#that was like first half of fellowship of the ring stuff were like a third of the way through rotk

[morrowkite]

Music of the Shire

Here's a fun topic I know a bit about, since I researched it heavily for a music project in high school once. I think it's really fascinating, so that means I'm going to subject as many people as possible to an essay about it. Enjoy!

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(Image ID: A wide view picture of The Shire, from Lord of The Rings.)

I think just about everyone who's seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy can hum (or at least remember with a vague fondness) the main theme melody for the Shire/Hobbits. If you can't, well, here it is in its most plain form, for reference. This one melody is easily the most recognizable part of the score as a whole, which is incredibly impressive considering just how gargantuan the score is in both scale and musical richness.

Now, there's no doubt that the Shire Theme is beautiful - it has this wonderfully gentle rising/falling quality to it, as if the music itself were embodying the rolling hills of Hobbiton. But I think the reasons that it sticks with you so well after watching the trilogy go beyond the musical beauty of it, and into the absolutely genius ways that this one melody is thread throughout the three films, assuming a new musical/narrative context with each appearance.

These contexts are called settings, according to Doug Adams, the pre-eminent LOTR musicologist, and if I'm honest, I'm absolutely obsessed with them. The way that they're used to shape this one theme and turn it into something that defines an entire trilogy is incredibly fascinating to me, and has changed the way I think about film music. If this sounds interesting to you at all, then stick around and join me for a little dive into the world of the Shire and it's music.

(Warning: lots of music nerd stuff up ahead.)

Part 1: The Theme Itself

(Image ID: Sheet music for the Shire Theme, with the first half highlighted a separate color from the second.)

Before we can start talking about settings, we need to define what the Shire Theme actually is. The music pictured here is taken directly from the song In Dreams, from the end-credits sequence of Fellowship, which I linked to before but will now link to again (Don't worry if you can't read musical notation, I still love you).

This is the closest we can get to the most basic form of the Shire Theme, without the extra ornamentations that are usually added in other contexts.

Now, the reason that I've highlighted the two halves separately is because these two are actually considered distinct themes: Shire A, and Shire B, or the verse and chorus of In Dreams, respectively. Shire A is the one you're probably most familiar with, appearing most often. But Shire B has its place too, and is just as relevant.

As you can see/hear, Shire A is more gentle and relaxing, with the 'hilly' style melody and lots of second/third intervals. Shire B, on the other hand, is more dramatic, with these soaring ascensions that really grab the audience and shout "LISTEN! I'M PRETTY!" directly into their ear.

Got all that? Brilliant.

Part 2: The Pensive & Rural Settings

(Image ID: Frodo and Gandalf sitting on a cart together, talking.)

I'm going to kick off the setting discussion by talking about the two that you're probably most familiar with, because they dominate the majority of the early-trilogy Hobbiton scenes. In fact, if you pull up Concerning Hobbits off the soundtrack here, then you have a pretty good place to start when dissecting these two and the relationship between them, as they're intertwined throughout.

The Pensive Setting is the very first one you hear on that track, right after the little plucked-string opening (which, incidentally, is called the Outline Figure). The reason it's called that is because, generally, this setting is used to inspire a feeling of calmness, serenity, and affection toward the Shire. You can often pick it out because it's being played on a soothing instrument like strings, or in this case, a tin whistle, playing the Shire A melody.

(Image ID: Sheet music for the Pensive Setting of the Shire Theme.)

If you compare this to the basic version from In Dreams then you can see a pretty big difference - the rhythms are more free flowing, not particularly beholden to the beat and with plenty of extra notes added in-between for smoothness. You can still tell it's the same melody, though.

The Rural Setting of Shire A starts up right after -where the Pensive Setting gives a general sense of contentment with the Hobbits' way of life, the Rural Setting is more about Hobbiton itself and the folksy, lighthearted fun that takes place there in the early scenes. That's why, once Frodo leaves home, it isn't heard again until the end of the trilogy.

(Image ID: Two hobbits, looking very disappointed.)

(Unfortunately, I couldn't get proper sheet music for the Rural Setting. You can hear, it though.)

This setting is played on a fiddle here, and in fact is accompanied by a whole bunch of folk instruments that add to the lighthearted feeling, alongside the fun melodic variations that are included (syncopation, trills, etc.) that contribute to the fun atmosphere. Not too much else to say about this one, considering its short appearances.

If you keep listening to Concerning Hobbits, it becomes easier to pick out the changes between the two settings. For example, right after the fiddle section, some lush strings pick up the Pensive Setting again, but this time playing the Shire B version. Then the Rural Setting actually gets its own unique conclusion, separate from either version of the melody.

Next time you watch through the beginning of Fellowship, try pick out which setting is playing in a given scene! It's very fun.

Part 3: The Hymn Setting

(Image ID: Frodo sitting under a tree, reading.)

This is where things really start to get interesting. The Hymn Setting is very important, because it's the one that makes you cry. In any situation where the hobbits, especially Sam and Frodo, are feeling homesick or mourning the loss of their simple lifestyle, then you'll probably hear the Hymn Setting.

If we jump back to In Dreams again, then you might notice that there's a series of chords playing underneath the melody, lasting two beats each. That's because these are the Hymn Chords, and I was LYING to you when I said In Dreams didn't have a setting (Okay, I didn't say that, but I implied it).

In actuality, In Dreams is practically one long instance of the Hymn Setting, but it still works as an example of the basic melody because the Hymn Setting doesn't have anything to do with the melody, only the accompanying harmony.

(Image ID: The same sheet music of the Shire Theme from earlier, with added chords.)

These are the so-called Hymn Chords, named that because they are intended to evoke a chorale effect found in traditional Western religious music, according to Doug Adams. Now, if I wanted to, I would go into a long musicological analysis of why these chords make the melody sound more melancholic, but this post is long enough already, so I won't.

Just know that these things are everywhere in the most emotional scenes of the trilogy, like the ending of Fellowship, or "My friends, you bow to no-one," and I'm half-convinced these simple chords are responsible for a few swimming pools full of tears.

What makes the Hymn Chords even more interesting are their connection to Frodo, and a special variation on the melody, called...

PART 4: A Hobbit's Understanding

(Image ID: A picture of Frodo crying.)

This one is special, because it's not so much a setting as a melodic variation on the Hymn Setting. That being said, it's very important, and worthy of its own section.

A Hobbit's Understanding is sort of an 'epiphany' theme, kept for whenever Frodo is confronted with some terrible situation that forces him to come to a certain realization (this is why I like to call it Frodo's Theme, as well.) Here are some examples:

When Bilbo talks to Frodo alone at his party, and the young hobbit gets some insight into a deeper pain in the old man.

In his soul-searching conversation with Gandalf in Moria - "I wish the Ring had never come to me..."

At the moment when Frodo recalls these words and decides to leave the Fellowship at Parth Galen (see image above).

When Sam follows Frodo anyway and he is forced to admit his need for companionship.

At the end of the Two Towers, when Sam gives his speech about the lasting good in the world.

You can hear it best here, in The Breaking of The Fellowship.

(Image ID: Sheet music of A Hobbit's Understanding.)

You can instantly recognize this melody by those three upward movements at the beginning (and the Hymn Chords underneath). In Shire B, which this example is based off of, there are only two upward movements. If you scroll back up to that original sheet music, you can see the foundation that this melody is based on, and the points that it differs.

