All the great stories

We have an eclectic group of action figures, which is my own fault. But it makes me extremely happy when Meg plays with them all together.

"Okay, Vader comes first cause he's the lord. Then comes his son Luke, and then Hawkeye, 'cause he's Luke's friend. Then Frodo. Then comes the gear. Shakespeare, you know where he's gonna stand? At the end! How come this Shakespeare doesn't sit down?" Meg

More bloggage over at HSLDA

My next post is up at the HSLDA blog. I feel like there should be a contest for who can spot the most cultural elements/references in this one. Prize: virtual Awesome Points.

Supermodels and dragon collections

A well-meaning woman at the store complimented Meg on her glasses. "You look like a supermodel!"
This seemed to puzzle Meg, so I thanked the lady on her behalf. Sure enough, she asked me, "What's a supermodel?" I described it as someone who tries on clothes for someone to take pictures of them, which completely befuddled her. Adults are incredibly weird. She assured me she did not want to be a supermodel.

Meg also doesn't approve of princesses or fairies. She does not want any princess or fairy anything for Christmas, so don't get her any. The examining room at the pediatrician's office offended her deeply because it had princess stickers all over the walls, and she told me so very loudly, and furthermore that girls don't like princesses. Boys like princesses! A completely random passing doctor was apparently amused, or distressed, or something, and came in to try and persuade her that some kids, boys and girls both, actually do like princesses. She wasn't very successful.

This week we're listening to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on CD as we drive in the car. (We drive plenty.) Queen Lucy is apparently okay, not being a princess. I paused the story as we arrived at the dragon's cave and had Meg guess what Eustace would find inside.

"I don't know."
"What do dragons like to collect?" I prompted her.
"Stones?"
"Yes! What kind of stones?"
"Arkenstones?"
 Dragons do like to collect Arkenstones, so there. Ha!

I am so proud of Meg's cultural attainment. 

All illusion, really

It was such a harmless quote...

"Mommy's just filling in the corners."
"Which was a hobbit allusion, " I said, for Meg's benefit. Because she clearly needs to be fully acquainted with all of Tolkien's passing turns of phrase at the earliest opportunity.
Meg announced, "It was an OCCLUSION!"

We all laughed, and Jonathan started defining all the "--lusion" words he could think of.  Meg suggested "solution."
"Yes, a solution is a problem fixed," Jonathan agreed.
I added, "Or it's something dissolved in liquid."
"Yes, which solves the problem of nothing being dissolved in your liquid. Or you're about to throw it at a troll. Which makes him solvent. His bankruptcy creditors are delighted!"

"I'm going to be a laughingstock of linguists and alchemists alike." Jonathan

Danger

"As Galadriel said, what's done cannot be... wait a minute!" Jonathan
"Do you mean Lady Macbeth?" Me

"Well, look closely so that next time you see apatosaurus tracks, you'll recognize them." Me

I think we need one of those "It has been [] days since the last dinosaur incident" signs around here. Last night Meg was putting dinos into their basket with force, and nearly skewered my hand with somebody's sharp tail. Ouch. It's a dangerous world in here!

Carry the backpack

"Bilbo's sword is named Sting," I told Meg.
"And what's his backpack named?"
"I don't think his backpack has a name."
Meg considered this. "I think his backpack's name is Carry."

You can't get there from here

Meg was in tears over something, and I was hugging her on our bed. Our map of Middle-Earth caught her eye.

Meg: "Is that a puzzle map?"
Me: "That's a map of Middle-Earth. It's a place in a book."
Meg: "How do we get INTO the story book?"
Jonathan: "That is the question."

I tried to gently explain that it was just in a book; you couldn't get there from this world. Meg started bawling.

Me: "Is Meg crying because she can't get to Middle-Earth?" At which, I started crying too. It's been a long day.

Jonathan: "Now my wife is crying because my daughter is crying because she can't get to Middle-Earth!"

You can't make this stuff up.

The Unexpected Journey

Jonathan and I went with friends Tom and Sarah to see the Hobbit. We saw it not only in theaters, on the opening day, in costume, but in Imax 3-D. We were hard-core, y'all.

We absolutely had the best costumes at our showing; we had the only costumes at our showing. My cloak was completely successful, in my opinion, because it kept me warm in the letting-out-at 2 am frost. I never did come up with a good interim cloak pin, so I used a couple of diaper pins. That's keeping it real, right there.

