Mark P. Shea: The Lord of the Rings: A Source-Criticism Analysis
Experts in source-criticism now know that The Lord of the Rings is a redaction of sources ranging from the Red Book of Westmarch (W) to Elvish Chronicles (E) to Gondorian records (G) to orally transmitted tales of the Rohirrim (R). The conflicting ethnic, social and religious groups which preserved these stories all had their own agendas, as did the "Tolkien" (T) and "Peter Jackson" (PJ) redactors, who are often in conflict with each other as well but whose conflicting accounts of the same events reveals a great deal about the political and religious situations which helped to form our popular notions about Middle Earth and the so-called "War of the Ring.". Into this mix are also thrown a great deal of folk materials about a supposed magic "ring" and some obscure figures named "Frodo" and "Sam". In all likelihood, these latter figures are totems meant to personify the popularity of Aragorn with the rural classes.
Brilliant, and it gets better...
Short form: Peter Pan was excellent. Go see it.
Slightly longer version: The kids (both nine) enjoyed it, but didn't really get it beyond the adventure level. The adults (both about forty) got all weepy. There were times when I thought to myself, "So that's what a live-action Miyazaki movie would look like"; not really true, since it's just another kind of animation, but some kind of tribute to Industrial Light & Magic anyway.
You gotta love a blog with a name like that. Plus, I think I've discovered another of badger's soul-mates. Particularly Inefficient Search Algorithms and Mo m's Tech Support, but really all of it.
The Bad News: J1 and I had a second (lunch) date yesterday, and she sent me an email this morning saying that while I'm "clearly a very thoughtful, generous and kind man" she didn't think we were a match.
The Good News:
According to
a recent study the pain I'm feeling isn't "just" psychological--it has a measurable physiological basis with much the same brain areas activating as, say, when you get kicked. So I don't have to feel bad about feeling bad. Which is good, because I feel really bad.
But fell and broke her hip anyway. She went into surgery at nine last night, and I haven't heard how that went. At any rate, this may mean a trip out to visit her in badger's neck of the woods before the end of the year....
Tightly Wound: Downside of Talking Toddlers
t a c i t u s: Meanwhile, back in the worker's paradise
For badger.
My date with J1 went well, I think. She had forgotten that she had promised to go to the Art Museum with her mom, so we pushed the date back to Sunday and made it for brunch instead. We met at the restaurant, where I impressed her by using my powers of synchronicity to get us seated immediately (hey, given a choice between being good and being lucky, always pick lucky). We had a nice time talking about our respective schools, jobs, what she did in Africa, und so weiter. She had the French Toast with carmelized bananas, I had the salmon eggs benedict. I gave her a copy of No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith, apropos of things African, as a present.
We talked about politics some. She confessed that she was "a bleeding-heart liberal"; I confessed that pretty much all of my friends are bleeding-heart liberals. I didn't say this, but I really don't care about people's politics as long as they're not all in your face about them; if I cared about affinity in politics, I doubt I'd ever find anyone anywhere. Not in this century, anyway.
J1 really loved her school; I envy her that. Talking about school is not really my best topic: I've got lots of anecdotes, but most of them are about how malevolent the administration and some of the faculty were. I had some wonderful professors, including both my advisors, but they weren't as anecdote-worthy as the outrageously petty and mean-spirited ones. I can usually make people laugh and roll their eyes (and this time was no exception), but I'm always afraid of coming off as too negative.
Fortunately, that doesn't seem to have happened. When we were done, and I was walking her back to her car, we made plans to talk during the week to arrange getting together again this weekend. For me, that's excellent progress.