The really effective part about this melody, for me, is how is mirrors the feeling of an epiphany. Those three rapid ascensions at the beginning are the realization itself, which goes on to slowly solidify in Frodo's mind as the melody itself descends back onto that oh-so-satisfying D note at the end. It's absolute magic.

Part 5: Conclusion

(Image ID: Merry, Frodo, Sam, and Pippin standing, surrounded by bowing people.)

There are a few other minor melodies and settings that are used infrequently, but I'm satisfied with having discussed the main ones. I hope this has provided a bit of an insight into the wonderful world of leitmotifs, and added something to your next LOTR viewing.

Personally, I find the different setting and variations of the Shire Theme utterly fascinating. If you want to read more about it, follow the link posted below in the credits.

This was a pretty big post to make to kick-off this tumblr, and I'm not sure if I'll make one this big again, but we'll see. Thanks for reading all the way through, if you in fact did. Follow if you wanna see more stuff like this, and have a great day!

CREDITS

The organizational system used for the themes is borrowed from an old LOTR soundtrack blog called the Magpie's Nest, which no longer exists, but can be found on the Wayback Machine here. The author of this site based his system on that of Doug Adams and his brilliant book The Music of The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, so credit is due to both of them.

The sheet music transcriptions used throughout come from an anonymous transcriber, and was published on the website of a fellow named Alcaeru, found here.

#lotr #music #lord of the rings #leitmotif #motif #music analysis #musicology #shire #frodo #hobbits #bilbo #howard shore #lotr music #essay #writing #film #score #theme #arrangement #transcription #thoughts #interesting #hobbiton #the shire #melody #harmony #film score #soundtrack #lotr movies #middle earth

[rohirric-hunter]

Can’t believe Gothmog isn’t over that whole “casting him into the void” thing. That happened, like, three months ago. SMH.

#lotro #that was like first half of fellowship of the ring stuff were like a third of the way through rotk #dude can hold a grudge #/s

[nashibirne]

Relax!

At first I wanna say THANK YOU for the many likes an reblogs I got for “Hands on”! and “Hands off!” This means so much to me and I’m very grateful!

This is the third Imagine starring Inspector Henry Cavill. You can read the first part Hands off! here and the second part Hands on! here. Part 4 Get off! can be found here

Part 5 Long Slow Kisses is here

I hope you’re going to like “Relax!” too. Please let me know what you think.

Pairing: Henry Cavill x reader

Warnings: Pure smut, PWP, 18 + only, NSFW, Sex, oral sex, bad language, unprotected sex, half public sex / sexual actions (somehow...),

Unbeta’ed! English is not my mother tongue...so please be lenient with me.

I found the pictures for the collage on pinterest. If I violate any copyright, please let me know and I’m going to remove the picture(s).

tags: @hell1129-blog​ @inlovewithhisblueeyes​ @wolvesandhoundshowltogether​

Now let’s go!

Imagine

After a night of hot sex Inspector Henry Cavill has finally taken you out on your first date. You have dinner in a fancy but cosy restaurant and afterwards you visit a very cool retro style piano bar. You're both in a sexy mood and things escalate quickly.

"You have to stop this, y/n" Henry said with a desperate frown.

"Stop what?" she asked, smiling innocently.

"You know what." Henry whispered.

"This?" she looked him in the eyes, slowly running her naked foot along his inner thigh under the table. Her toe rubbed his dick gently through his jeans when she reached his crotch. He was rock hard.

"Yes, this." Henry said with a muffled moan.

"Why? You seem to enjoy it." She was an innocent angel above the table but a devil underneath. Her foot was lightly pressing against his boner now, stroking him slowly.

"This is called torture. It's illegal."

"I don't think so, Darling. Relax." She moved her foot in circling motions with a big grin on her face.

"Y/n..." The sound escaping from his mouth was something between a moan and a growl, vibrating through the air, making her pussy throb instantly. She dug her teeth into her lower lip, looking him deep in the eyes, her foot still on his dick, hidden under the linen tablecloth.

"Am I in trouble, Inspector?" She batted her lashes.

He smirked, running his tongue over his lips, looking at her like a hunter at the prey. Before he could give her an answer the waiter interrupted their little flirtatious game, placing a beer in front of Henry and a Vodka Lemon in front of her.

She was just about to continue teasing him, when she suddenly felt his foot in her crotch. He had slipped off his sneakers and was now stroking her between her legs, the woolen fabric of his sock rubbing against her silken panties gently and rough at the same time. When his toe met her clit it sent shivers down her spine.

"Ooohhhh." She couldn't help but moan. "God, Henry...you have to stop."

He looked at her, cocking his head, a satisfied grin on his attractive face.

"Really? Why? You seem to enjoy it." The lewdless, dripping from his voice, in combination with the sly smile he was giving her turned her on way too much.

He moved his food in tiny circles all over her pussy. Her panties were soaking wet and she was quite sure his sock was too.

"I do. It feels great." she admitted which caused him to increase the pressure on her delicate body parts and her to sigh with pleasure.

He looked at her and it was obvious that he was horny as hell. And so was she.

"Babe...if you don't stop now, I'm going to come right here." she whispered out of breath, closing her eyes for a moment.

"That's exactly what I want." Henry's voice was rough and deeper than usual, his tone beyond sexy.

The ringing of his phone startled both of them, destroying the moment. He took away his foot and looked at the display. "Fuck. It's Wendy. Sorry, but I have to answer this." he said smiling apologetically.

"Sure. I'll go visit the lady's room in the meantime" She got up, straightening her clothes, taking a deep breath to compose herself.

When she was on her way back to their table a few minutes later, she suddenly felt a tight grip on her arm. She turned around and saw Henry standing in the dark of a long corridor that led away from the hallway which connected the restrooms and the bar. Before she was able to speak a word he pulled her close to him to kiss her feverishly. They took some steps back and disappeared into the shadows of a dark corner behind a massive pillar where they continued to make out hungrily. Henry started to kiss her neckline while his hands pulled up her dress, sliding underneath the smooth fabric, caressing her breasts. She wore no bra. He let out a long moan when y/n started stroking his dick through his trousers.

"Fuck....I want you. Now." he whispered in her ear.

"Here? We're gonna get arrested if someone catches us red-handed." She started fumbling with his belt, desperate to open it. Desperate to touch his cock. 

Henry took a look around. 

"Come with me." he took her by the hand, leading her into a room that turned out to be a small storage room, filled with shelves.

They started kissing like crazy again as soon as the door was closed behind them. Y/ n finally managed to open his belt and the buttons of his jeans. She slid her hand into his boxers and touched his rock hard dick.

Henry groaned loudly, grabbing her by the ass, lifting her up just to carry her across the room, putting her down on a table that was placed in a corner. 

"Henry...what if someone walks in on us." She was out of breath, her voice raspy. 

"I locked the door."

"The waiter is gonna miss us. He might think we left without paying."

"We left our stuff at the table.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “Relax, Baby."

Looking her in the eyes with a smirk, he kneeled down.

Her dress was wrapped up around her waist and he had a perfect view on the pearl white satin panties that covered her sweet pussy.

"You're soaking wet." He whispered.

"Yes. All for you." She looked down at him, placing her hands on his head, running her nails over his scalp.

To her big surprise he suddenly ripped off her underwear with one quick motion, tearing it apart effortlessly.