As for the movie, we liked it. It probably isn't the best of the LOTR movies, but it had a lot going for it. For one thing, the Peter Jackson - Fran Walsh - Philippa Boyens team is so incredibly solid. They can make a movie. They got back a lot of the old cast - Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, and of course Ian McKellen - and they're so solid together. Howard Shore's music was excellent as always, especially the parts when the dwarves sang. The ending credit song was one of the best I've seen in any movie, ever.

The script was decent, with a few lines that clunked, but it did a fabulous job working with flashbacks and background stories. We got to see the dwarven kingdom that was, and suddenly all the dwarves had character motivation. It also had some gross parts (troll cooking, anyone?), some pretty scary parts, and some silly parts. Apparently they can't resist chase scenes with everyone out in the open and you have to wonder about those revered orcish tracking skills. Ahem. I was impressed, though, that the movie stuck closely to the book AND had an internal plot arc and everything. It kept everyone's attention despite the late hour. It makes me happy to see book scenes. "To think that I should live to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took's son!"

We got to go back to Middle-Earth. That's really the best part. I was just happy to see our old friends and get to spend more time at Bag End and Rivendell. And I would go back again.

Photographic evidence

The back of the cloak.

The front of the cloak. Adventure, here I come.

Elf cloak is done enough!

The elf cloak is DONE ENOUGH TO WEAR! Woohoo!

All right, when last I updated, one panel of the outside back had frayed badly in the wash. I zigzagged the whole piece to preserve what was left, and was able to absorb most of the loss into the seam allowances. The bottom was about 4" short, but I needed a bottom hem about 5" deep to make it my height, so that worked out really well.

Wednesday night I got the body of the cloak assembled, stitched together, and turned right side out.

I didn't get to the cloak at all yesterday because I had things going on all day, came home, and went to bed about seven-thirty. It was awesome.

Today I was on the clock, so I let Meg watch Elmo while I sewed. I started by basting shut the cloak body and gathering it to a piece of bias tape. That went pretty quickly, so I assembled the hood, too. I got to practice understitching, which I learned in August for that red dress, and it's such a great technique. I love how it turns out.

So anyway, the hood got put together, basted and gathered, and then I attached the gathers on the cloak to the gathers on the hood. That was kind of not the greatest. I completely cut off the bias tape, which was ridiculous and not working, and undid the worst section and re-did it. It's okay now, but there are a couple more sections that I'd like to re-do. Eventually, the raw gathers need to be hidden under a separate piece of lining or a wide ribbon, but I need to repair the gathers first, and it won't show while I'm wearing it.

I also need to order a gigantic industrial-strength yet elvish-appearing clasp for the front, but I'll mock something up for tonight. I can wear it to the Hobbit movie!

Elf cloak

I've been slightly intimidated by this cloak I'm making. I call it the "elf cloak," because I bought the fabric round about the time Return of the King came out. It sat in a bin for several years, until I cut it out on the floor of our Richmond apartment by means of removing most of the furniture from the room. Then it sat in the bin for another couple of years. At this point, it's more of a life event than a sewing project.

I don't think the pattern is going to be that hard. It's just there's so much of it. You'll observe that the fabric covers the couch, and this is just the lining  minus the hood pieces. This cloak should fit me for the rest of my natural life and possibly on into eternity, though I admit turquoise chrysanthemum brocade might not be the most practical for adventuring in. Watch me.

And. Since I want to wear the cloak to the opening of the Hobbit movie this weekend, the time had come to do something about it. Wish me boldness.

Meg meets the LOTR characters

"That's Sauron. He looks upset. He must be out of coffee." Jonathan

"No, Uruk-Hai, not Mordecai. Trust me, they're different." Jonathan

"A man with a sword... an elf with a shield... and three brave hobbits." Jonathan
"Let's count them! One, two, three!" Meg

However, I am slightly heartbroken, because after seeing Lord of the Rings pictures she started singing songs from the VeggieTales "Lord of the Beans." We have failed her.

A birthday

Yesterday was J. R. R. Tolkien's 120th birthday. I'm a little behind, but then I frequently forget my living friends' birthdays too.

To the Professor.

Yummies

I tried this recipe over the weekend, and it was pretty much amazing. It might be more accurate to say I was inspired by it, because I didn't actually follow the recipe so much as re-visualize it as a chicken pot roast using what I had on hand, but the combination of sweet potato, rosemary, and white wine was definitely inspirational. Coming home from an evening of errands, with crusty bread and a stack of fresh library books -- I can highly recommend it. We were sad there weren't any leftovers.

