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#fantasy

rhysy@diaspora.glasswings.com
Rhysy

May be of interest to the #scifi and #fantasy nerds alike : steampunk Numenor !

I finished reading the first five volumes of The History of Middle Earth. Some amazing and fascinating stuff in there, I'm gonna have to update my cosmology series... but I need a break before tackling the next section.

https://www.quora.com/How-did-N%C3%BAmenor-not-develop-any-technology-even-though-they-lived-in-prosperity-for-3000-years-It-s-the-perfect-place-for-scientific-advancement/answer/Rhys-Taylor-20

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rhysy@diaspora.glasswings.com
Rhysy

MORE BOOKS ! This time looking at a couple more from Tolkien, featuring talking cats and dancing bears.

... I've got a sneaky feeling that Tolkien is not dissimilar to George Lucas, albeit in reverse. Plenty of talent - genius, even, but with an incredibly silly streak that's quite charming to read when it's in the early drafts but oh god I'm glad that never made the final cut. Whereas with Lucas it seemed to be only other people who ever stopped him from going right off the deep end.

(Except for Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire. Those bits made it in, and they're completely daft. Yes, lots of people will disagree on the latter, but they're wrong.)

#Fantasy

https://decoherency.blogspot.com/2023/04/review-nature-of-middle-earth-beren-and.html

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rhysy@diaspora.glasswings.com
Rhysy

Unfinished Tales was a great read, but The Nature of Middle Earth does make me want to buy ALL the Tolkien. By and large confirms what I suspected about the philosophy behind the story but that's for another time. Anyway, not much narrative here but tonnes of interesting ideas. In classic Tolkien fashion, this varies from ultra-nerdy pedantry on the life cycles of elves to meditations on the nature of mind and matter that could have been lifted straight out of Locke or Berkeley; an insightful discussion on why the Valar have a moral duty to give Melkor the benefit of the doubt gives way to... the friendly dances of the honey-loving Numenorean bears and why chopping the legs off squirrels is evil. Yes, really.

Man was a fuckin' genius. Definitely went a bit nuts from time to time but that's part of the charm.

#Fantasy
#Tolkien

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