"Sorry…" he smirked.

"Fuck...Babe..." She gasped, throwing her head back in anticipation.

"God...I love your cunt. Waiting for me... so pretty and tight. Dripping for me...so needy and horny. Can't wait to taste you."

He buried his head between her legs and licked her pussy eagerly, running his tongue through her folds several times, enjoying the taste of her juices. When he started to kiss and suck her clit she let out a deep sigh.

"Henry...fuck...."

He grabbed her by her ass, pulling her closer, driving his tongue deep into her hole now. The way he licked and sucked on her got her close to the edge quickly.

He moved his mouth to her clit again, working his magic there while fingering her wet pussy, stroking her g-spot which made her cum hard almost instantly. She cried his name out loud, convulsing with pleasure, shaking and moaning through her orgasm.

Henry rose to his feet, shoving down his jeans and boxers. His erection pressed against his belly, his dick was shining with precum.

He didn't speak a word but the look on his face said it all. He wanted to fuck her, wanted to come inside of her. He looked like a hungry predator which was a great turn on for y/n. She moved a little closer to the edge of the table, spreading her legs obscenely wide, presenting him her throbbing cunt.

"Fuck me, Henry. Fuck me hard."

He didn't need another invitation. He stepped forward, pressing his dick onto her entrance, thrusting in without a warning.

She gasped when she suddenly felt him inside of her, stretching her pussy to the max. He fucked her fiercely, not holding anything back, thrusting hard and deep. His lustful sighs turned into loud, aroused moans soon. His eyes were closed, his head bent back, his mouth half opened. The sheer sight of his passion, his arousal, turned y/n on in a way she'd never experienced before. In combination with the way he fucked her, rough and reckless, just like she had told him to, it soon led to her second orgasm, that was even more intense than the first one. She shrieked and moaned so loudy when she came again, Henry placed his hand over her mouth to shush her. That was the moment he came too. Throwing his head back, he let out a long, deep grunt, moaning her name, his dick balls-deep in her pussy. He took her in his arms afterwards, hugging her tightly, kissing her neck.

"That was exciting." he mumbled, still a little out of breath.

"Yes, absolutely. I never knew that I'd like that kind of thrill." she said.

Henry chuckled, pulling out of her to get dressed. "Me neither. But I could get used to it."

"Oh yes." she agreed getting up from the table with a smirk. She straightened her dress before picking up the remains of her panties from the ground. "I think I'll have to walk out of here without underwear, your cum dripping out of my vagina." She didn't seem too happy about it.

"Are you okay with that?"

"Honestly? Not really. My inner slut has the tendency to disappear post-coital as fast as she appears when I'm turned on." 

"I like your inner slut. She's hot as fuck." Henry grinned and gave her a wink before he placed a very sensual, tender kiss on her lips. "But it's not a problem, Darling. You go to the restrooms to freshen up your... lady's parts...and I go pay the bill and get our stuff. Meet me at my car in ten, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan, Inspector." she said, hugging him relieved.

Later that evening they were cuddling on his couch, Henry dressed in his pajamas, y/n wearing one of his Def Leppard band shirts, watching "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", both of them feeling very, very relaxed.

#Henry Cavill fandom #henry cavill #henry cavill smut #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill x reader #smut #cavillry

[juiceboxman]

So I took Siobhan’s advice and listened to the BBC’s radio adaptation of the Lord of the Rings from the 80′s

It’s pretty good, you can listen to it here https://soundcloud.com/inkmore/sets/lord-of-the-rings-radio 

I had some issues with it but I liked it for the most part. I’m not a massive LoTR fan, only watched the films so I don’t know much, but here are the thoughts I had.

I once heard someone describe Hobbits and the Shire as “drama free people” after listening to this series, that’s obviously not the case. Hobbits seem to live for the drama, always talking shit behind one anothers back. I think Tolkien was trying to satirise rural or village life in England and I think he did a good job depicting how petty people can be.

Sam is a working class hero and Frodo doesn’t deserve him.

I understand how people can like Sam/Frodo because there is massive gay vibes coming off them. Personally I interpreted it to be unrequited and an example of some class division, with Sam being working class and Frodo being middle class. The amount of dedication and support Sam shows Frodo I don’t think Frodo would show back if the roles were reversed. I feel like its a very one sided relationship with Sam putting in way more effort than Frodo.

Bilbo’s whole thing seems to be that he went on a gap year once that turned out quite bad and now he kinda lives like a hermit.

I don’t know how reliable to the books the Radio series is, but I feel like the movies do more justice to stuff. Like in the Radio drama Gandalf makes his first appearance by just coming through the door and Bilbo is like “ah, Gandalf” and...that’s it. Movie version was better in my opinion.

I think the radio drama does a lot better to explain what the ring of power does than the movies. I always got confused by what the ring does, like in the movies all it seems to do is turn people invisible and make them into heroin addicts. With the radio I kinda understand more about it. Like the ring’s power kinda depends on the wearer, like a Hobbit could simply use it for invisibility and expanding their life force but a King could use it to control the minds of an entire enemy army and a Wizard could do even more. But it’s still vague and I presume Tolkien intended it to be, like it’s just a representation of the concept of power and this world’s equivalent of a deal with the devil. Power or wishes may be commanded but they will ultimately corrupt you.

Time in the books seem wild. Like at one point Gandalf says that Bilbo has gone off and he himself will start researching the ring and then twelve years go by and Frodo has just been fucking about, forgot that the ring even existed and Gandalf comes back and is like “oh yeah, ring is bad”

Also, Frodo is 50 when he leaves the shire???? Jesus 

Also, were the Nazgul just running about for 12 years looking for the ring? Like at one point the Nazgul knocked on some Hobbit’s door asking about Frodo and the Hobbit told him to go fuck himself and slammed a door- to a NAZGUL

Aragon’s voice in this radio drama is...way off. Like it sounds like Greg Davies. You don’t really have the soft voice of Viggo Mortinstein but the gruff righteous voice of the Principal from the Inbetweeners 

Elrond denying Aragon to marry his daughter until he becomes king of Gondor is like a stern dad refusing you to date his daughter until you get a real job.

Also Aragon gets the reforged sword, like, immediately when they leave Riverdale. Which is a bit weird to me.

It makes sense why Frodo is trusted with the ring. A king couldn’t be trusted because he’d use it for conquest. A Wizard could overthrow Sauron but in doing so would become just as bad so you’re back to square one. With a Hobbit, there is no desire for conquest or any wish for power outside of simply having the ring. Even when Golum had it all he used it for was to hunt fish and extend his life cycle. I’m curious of whether if Sam had carried the ring all the way to Mordor if he could will himself to destroy it or would he have failed like Frodo. 

Gimly and Legolas’ friendship is so cute. Like they start off disliking eachother but bond over their prowess in combat and plan out a gap year after the whole fellowship where they see the sights of middle earth. So wholesome

I don’t understand why they didn’t just kill Golum. Like I know he was important to find the way to Mordor and was ultimately necessary to destroy the ring after Frodo failed, but like the idea of “don’t kill him because of pity and he also probably has a part to play” is bullshit to me. Like he’s so gross and troublesome. It’s the same excuse Jedi have with “oh you can’t kill a Sith Lord because striking them down means you need to embrace the dark side” bitch Luke Skywalker round house kicked a guy into a Sarlack Pick- whaddya mean he can’t kill this wrinkly ass Emperor??? Ethical mental gymnastics are mind blowing.