Re-visualized Chicken Pot Roast

2 large frozen chicken breasts
1 cup of green leek tops, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, sliced
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 long sprig fresh rosemary, leaves pulled off
garlic? I can't remember if I actually put any in
1 cup white wine
1-2 cups water
salt, pepper

Put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for six hours. Eat at dusk with crusty bread and your handsome husband. :-)


In other news, I attempted an apple-cranberry pie. Next time, I will use more apples, fewer cranberries, and much more sugar.


This fall I've been slightly haunted by butternut squash. Last fall it was pumpkin; this fall it's squash. Mama B. brought spiced butternut squash soup and brought up this whole concept of sage butter to go with, and I love it. What you do is get two or three tablespoons of butter, and melt it, and saute a few sage leaves until they're a bit crispy and the butter is brown. That's it, but it's enough. Ohh is it good. Tonight I didn't do anything fancy to the butternut squash, just steamed it in the baby-food maker, but with sage butter on top it was wonderful. Meg just barely got her serving of squash tonight, but I was good and left her some. I saw a recipe for butternut squash pasties I think we might need to try.

My colors this fall have been purple and gold. It makes me sound like a marauding Assyrian, doesn't it? Partly that's because those colors have been available a lot this season, but partly they're just gorgeous. I've got a mustard-yellow sweater from my sister that's been perfect and goes with everything.

Even the woods wore gold. It was a little like hiking in Lothlorien, with the beeches standing in for mallorns.

Cool things from Brandywine Books

The BBC has up a 26-minute documentary on Tolkien from 1968. It's rather sweet - you get to see Tolkien himself saying some of the quotes attributed to him, and sharing a couple funny stories I'd never heard before. We even get to watch him at a fireworks-and-bonfire party. There are also interviews with some of his students, varying from fan-clubbers to one earnest chap who despised LOTR as avoiding the really important things, like politics. (That one doesn't even merit a response.) The cinematography struck me as quite the period piece, complete with creepy synthesizer music. Hat tip to Brandywine Books.

Also from Brandywine: this cool youtube video on thinking and loving God. I wasn't sure where it was going, but it turned out to be an ad for the desiringGod 2010 conference. Well worth a watch. Too bad we won't be remotely near Minneapolis at the beginning of October.

And... also from Brandywine: a review of Heat Wave, the Castle tv show tie-in book, which I've been kind of wanting to read. I had no idea Lars Walker was a Castle fan.

Seriously, Brandywine has the best blog. They pretty much always have something interesting going on.

Narnia and Israel

We just got back from a wonderful week marrying off my sister. I do mean to post about that, but but tonight I just wanted to link this article on "Why is there no Jewish Narnia?" The short answer: Christianity is inclined toward fantasy, with other worlds and redemption at the end, but Judaism is more sci-fi and here-and-now. The article also talks about a new Jewish fantasy trilogy in the works and discusses some of its peculiarities.

I think he's on to something. Christianity is Judaism fulfilled and transmuted. They have the promise and the shadow very much in earthly things: King David, whose throne will last; the Temple and the sacrifices; the Law, which manages everything. Christians, though, look to somewhere else. Here matters, but it's not ultimate. Our hope is for a Good like you can find on this world, and that has been here, but Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, I wouldn't have let you arrest me!" We've got villains, heroes, quests, terror, otherworldly landscapes, impending doom, and sudden redemption un-looked-for and beyond hope. So I suppose it's not that big of a stretch to arrive at your standard fantasy plot.

On the subject of fantasy generally, I'm reminded of a point someone made about Spenser, how he is the "poet's poet." His Faerie Queene has the knack of inspiring others to make poetry. I think Tolkien is similarly the fantasy-author's fantasy author. Everyone reads Lord of the Rings and says, "I can do that" -- and writes all the derivative fantasy currently on the market!

Maybe I should go re-read Tolkien and get motivated to work on that story I've got kicking around...

The Welsh hobbit-house

This little video is of a gorgeous hobbit-house built in Pembrokeshire, Wales (and actually lived in!). Here's builder Simon Dale's website about it. Apparently there's quite the green movement in the UK which is actually building nearly-all-native houses. I doubt Tolkien would agree with them entirely; but I bet he'd like the house.

I want one -- exactly like that one!

Bookish miscellany

My chief amusing anecdote from this week, once again, came as I was jellying my morning toast. One of the programmers demanded to know why all the jam was concentrated in the top of the jar, with a lovely air-bubble beneath.

