keep alive the memory of the age that is gone, so that people will remember the Great Danger and so love their beloved land all the more. And that will keep you as busy and happy as anyone can be, as long as your part of the story goes on.”
—Frodo Baggins, Return of the King (via the-grey-havens)
“Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but you never will. You will forgive and remember.”
— Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible)
“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”
—~Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring)
“Then, as his planet killed him, it occured to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.”
—Frank Herbert’s Dune (via wickedpackofcards)
“Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.”
—Slaughterhouse-Five (via onesmallvoice)
Fat Bottomed Girls
Queen
Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen
“This maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.” —Edgar Allan Poe (via living-in-outer-space)
Than to love and be loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.” —Edgar Allan Poe (via living-in-outer-space)
“Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature. His oeuvre is massive and contagious - you can’t ignore it, so don’t even try. The best you can do is consciously try to lance the boil. And there’s a lot to dislike - his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. Tolkien’s clichés - elves ‘n’ dwarfs ‘n’ magic rings - have spread like viruses. He wrote that the function of fantasy was ‘consolation’, thereby making it an article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader.”
—
China Mieville; Joe’s going to hate me for this, but I can’t help but side with Mieville here. I always found Lord of the Rings (and, to a lesser extent because it pretty much is a fairy tale rather than strict fantasy literature, The Hobbit) to be exceptionally dry material, and such a comprehensive world that it’s a shock when it just doesn’t do anything. (via chris)
FALSE. FALSE. First of all, let me tackle “his belief in absolute morality.” Faramir, clearly a beloved character of Tolkien, says that those who are “enemies” are often people who are misled are forced by threats, and that they are not truly evil of heart. Yes, some characters are blatantly evil, but many are also morally gray. Denethor was an awful Steward, and a worse father, but he clearly suffered from madness due to fear. Grima is not a totally evil character; he expresses many conflicted human emotions. Tolkien uses Gandalf to explain how much we cannot truly judge the morality of others. Gandalf says that Gollum, flawed and tormented as he is, could play an important role in the outcome of the story, and he arguably plays the most important role.
Secondly, regarding the glorification of war, I cannot express how ridiculous this accusation is. Tolkien, a survivor of WWI, at no point expresses a boyish love for war. I believe he understands the horrors of war much more than Mieville does. Any mildly competent human being who reads The Lord of the Rings recognizes Tolkien does not glorify war when he discusses The Dead Marshes or the destruction of Rohan. He appreciates war for what it protects and saves, not for the violence and suffering it inflicts.
Mieville makes the most understandable argument when he says that Tolkien has a love for hierarchical status quos, but I believe he fails to understand something very important here. Tolkien loves Aragorn, not just for his status as the true king, but as the leader who possesses the best traits for the kingship. Denethor, a failed leader, is not a failure just because he is a Steward, but because he is a fearful and selfish man. Also, Mieville is a major supporter of Marxism, and I don’t think he is in any position to condemn Tolkien for his belief in a certain status quo.
Lastly, blaming Tolkien for the cliches of elves and rings in current fantasy literature is like blaming The Beatles or Led Zeppelin for bands like Nickelback. So Mieville, I suggest you keep your idiotic comments to yourself until you write a masterpiece like The Lord of the Rings.