For me the moment that made me really dig the series was when the Fellowship disbanded. Like shit hit the fan and everyone’s forced to do their own shit, really engaging storytelling.

The series is quite short when you consider all the battles are short cutted. Like in the radio drama you’ll hear a series of grunts for 30 seconds and then a song about how bad that battle was. I guess it would take a lot to depict a battle purely by means of audio.

Seriously the series is quite short, like it’s 13 hour long episodes and by episode five I’m like “oh shit we’re starting the second book already? Damn” It felt half the time there was so much stuff cut out I don’t know why

I think the radio drama is best suited for people who have either watched the movies or read the books. Like I don’t think it’s well suited for people who haven’t seen LoTR content before. Like the scene with the Balrog there is no description of what it looks like.

Also, Gandalf fought the Balrog from the deepest dungeons to the tip of the mountain? Damn, Gandalf’s leg day must be intense

I love the introduction of Treebeard and the Ents. Like you get this horrific imagery with warring Orcs and other evil creatures and then turn a hard 180 to these hilarious tree people. I guess that’s why the LoTR is so great. Because you do get those hard, gruesome battles but you also get these lovely peaceful wholesome scenes.

Quick question, how do you meet a guy called Saruman and then be surprised that he’s the bad guy? It’s the same deal with Victor VonDoom.

Also, did Tolkien have to have all the big villains names sound so similar?

Man, Tolkien loves having people end up together. With the Horse Princess who got friendzoned by Aragorn meeting up with that guy from Gondor. You love to see it

So like, was the King of Nazgul just talking shit or can he not be killed by a man? Like could anyone kill him by stabbing him the face or did the Horse Princess just find a loophole?

At one point this woman kinda makes fun of this flower called Kings Seed or some shit and Aragon basically calls her a THOT 

Kinda sad the series didn’t have more dragons. Like I would have liked to see a huge black dragon at the final battle at Mordor. But that’s just me, I love me some dragons

Also, the final battle at the gates of Mordor is so endearing. Like they don’t even know if Frodo and Sam are still alive but they go to war anyway because they believe they are and in doing so keep the eye of Sauron off of them. It’s really heart warming

The radio’s version of the destruction of the ring is kinda anticlimactic. Like I said it’s better with the dialogue than it is at the representation of physical actions like combat. Like if you didn’t know what happened at the end of the lord of the rings and you were listening to this you would have no idea that Golum fell into the lava with the ring 

I love the owner of the Prancing Pony’s reaction to Aragon becoming King of Gondor. It’s like “hey, remember that guy you saw shit in the woods that one time? Yeah he’s the President”

Also Sam’s Pony lives at the end of it. Love to see it. I feel like Tolkien read his first draft to his kids and they were like “what happened to Sam’s pony?” and he was like “uh, yeah, the pony....the pony lived! yes! the pony found its way back to town” you can tell this story is vibing on a different level than GoT or ACOC

Hobbits returning to the Shire fucking shit up like level 16 PCs returning to the town they started the campaign in

Also, all the Hobbits in the shire have no idea what the fuck went down? Like I understand they live in the middle or nowhere but that’s astounding 

It’s so funny what ends up happening to Saruman. Like he goes from being the second in command of the Dark Lord to being a shitty local businessman in a Village in Yorkshire

I can see how people can really get into the LotR. Like a world like GoT is just fucked beyond compare and any happy ending will be bittersweet at most. But here you have an ending where the characters leave the world better than when they found it

Frodo asking Sam to live with him was him totally trying to get with Sam, right? And Sam was like “oh that’s nice Frodo, but I have gf” and Frodo’s like “oh that’s alright, she can move in too!” it’s like watching a man back step his request for love by inviting a family into his home. You missed your shot Frodo! You had a whole year with Sam and you blew it!

Sam ultimately moving on from Frodo with his thicc Hobbit gf is the character development we deserved

That said, in the movies Sam getting a gf was a thing at the end of the third movie- like he’d been so shy before hand but after almost dying he’s like “fuck it, might as well give my shot” but here in radio drama he...had a gf all along? Like we only hear about her in the final episode and he’s like “oh yeah, my gf ain’t too happy. I left her for a year to fuck about with you so now I need to marry her. Woops” very startling

Also love how Tolkien represented PTSD with Frodo. I don’t think works of Fantasy like this before Tolkien really did this stuff justice. That said the ending is a bit weird. Like I understand that the “Undying Lands” are supposed to reflect Tolkien’s belief in Catholicism, Eternal Life and Heaven. But it’s really hard to not interpret the ending as Frodo as struggling to deal with his PTSD so he commits suicide. Because the Undying Lands is a place that Sam cannot follow. It’s heart breaking but that’s the vibe I got off the ending.

So yeah, there’s my thoughts. It’s pretty good but I’d only recommend the series to anyone who’s either seen the movies or read the books. If this was your first introduction to LOTR I don’t know if that would be any good. 

Also, while we’re here I recommend Escape from the Bloodkeep from Dimension 20. It’s  DnD actual play series that is a slight parody of LOTR. It’s really good.

#dimension 20 #acoc #escape from the bloodkeep #lord of the rings #lotr

[radmissfliss-blog]

Often I worry that, in my writing, my descriptions will come off as "clunky" or cumbersome to read- do you have any suggestions for more streamlined prose?

This is a lovely and difficult question. I think what makes it most difficult is that I’m operating without a sample of your particular writing so I’m not sure what about your style might be considered cumbersome to read, and I’m not sure if that means you’re being wordy, your word order is a little wonky, or you’ve got a pacing problem. It could be some combination of these things, or something else entirely, but I’m going to answer in the best way that I can.

The first thing that I’d do is ask what draft of your piece you are on? If you’re still writing your first draft, and you’re just testing the waters to see if the idea is solid, then that’s the kind of feedback you should be looking for. You can always come back and fix problems in later drafts - what you want to do first is get it finished.  Remember it’s always easier to pare down than it is to build up!

Assuming you’re revising a complete draft, you want to look at your descriptions and determine their relevance to the story. Some authors can get away with adding quite a bit of detail, and some can get away with adding very little detail. Your level of detail will vary, but finding the right balance can be tricky. You want to include descriptions that conjure up an image in readers’ minds but that don’t slow down the pacing of your work.

Pacing would be like the heartbeat of your piece - it speeds up when there is action and slows down when there is downtime. If it slows down too much, then the reader runs the risk of getting bored and putting your story down for some other activity. That’s why activities such as evacuation and rest are usually cut from stories. You can alter the pace of your stories in a few key ways.

Short sentences are a great way to increase the pace of a scene, especially when there are two characters engaged in snappy back-and-forth dialogue.  I feel the best action scenes are ones that make use of short, guttural or impactful sounding language. She thudded to the floor. He withered shuddering blows. They skidded to a halt.  Thudded, shuddering, and skidded all kind of have that onomatopoeia which is nice in the imagination.

Conversely, longer sentences can slow down the pace of your work, particularly when they lead into drawn out exposition or non-sequiturs. Using long sentences can be particularly useful in capturing certain stream-of-consciousness moments, or in giving lush descriptions of your setting. This gets complicated in its own right, though, and again largely leans upon personal taste. Essentially, you still want to keep your descriptions concise. Try to describe a scene by just talking about the things in your mental image of what’s happening that would immediately stick out if you were watching it in a movie or reading it in a comic book.