"I think it's because I stored it upside-down," I said.
"That's not a good reason! You should come up with a better story than that! Just make one up!" (This programmer is like that.)

So I meditated, and Zahn came to my rescue. "I think it's because of the Van der Waal's forces, attracting the jelly to the top..." This was apparently a good answer, as one of the other tech guys started ribbing him about having to Google Van der Waal's forces. :-) It amuses me that The Green and the Gray can make someone sound scientifically literate.

~

In other news, Jonathan and I tracked down another library branch and raided it. I found a collection of essays by A.A. Milne and Meditations on Middle-Earth, by a rather impressive line-up of fantasy authors.

The essays by Milne were, for the most part, airy and readable, often hilarious, but not brilliant. Come to find out he wrote for Punch. No wonder his Pooh books have such a charming style! These essays are more like longish blog posts than anything else. Quite a lot of them have to do with a funny incident with him and his wife Celia.

Possibly the best of the collection was a satire purporting to be an account of a Poetry Reading. He set it at the perfect cusp of British poetic awfulness, that era when earnest fluttering women wrote embarrassing rhymes about Life, and gentlemen of vast proportions wrote galumphing verses about places in England (a send-up of Chesterton, possibly?), and very ugly young men wrote vers libre about ugly modern subjects. The hostess's husband was present in the story, making sardonic comments throughout. It was quite something, especially because, well, I've read a lot of that poetry. Unfortunately.

The Middle-Earth book, as might be expected, was rather a mixed bag. Its worst crime was its truly lousy editing: they let through such howlers as "Sargon" instead of Sauron, and "Owyn" instead of Eowyn. Gah. I suspect "tribute" books usually are mixed, but they should have at least let a fan proofread it.

A lot of the chapters are of the "I discovered Tolkien in the spring of 1967, read the entire trilogy in one sitting, and that's why I'm a fantasy author today" variety; which is of some interest, especially if you know the author and can say, "Ah! So that's why he does such-and-so in his books." Most of these authors do Tolkien the courtesy of not allegorizing him into the dust, and just loving his books for themselves. I can appreciate that.

A couple of the essays, on the other hand, have been quite intelligent discussion, the sort where you can say "Wow, I'd never noticed that, and that's very true." The chapter from Ursula K. Le Guin was like that. She sat down and analyzed how Tolkien used meter in his prose and rhythm in his plot and wound up with his particular special effects.

Orson Scott Card talked about why, perhaps, "serious" literature critics dislike Tolkien. He argued that it was because Tolkien wrote the story to be a story, and not merely a vehicle for interpretable symbols. The Lord of the Rings is something to get emotionally involved in rather than a literary crossword puzzle. He made the distinction between wild story and domesticated stories, i.e. Literature. It's an interesting argument.

And then there was Lisa Goldstein, whom I've never heard of, but she made the intelligent observation that Lord of the Rings is powerful "because we need myth. Not just because myths are entertaining stories, or because some of them come attached with a moral. We need them, the way we need vitamins or sunlight." I think Tolkien would agree with that. Goldstein has obviously been reading Tolkien's other works, On Fairy Stories and maybe "Mythopoeia." And referring to some of the derivative fantasy that tried to follow him: "Some of these books were so bad they wouldn't even make decent landfill."

Timor mortis conturbat me

Pauline Baynes, illustrator and mapmaker for Narnia and Middle-Earth, passed away on August 1. I'm sorry to see her go. Photo: thanks to manhattanrarebooks-children.com.

On Faramir and Eowyn

Tolkien wrote this scrap to a now-unknown reader of Lord of the Rings, and I found it in his letter anthology (ed. by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien), pg 324. I liked it and thought you my loyal readers might find it of interest also.

"Criticism of the speed of the relationship or 'love' of Faramir and Eowyn. In my experience feelings and decisions ripen very quickly (as measured by mere 'clock-time', which is actually not justly applicable) in periods of great stress, and especially under the expectation of imminent death. And I do not think that persons of high estate and breeding need all the petty fencing and approaches in matters of 'love'. This tale does not deal with a period of 'Courtly Love' and its pretences; but with a culture more primitive (sc. less corrupt) and nobler."

Fascinating.

I don't know if y'all have found this to be true also, but somehow all the ballyhoo about Narnia makes me wish to go and read about Middle-Earth, and when Tolkien was all the rage, I preferred to visit quietly with Lewis. It must be my homeschoolerish side coming out: if everyone else is doing it, there must be something the matter....