anachred

I need cool concept pick-me-ups every once in a while, so being referred to this was fun: Little People in a Big World
I would pass this off as a fun little gimmick, except the way the guy sets up these shots is masterful. I try to appreciate art on all scales. ^_^

I'm reading the kiddos the passage through Moria. I'm surprised to find that Tolkien didn't really have cliff-hanger endings. That whole sequence is wrought with tension but every section is ended on a somewhat definite note. Interesting...


*Breaking News!*
We are being given a baby squirrel. Oh, this could be good...

Mr. Poisson's Posse is still going strong (i.e. I still like it!), though not so fast anymore. I can maybe do something with Mortal Queen again, finally...
And I'm soliciting World Domination 101 beta readers as of...now. Because I can't face much more fiddling-about.

Elevator Pitch: World Domination 101 is the story of four teen superheroes with mediocre powers getting a crash-course in fighting supercrime--saving the world by being willing to act and get creative with what they have even though it's not easy.

Surveying Middle-Earth

David Berberick and I had a little chat about Tolkien last night. ^_^
He's the guy whose survey you may have seen linked to about LJ, asking about why Tolkien is popular. I filled out the questionnaire and said I'd be willing to be interviewed, just for the heck of it. He contacted me back, which was flattering enough, but I think the talking part went well too. We'll see when he sends me a transcript.

[I mean, I know I ended a few too many answers with " so yeah...", but that would be something he'd edit, right?]

It was fun and interesting. You can fill him in on your perspective too:

Middle-Earth Survey

Whooosh. I'd forgotten, not how Two Towers ended, but how much of a cliff-hanger it was! The emotional investment of the Tower of the Moon sequences is just really strong; I love how Sam just unfolds in that fourth volume. The way he mimicks Gollum is just a beauty to behold. Grim Sam=priceless.

I was much struck with how taking The Ring was "against his nature"...he thinks he's made a dreadful mistake, but that's when we have the inkling that while not quite so fey and fell as Frodo (take that alliteration and stick it in your hat), he's a fair stout Hero himself.* The foreshadowing of that talk they have before they come out of Ithilien (Tolkien, like good storytellers everywhere, knew the value of letting up occasionally), of the story they're in is so hobbit-like, yet very much suited to the high task, just as Pippin and Merry's banter is suited to the extremes of their natures. Can wear armor about the Shire without being ridiculous because they have a high sense of humor about it, you can tell. Back to Sam and Frodo's talk (I dearly love a digession or two), in the movie I don't remember it coming so early, so I was surprised it WAS a foreshadow.

And back to the beginning in a merry round of mummery,

I was surprised, the first time, how the Two Towers movie did not end on the slamming of the doors. To me, it seems a perfect ending to a Volume Two of Three. Then again, it had to tie things up. But the pacing there was pretty much the only thing that threw me into "Wait; the book was different!" mode. {Besides the Legolas stairs surfer/Oliphaunt slayer thing. But we won't talk about that.}

{I was thoroughly shocked to find the counting game between Gimli and Legolas in The Book, on that note. Pleasantly surprised, actually, to think the humor was to be credited to Tolkien.}

Tolkien r/labu-r/labu...

*Funny, how he thinks he's ruining everything—Heroes do tend to ruin things, if only for the antagonist, but realistically...that's a little simplistic. Sam is only ruining himself, though the whole mess with Gollum does come about. The fact is, the breaking of Gollum's trust is what ends up getting them rid of the One Ring after all. The trouble he causes in that way (taking the ring, and before that in his unsubtle suspicion) all serves the purpose. Ruining himself, in that wearing the Ring, for that time, means Havens for him after all, when I think...Sam should have been buried and become part of the soil of the Shire.

But prices must be paid. If the Gollum made everything right in the end, and if Frodo was always a little too elven for his own good, Sam is a price—for the Shire, and Frodo, and Sam himself.