As an exercise, take a scene from a movie, preferably an opening wide shot or even the whole “Concerning Hobbits” sequence at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001 Wingnut/New Line) and try jotting down notes of the first things you see in each shot. You probably won’t get much of a detailed description and that’s all right. You can probably get enough information to start writing a coherent description with no more information than you need.

The sky over the green rolling hills of the Shire shone a bright blue. A road, winding round Bag End’s garden fence, led straight to the old gate that sported a sign reading “No Admittance - Except on Party Business!” On this day, though, none were on the road, for they were instead in the fields preparing decorations and setting up tents - at the speed with which Hobbits accomplish such tasks - to get ready for Bilbo Baggins’s one hundred and eleventh birthday party.

Tolkein would have, and did, handle this scene very differently. Of course I omitted Gandalf, who was the one who was present in the movie to perceive the sign, but this was more about the exercise of translating what you jotted in your notes into something on the page. I still urge you to try this and see what you come up with. It doesn’t have to be from Fellowship of the Ring!

The reason I bring up this particular work is that Tolkein quite notoriously gets away with having several-page-long non sequitur backstories about this event or that item or that Elf’s long lived lineage and service in the War of the Ring.  For that reason, I was never personally able to read The Lord of the Rings. But I’m not so brazen as to suggest that Tolkein was a poor writer for doing it! Some people really dig that level of detail. So remember who you’re writing for.

If you’re being too wordy, then it might be the number of adjectives you’re using, or the number of verbs you’re including in your sentences (if you’re describing an action scene). The verbs are largely a concern of pacing, and shorter more digestible sentences, especially in earlier drafts, will help make the action you are describing much clearer. Take, for example:

1.)

They somersaulted into the room while drawing their katanas, slashing expertly at the three ninjas who were pouncing through the air from above in a triangle death noose and stabbing with their finely sharpened sais. Their attack successful, the ninjas tumbled through the air, blood trailing from where they had cut open the stomachs of two of them while the third one smashed headlong into the wall.

2.)

They somersaulted into the room. Three ninjas armed with sais pounced on them as they entered. They recognized the attack immediately: it was the triangle death noose! They slashed expertly with their twin katanas at the ninjas, wounding two and sending the third tumbling into the wall. Traces of blood spattered onto the ground as they stood up to reposition for the next attack.

The second example is much more concise, flows better, and uses choppier language to set the pace. There’s no extra information in there, but you can get a pretty clear idea of what is going on. It’s okay to let the reader’s imagination run with the concept for a while.

Remember it wasn’t until Harry Potter and the Cursed Child that Hermione was finally portrayed as the woman of color she was supposed to have been the whole time - most audiences imagined her to be white. Some of this could be blamed on JKR’s description of Hermione, but by not pegging Hermione as a woman of color she kept the focus of her character on her intelligence and natural abilities - not these things because or despite the fact that she’s a person of color. Hermione wasn’t meant to make that kind of statement, and so her representation was subtle. To some extent, so was Dumbledore’s homosexuality. The difference being that there weren’t many situations where Hermione’s being a woman of color in magical England would likely have been an issue in the story - or at least that is JKR’s contention.

Another example of someone who was vague on descriptions is H.P. Lovecraft. He is famously bad at giving detailed descriptions, particularly in his early work, where you get babbling about pseudopods and formless shapes and sights that are indescribable (so indescribable that he won’t even try).  Later in his work he calmed down and started giving his nameless horrors names, I think in large part thanks to the influence of his wide epistolary network.  But Lovecraft is best known for using very ostentatious language. He was inspired by the late 19th century authors, particularly Edgar Allen Poe, and so mimicked that style more into the early 20th century when such ostentation was falling out of vogue with the common reader and you could pick up a weird fiction magazine for a nickel on the street corner.

So there is a lot to be said for style, and the authors that influence you, and how those things come together. An old Pixar trick is to take things about stories you like and didn’t like and determine what it is you liked and didn’t like about them - and if you didn’t like them what would you change to make it a story you did like. You can do the same thing on a smaller scale by looking at a paragraph or a sentence and figuring out whether you like or dislike a sentence and why. That’ll tell you a lot about the way you prefer to write.

Word order is something you should pick up from a style guide. I’m bad at describing it and okay at doing it. A bit dated, but Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style is a good book to read for any/all of this stuff. It’s not even very long, or at least the one I picked up at Half Price Books for $4 isn’t. It’ll be the best book on grammar you ever purchase.

Hope that answers your question! Let me know if I can provide any more follow up information!

[kitkatopinions]

Any advice for getting into the LOTR? I am a DnD Player.

Omg, yes, I have some advice for getting into LOTR (though I only read the books once when I was a kid, so I can only make movie recommendations.)

Extended editions only. If you watch the Theater versions, you're gonna miss a lot of good details and character development. But it's hard to watch the extended editions all in one setting because that's an all day endeavor and during your first watch through, you might get sick of it. I'd suggest watching all of the Fellowship of the Ring extended edition in one day, and the others you can split up by watching one half of each movie, taking whatever breaks you want in-between.

The Hobbit movies? Not worth your time in my opinion. The first movie isn't bad, though it doesn't hold a candle to the LOTR trilogy, but the second and third get into crazy, too much, tries too hard territory that honestly might damage your opinion on the LOTR trilogy and some of the characters before you even start and might confuse you since they get some stuff kind of wrong. But if I remember correctly, the Hobbit book is good, doesn't take too long to read through, and might help you get more into the movies if you read that first.

The next recommendation is not to expect too much in regards to focus on the world. There's a ton of world building and setting explanation and extra content like the Silmarillion to add on to with the LOTR books and you can legit learn Elvish to some extent. That might be something you really enjoy, as DnD seems so lore packed and extensive, in which case I would recommend the books as well. JRR Tolkien paved the way for a lot of fantasy because of how committed to world building he was, and I've even heard that he made LOTR in the first place because he loved the world he was creating so much, so the story and characters were made to highlight the world. But the movies - by nature of being movies - can't explain everything and don't have tons of side content in which they can explain tons of intricate details. And unlike the books, the focus is on the story and characters rather than the world building. Be ready for personal conflicts, lots of focus on little details, and significant growth, but not a lot of explanation on why the dwarves use the elvish language sometimes. XD

Also, this might seem obvious, so sorry if I'm telling you something you know already, but remembering that the movies are packed full of references and allegories to JRR Tolkien's experiences in war... Really helped me to understand the movies way more than I previously would have. There are things that seem trivial that are actually really important when you think of it from that point of view, friendships that don't feel like much until you remember that they kind of reflect bonds forged in wartime, characters that don't feel like they matter until you realize that they represent more, etc.

And idk if this will help you get into the movies more, but those actors were committed to their roles! One of them broke some toes mid shot and just kept going, and he'd also notably walk all over to try and look as weathered as possible (sometimes with his sword in public places!) And the cast had to have a lot of moments up on a snowy mountain, but one of the actors was afraid of flying in the helicopters that took them up to it to shoot, so would get ready early and walk up himself in freaking chain mail. Most of the original nine main actors got 'nine' tattooed on their body in elvish, too. Like... The actors really truly loved the roles they were playing. Idk, I just always like knowing that the actors in media really care about the characters they portray and it helps me get into it.

