Council Elrond, only modern fantasy:
Gandalf speaking to Boromir when the ring tempts him the first time: And as written in the lore of the ancient days, dude, what the shit?
Romance Novels
The real problem with romance novels is they teach you to make up scenarios in your head and invest heavily in them and that miscommunication is a one and done thing.
The romance book entire is a scenario, made up in someone’s head, and invested in by the readers. Yeah, if the teen girl gets kidnapped by a dragon rider and things get steamy, the reader is going to be able to figure out that’s not plausible. I think we can all separate our dragon-kidnapping fantasies from real life. Even if not, it’s an unlikely problem to confront in the day to day world.
But inventing a scenario itself and the reader’s investment in it is a real problem that confronts people all the time. And that’s where romance novels get dangerous.
Similarly, most miscommunication in novels is matters of plot and artifice. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two people talking past each other for two hundred pages, both perfectly clear if you know what they mean, and both completely misinterpreting the other. Yet that’s what’s up.
Dostoevski
Ayn Rand really was a Russian novelist at heart.
Book thoughts
I really haven’t read any fiction that blew my socks off in a few years now.
Last Goodreads 5 star was Ascent in 2021, and that was definitely a weird one.
Tom Bombadil
Tom Bombadil is joy and contentment. That’s why:
A) he’s not human. We’re terrible at joy and contentment
B) he’s immune to the Ring. The Ring is temptation, and if you’re happy and content, temptation has no hold on you
C) he was so important to the book plot, which goes further into the metaphor of the Ring than the movies
D) he’s the right thing to cut from the movies, which are more literal than the books
E) he’s so popular in spite of not doing a lot
F) he seems like Eru Iluvatar, being a creature fully made of love and completion
G) he is powerful and yet must be protected
H) he can be summoned through song, yet the song has no power over him. We all have songs that are likely to make us happy, but they don’t always work
I) his enemies are the barrow wights, ghosts that hold forever onto ancient grudges. Those are legit grudges, mind. The Witch-King of Angmar did the men of Arnor dirty. But the wights hold onto those grudges beyond death, and as such are enemies to joy forever. They (the wights) are scattered when their treasures are distributed without history
Books
When the military aged male is talking about his feelings on the eve of war, especially if he’s never been to war before, a woman wrote that book.
Oh, he has a dragon. And he’s not talking about how awesome having a dragon is?
Female audience who want a ‘male’ POV.
This is what it looks like from the other side, btw.
DIA
Sooner or later we’re going to discover that there is actually a coven of vampires underneath Denver International Airport, and we’re all going to be kinda surprised. But no one in Denver is going to be that surprised. Like, it’ll be a surprise, of course. IRL vampires, et al. But the fact that they were hiding under DIA?
Yeah, I think we all kinda saw that coming.
Spotify
Spotify makes an Intimate Mix for you. Most of my songs are fairly straight forward.
Gravity of Love by Engima, I understand.
Angel by Massive Attack would invoke a fairly intense romantic session, but hey, I’m down.
THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND [caps original] by Bad Omens is like, ah, really?
Useless Online Dictionaries
Who the heck spells varmit with an ‘n’? That’s simply incorrect.
The Ides
Anybody want to go out and shank Ceasar? Asking for a friend.