Also, this might not be up your alley either, but if you want resources to help you follow along things like pathways on the LOTR map or Elvish to English translator, boy howdy, I've got that to. I wrote LOTR fanfic for a hot minute back in the day, so I have them saved on my bookmarks bar. XD

https://www.elfdict.com/#run!%20ride!

http://lotrproject.com/map/#zoom=3&lat=-1315.5&lon=1500&layers=BTTTTT

Hope that helps! <3

[stevecoleridge-posts]

SPANISH LOCKDOWN …DAY14

Saturday night s all right for fighting.. on Facebook of course,

i was just casting my mind back to a Ninurta  Night , as there called their Saturdays Night in Uruk, capital of Sunny Sumeria, and  imagining what a great time they were probably having 5000 years ago , getting pissed on the local beer, because they invented that ,as well as the seven day week. Of course they did nt have Netflix, but they got to go out more..i don’t have Netflix either , yet , but have axs to lots of stuff including Music documentaries , which we are watching in order , chronological order that is..starting with The Birth of Country music .. and Mr Ralph Peers,from new York, who looked a little like Brian Epstein by the way , who set up a temporary recording studio above  furniture shop, there you go agin , NEMs , well no, it was nt , but anyway I digress, and into this temporary Studio  walked The Carter Family..3 of them .. and Jimmie Rogers.. yes.. that Jimmie Rogers , the Singing brakeman..i mean ,Okay , i can hear you mumbling about Sam Phillips, and the Chess brothers etc.. but this was Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia..a place no-one who doesn’t live round there has heard of..its like discovering the Beatles and the Rolling Stones..or rather signing them..   After that we watched a newish doc about the King , E.V. Presley..and it was mad by some guys driving round America in his Rolls royce..great stuff   That led to the Fab Four , Eight days a Week.. which was about their touring years and the whole world has seen it except me… its absolutely.. the F word , second letter A..anyway this time 55 years ago they were filming Help. inSt Margarets..Twickenham..and taking photos for the infamous Butcher cover , in the Vale , Chelsea, where my first nursery school was located..ah well.. don’t want to get too carried away on Beatles Lore..or i ll bore you to death , because i don’t mind admitting i am well versed in that subject…   The Beatles represented the 60s in the same way Elvis represented the 50 s…and someone told a story about how the disgusting Colonel Parker, in inverted commas,used to put a cover over Elvis Cadillac so the girls could nt see him when he drove on to the Movie lot in hollywood… well once the Beatles arrived the Colonel still put the cover on , so Elvis could nt see there were no longer any girls..A sad figure..but  his mantle of  loneliness was later to be worn by Michael jackson and especially Prince..Do these Royal titles always end with a solitary death on the loo or in a Lift

From there we moved too the Seventies… and surely the quintessential Seventies hero is Bowie..well now it so alluringly sunny outside ill have to go and play guitar on the terrace .. and leave David for another time..

No i don’t want to see the News..

DAY 15..Sunday…

The clocks have gone on to sensible time..even in lockdown this is cheerful news.. I was wondering how long it will take for people with imaginary ailments to return to their plastic chairs in Hospital waiting rooms throughout the Western world.. these people presumably will be the ones most frightened of Covid 19..there s nothing imaginary about that..but if you have ME and you re lying on the sofa all day, and you feel depressed , and your bones are aching etc.. well how do feel different from everyone else..and as for food intolerance .. that should be interesting when the statistics come in about consumption in Supermarkets..i know there are allergies and allergies.. but the possibility of imminently drowning in ones own mucus does concentrate the mind wonderfully, and a lot of people will find themselves in the second category once shortages begin of certain previously essential items..suddenly one has to be tolerant of a whole raft of things one had previously considered unacceptable ..two weeks ago i could not have imagined four days without bread.. but its no big deal.. onions likewise..thats what happens when you shop with no list.. bit like going on stage without a playlist.. its a gamble … it can produce unexpected benefits in that you try stuff you had nt tried before.. but you often forget the best songs..

We watched the film about the Kursk, the Submarine which was on the seabed and owing to bureaucracy and politics the Crew were allowed to die..even though t5here was a foreign Ship with equipment nearby that could have saved them.. reminds me of something..are we the mariners or are we the mariners wives?

Does the Chinese government have a cure? are they just waiting for the US economy to completely collapse?..Will we ever know?

Day 16

Each day just goes so fast , i turn around , it s past..

One of my fave tracks from Revolver..anyway playing in E7 , as usual , in fact I’ve been stuck in E 7 since Lockdown started..Catfish , Smokestack lighting ,Good Morning Blues , Take Out Some Insurance..however now the time has come to expand ..and try Freight train..the classic finger picking song..so ,if i observe radio silence for a while you ll know why..

Saw the news…The government had adopted some economic measures which seemed very well thought out , in the sense they were are determined not to let the mistakes of the last crisis , where the poorest people got the rawest deal. I won’t go into details , its all online if you re interested..it was more a sensation than anything  logical , but it made me feel a bit less pessimistic for the first time in a few weeks,i found i was nt thinking about Death quite as much , even in the abstract. that may sound overdramatic , but i think everybody is thinking about it subconsciously a great deal more than they were, say, last Christmas..well actually in our particular situation , where we had been frequenting cancer wards and the like , maybe i should go back to 2018…but  the awarerness of death affects every facet of how you think about everything else..i don’t just mean concentrating the mind wonderfully..anyway its half past two, and tomorrow ill probably delete all this..The gist was that for some reason things don’t feel quite so bleak..

Day 17

Yesterday was a 3 own a scale of  ten as far as ding anything worthwhile was concerned. After watching a film i unreservedly recommend..The vanishing.. about  3 men who disappeared from a Scottish island where they were repairing th elighthouse , i watched Tolkien , the movie about one of my heroes , but not one of Auroras heroes apparently as she fell asleep during the first reel, so to speak, anyway she s not huge Tolkien fan , having been made to sit through the fellowship of the ring seven times..be that as it may , the sofa is not designed for sleeping comfortably so she had a severely cricked neck the next morning and stayed in bed, leaving Tina and i to our own devices..this meant i ate a packet of chocolate biscuits for brunch and did nt eat again till midnight , which goes to show how lucky I am not to be on my own.

  to entertain myself between bouts of fingerpicking i decided to9 look up on google what English people disliked the most.. while i did nt find the answer to this question i did get seriously sidetracked and found out the answers to several more pressing questions about Europe,and i m proud to say the british isles scored very highly

The Dirtriest City..Yay .. London The Ugliest people..The British and the irish  and the Germans ..okay , so we cant beat the Germans but at least we drew The Rudest people..That was easy..The French win every time, when i lived in  Paris  i prided myself on becoming Parisian, and adopting local customs , but one day , in a moment of absent mindedness , and for a subconscious second imagining myself in Spain , i said Good Morning to my next door neighbour, a short fellow with a mop of dark hair and glasses, who i passed on my way to the metro in Boulevard St . Germain… i am not a Physiognomist.. he replied…i made a not e of that , hoping i could use the phrase Je ne suit pas Phisionome, myself on some future occasion..but sadly , said opportunity has not arisen. Most boring City..Brussels .. for the third year running…Hasve nt these people been to Oslo? Most Friendly Country..wait for it… Scotland..most friendly capital .. Dublin Worst Cuisine..Malta , tied with Kosovo Best ..Italy Most Beautiful Women ..Norway ..and Bulgaria..i would have voted for Madrid..but you cant argue with Norway Most ignorant Country in Europe ..italy. Most Rapes..Sweden..well that was no surprise..however i won’t analyse those statistics or Ill be done for Isamolophobia Most ignorant country in the World ..Indonesia Most depressed ..World..China , India, Brazil,..what??..USA.. and Bangladesh Most mental Illness..Estonia,Belarus , Russia Most Obese Europe..Yes We won agin .. Britain

And so on .. there was more , i could nt stop , but i did check the criteria..and obviously ruled out anything from the Daily Mail or the Independent.. which are not really newspapers at , but sheets of opinions conforming to the prejudices of their readers.

When i got tired of this i got the Scythe out of the tree and  cut the grass for half an hour .. feeling like a peasant woman in Quiet Flows The Don..its quite restful when you get in rhythm. Aurora was still ill so i made her some chicken soup.. well , packet chicken soup with some noodles and chicken added.. anyway , she did nt eat it .. so i had it saved for my supper.. I did nt watch TV..i could nt be bothered to work out how turn it on to be honest , thats how lazy i felt, and i just sat by the fire and went through all the fingerpicking songs again.

Spanish lockdown..Day 18

Aurora s feeling a wee bit better, but cant eat anything , so cannot take Iboprufen, or whatever it is in English ..but says she could probably handle bread.. so..that means a trip to the heart of Fukushima, err..well ...on with the masks , gloves etc  and to the shop in El Llano.. small village near here , a lot more isolated than Carboneras..I was feeling fairly confident as i trundled along the track  , that the town hall had tarmacked before some election or other..anyway , rounding a corner there was a woman of un certain age in the road waving me down,.,.

What to do?…You re are not allowed passengers , plus she was not wearing gloves or a mask..

Should i observe the Law, or basic good manners? i d vaguely recognised her.. and had she she been a total stranger i would have passed on by , but , hell , she was Local, so i had to pick her up..

She did nt recognise me.. obviously , as i was wearing a cap , two masks with a scarf on top, and polo neck unrolled over the bottom half of my face , like a character in the Bash Street Kids..an way i had the window down , and was almost sticking my head out as i drove..

@ Chilly out @.. she observed…

i pretended not to understand this hint that i should close the window..

@ Do you think it s going to rain ? @

@ I  think probably not @

@All these people with masks @  she observed ,as a car squeezes by us, going in the opposite direction . I began to wonder if she knew there was  such a thing as Covid 19,and  saw the driver  studying us..I was hoping he  would nt recognise me either.. and was weighing up whether what i was doing would meet with his approval. i.e. helping a distressed local, or would be considered a breach of community sprit. On coming into the village we received more enigmatic looks..and i  felt uneasy as i got out in front of the shop and followed her to the door … pausing  to read the safety notices outside.and thus give her a head start . i won’t reproduce them ..wherever you are you ve probably seen the equivalent..anyway ,no sooner did i enter the shop than she was next to me selecting suit and veg..and ignoring safe distancing, which i agree was academic , as we d just been in much too close proximity,..thus forcing me to leave the fruit and go and study the options in frozen fish..while she was having a conversation wi the owner

  @ Do you think it will rain?@   @ Its chilly out @ etc..

As we went about our purchasing i saw more and more foodstuffs i would nt normally consider..and soon had over a weeks supply..which , considering how much we already had at home made me hope this lockdown was going to go on for  a while ..or otherwise id feel a fool .. no , i did nt really think that.. Much as i wanted to prolong my shopping experience there was queue forming outside , so felt obliged to go more quickly that i would have liked..especially as i hoped to delay long enough not to have to take the woman back to her house..vainly as it turned out as she was a quarter of a mile along the track when i was obliged to pick her up again..

We passed the garbage truck.in a lay-by. @ My nephew..@ she explained..I began to feel id made the right decision..as i doubted she d been more than a mile from her house in the past few months… nonetheless i observed full protocol on arriving home..even disinfecting the car having a shower and putting all my clothes in the machine.

[yespoetry]

An Interview with the Authors of 'DICTIONNAIRE INFERNAL' (And Download It For Free Here)

DICTIONNAIRE INFERNAL is a co-authored with Chris McCreary and Mark Lamoureux and was originally published by Empty Set Press on Halloween 2017. With the close of Empty Set earlier this, we have partnered up with ESP and are offering the chapbook as a free ebook. You can read a poem from the chapbook here, an interview with the authors below, and download the collection here and below.

Did you write this collection to any kind of music?

Mark: This is a hard question to answer, because I listen to music more or less constantly and I listen pretty widely (Bill Corbett once told me I have "big ears").  Looking at the poems in Dictionnaire Infernal I see references to Skinny Puppy, Big Black and the theme song for The Karate Kid Part II by Peter Cetera, but that was probably Chris.  I'm sure I was listening to a lot of other stuff, too, but it's impossible to say what.

Chris: In general, I write while listening to instrumental music. The band Earth is probably my favorite for this. That said, this chapbook does have a sestina, “Abraxas,” that is in part a riff on lyrics from the band Baroness, who we both admire. (After the chapbook was published, I sent a message to the band’s singer asking if he would want a copy, but I never heard anything back from him. This might be for the best - it would be mortifying if he read the poem and didn’t like it.)

Describe your favorite meal.   

Mark: There's the socially responsible answer to this question and the honest one.  

The socially responsible one is good moules frites and a bottle of burgundy.  Red wine with seafood because I’m a madman who lives on the edge.

The honest answer is a cheeseburger that they serve at a dairy restaurant where I grew up called Shady Glen where they fry a specific type of American cheese on the fry table so that it gets sort of brown and curled and bubbly, paired with a vanilla milkshake.  Said restaurant was more or less the inspiration for my chapbook 29 Cheeseburgers.  It’s definitely Americana kitsch where the servers all wear these anachronistic uniforms and these little paper hats. 

Chris: Jenn McCreary makes great vegetarian chili. If I could cap off that meal with coffee and a salted chocolate chip cookie or three, all would be right in the world for a moment.

Choose three books that you've always identified with?  

Chris: I’ve always felt an affinity for Tolkien’s hobbits, who mostly want to avoid trouble and stay at home with a book and a good snack. Maybe The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings count as two of the three books?  I think The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was probably formative for me as well, particularly in terms of its fatalistic dark humor. 

Mark: I’ve definitely always identified with Satan in Paradise Lost--he is actually an ethical person who has no choice but to fractiously rebel against his creator because that’s how he was made.  He feels bad about leading the fallen angels into a conflict they are destined to lose, but he doesn’t know how to do anything else. Like Chris, I was weaned on fantasy and science fiction books--the first book I ever took out of the school library of my own accord was Ursula le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea because I liked the cover.  I felt an affinity to the main character, the wizard Ged, who winds up in a conflict with his own shadow, which he liberated in a ritual he was not supposed to be doing.  The shadow winds up killing his beloved pet otak, which spoke to me at the time because my parents had just gotten divorced and my mother bought me a jet-black rabbit at the state fair that I named Obsidian that was eaten by a coyote about a week later. 

Before I read “serious” books, the first books I read were comic books and I was obsessed with the X-Men, particularly the character Nightcrawler, who was the most freakish of the already freakish team. There is a graphic novel called God Loves, Man Kills in which a televangelist tries to exorcise Nightcrawler, which I found particularly moving.  I have a drawing of Nightcrawler’s signature “BAMF” onomatopoeia that appears when he teleports done by his late creator David Cockrum for me at a comic book convention when I was 12 or so that is one of my prized possessions.

Choose one painting that describes who you are. What is it?  

“The Sphinx & The Milky Way” by Charles Burchfield (Mark)

“Torches Mauve” by Franz Kline (Chris)

What’s a gif or meme that you relate to?

Mark:  I see this as akin to Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog but with more screaming. 

via GIPHY

Chris: This meme is a pretty solid representation of chronic anxiety.

What do you imagine the apocalypse is like? How would you want to die?  

Chris: In middle school, I thought a lot about nuclear war and assumed that we’d all die in a fireball at any moment. (There was a period of several months where I didn’t want to be in a room without a radio or TV playing because I wanted to be able to hear the warning broadcasts as soon as they started.) Now I imagine the apocalypse as slow moving, a game of inches where basic resources like clean water are hoarded by the wealthy. As for how I’d want to die… I hope I’m at peace with friends and loved ones, no matter the circumstances.

Mark: Under the Baron Trump administration, faculty at Trump National Stable Geniuses University College must, in addition to their yearly self-evaluations, submit paperwork detailing how they are employing The Art of the Deal Parts 47-72 in their curriculum to Make America Great Again Again Again in order to justify their annual rations of Trump Sausage and potable water.  I will forget about the deadline and be summarily executed the last semester before I retire at age 108.

If you could only watch three films for the rest of your life, what would they be?  

Chris: The Empire Strikes Back, The Fellowship of The Ring, and Heathers.

Mark: Labyrinth, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  (It was really difficult to just pick three). 

Where do you find inspiration lately?

Chris: The second season of the show Fleabag is one of the best things that I’ve seen in ages. 

Mark:  I have been writing poems to Bill Evans compositions lately, as well as finishing up a project where I “write” poems to episodes of the old Leonard Nimoy paranormal TV docuseries In Search Of.  I have done almost all of the hundreds of episodes, so I will need to find something else pretty soon.  

Where did you write most of your book? 

Chris: The poems in Dictionnaire Infernal are part of five years’ worth of poems that Mark and I have written together. Each April (aka National Poetry Month), we’ve written a poem a day and posted it to a blog. At the point when we were writing this particular series, one of us would choose a picture of a demon and riff on it, then the other person would finish the poem from there. I would often write my half of the poem first thing in the morning before homeroom at the high school where I teach or maybe later in the day while proctoring a study hall. 

Mark:  Likewise, definitely written either at home or at my office at Housatonic Community College. 

What was something surprised you recently?

Chris: This summer, we went to the shore for the first time in a few years. Our kids, who are now 16 years old (they’re fraternal twins), just got up and… went to the beach with a friend, aka without us. It was a jolt to realize that, Oh, right, they’re at an age where we don’t have to watch them in the water the whole time and scold them if they swim out too far. Although of course we ended up doing some of that, too. If I turned this anecdote into a piece of creative nonfiction, I’d begin to work some sort of metaphor here. 

Mark: At the risk of sounding cliché, as Chris mentions, parenting is pretty much a continuous stream of surprises.  To be honest, I was pretty ambivalent about becoming a parent, but ultimately I find it to be the best thing in the world.  Even at 2, my daughter is my best friend and we continue to discover surprising things about the world. I find it really easy to adopt the perspective of a small child and to see the world in that way, which is a nice panacea to the way I usually see the world. 

What do you carry with you at all times?   

Mark: Major depression and my iPod.  Yeah, I still have an iPod. 

Chris: Journal, iPhone, a 20-sided die, and an asthma inhaler.

Tell us a bit about your writing process. What works and what doesn't? What doesn't, but you keep trying it anyway?

 Chris: Left to my own devices, I’m a fairly slow, fussy writer who builds from scraps and takes a long time to shape those fragments into whole poems. I’ve tried to push myself to approach the process differently, often through the use of source texts, but the idea of a larger “project” tends to fall flat each time, and I end up writing more lyric poems with Duran Duran references in them. Collaborating with Mark over the years has freed me from my own obsessiveness - with those poems, I work quickly and don’t look back. Sometimes, though, there is still some Duran Duran.

Mark: I guess I am an ideal counterpoint to Chris because I tend to work quickly and improvisationally.  I identify with Jack Spicer’s adage that writing is dictation--it’s like capturing a mere segment of a steady flow of words.  Most of the “writing” occurs in revision and making things more (or less, depending) lucid and readable to other people, although I don’t necessarily concern myself with this too much.  It helps to have something to focus on, so I do a lot of what might be called ekphrastic writing, though the pieces themselves are rarely that ekphrastic.  Oftentimes I wind up with pieces titled for the source of the inspiration or improvisation that have little or nothing to do with the source content. I liken this to the jazz tradition of improvising upon standards. 

When I try to write something specifically “about” something starting from scratch, it usually fails pretty miserably.  Lately, though, I have been able to write more narrative things stemming from my quotidian life, which is definitely something I’ve had trouble doing in the past. 

 What are some of your daily rituals or routines?  

Chris: I’m trying to get better at establishing healthy routines. I want to meditate more regularly, for instance, but I have a tough time really establishing it as a daily practice. A lot of my established ritual is based around preparation and consumption of coffee, ideally La Colombe’s Corsica blend with Silk soy milk and raw sugar. 

Mark:  Routines are literally impossible for me - despite even my conscious intentions I will subconsciously sabotage anything that smacks of routine to my unconscious brain, which is troublesome when one is caring for a routine-oriented toddler.  I do my best to adhere to her strictly ritualized schedule nevertheless. The only part of my day that is really sacrosanct is reading non-work related stuff, sometimes for even just five minutes due to exhaustion, before I go to sleep. 

What was the hardest part about writing this book?

Chris: The most difficult aspect for me was the self-imposed deadline of finishing a poem every day, but it was also liberating. Mark and I have now completed five Aprils worth of poems - 150 of them! - without missing a day.

Mark: With these and some of the other ekphrastic projects Chris and I have done for NaPoWriMo, it is challenging to write something that isn’t merely a description or a riff on the song or image that we are writing to or about. 

Define happiness for you.  

Chris: Taking an unnecessarily long nap with my cat Frida.

Mark: Hanging out at the beach with my daughter.

Chris McCreary is the author of four books: [neüro / mäntic], undone : a fakebook, Dismembers, and The Effacements. His review of Arrive On Wave, the Collected Poems of Gil Ott, is forthcoming in Tripwire. Mark Lamoureux is is the author of four full-length collections of poems, It’ll Never Be Over for Me, 29 Cheeseburgers + 39 Years, Spectre) and Astrometry Organon. A fifth book, Horologion, is forthcoming from Poet Republik, Ltd. in 2019. Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of Sirs & Madams, The Gods Are Dead, Marys of the Sea, Sexting Ghosts, Xenos, No(body), and is the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault. They received their MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is the founder of Yes Poetry and the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of their writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Them, Brooklyn Magazine, BUST, and elsewhere. Joanna also leads workshops at Brooklyn Poets. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente / FB: joannacvalente

#Maris Mclamoureary #Chris McCreary #Mark Lamoureux #chapbook