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AT THE SIGN OF THE UNHINGED MIND Virtual Pub - Ratskeller -  Coffee House
(ie, bulletin board)	(things for sale, more or less useful,  mostly courtesy of Cafe Press)	(if threatened by dissent, please avoid  for your safety & my convenience)

Although I scorn to beg for feedback, (or to threaten, either) --  I will point out that constructive criticism not infrequently has been known to garner sneak previews of future updates as well as advance notice of said updates…Nor let it be said I don't try to make it easy — the bulletin board is an attempt to overcome the trepidation of those for whom email is too direct and intimidating a means of communication, and requires no name or email address — be as anonymously bold as you please!
 

UPDATES NOTE: if you want to link to anything on this site, go ahead, whether to recommend or hold up for contempt — since I've published it I can hardly complain, can I? However, I would appreciate an email letting me know you've done so, to prevent confusion in my mind as to why people are showing up all the sudden. (Oh, and don't plagiarize, either — but a credited archiving is not imo plagiarism. Still, it's standard operating procedure to request permission before hosting someone else's work, so I'll request the same. Saving to your hard drive for rereading is fine, of course.) —Philosopher At Large 39,500 signatures and counting (up 1500 since last time!) A forlorn hope, but who knows the end of things? 11/13/04 PDF version of Vol 2 of the Script (Act III and the Enteract) available for download now. It should work all right: it's zipped but still about 11 mb, due to the multimedia part, the graphics and particularly the embedded sound files, but as it is set up, you should be able to see a bookmark for whatever scene you are reading of Act 3 where there are lyrics, see a tab for the melody, and go there and click on the "note" icon and hear a wav file, coded with the help of abc and a friend who has the right software and knows how to use SoundFonts. Also, you can use the bookmark tabs to check ObRefs in each scene, quickly, and the back button to go back to your page, and not have to flip back and forth. Of course unfortunately these will not be maintained if you decide to print it out. Um. It's 347 pages long of which 59 is the endnotes. Sorry... 10/8/04 No, I haven't abandoned or forgotten, though I've been so involved in fighting the good fight against those responsible for Tol Euphrates, beyond RL issues (see below),  that I haven't been able to straighten out my notes to a point where I'm happy with the conclusion yet, for style reasons. But in the meantime, in gratitude to all y'all, here is the first part of The Script in PDF format (zipped it's about 2MB.) This file contains Acts I and II and the Endnotes to both of them, plus the Illustrations, in a page size that should print okay on both US and A4 paper. There is a slightly wider left hand margin so that you can bind it, if you want - it's almost 200 pages. Volume 2 is not quite ready yet. (There are still some bugs to work out of dealing with 200+ page files on my system. Let me know if there are any issues with either the zip or the pdf. And thanks to reader Stultiloquentia for suggesting this, quite a while back! Also, here is a page of personal recommends - all things which I own or have owned (and perhaps lent or given away or borrowed or checked out myself. This isn't one of those Amazon algorithms that picks things that you might like based on what other people have bought. I'll add to it, and probably end up breaking it out into separate sections, but for now it's all one page. You don't have to buy from it - if you do, I get iirc .04 on the dollar - you can just use it to get information and support your local shops, if you prefer. But if you like my writing and you want a convenient way of seeing if I might have read/watched/heard something, and enjoyed it, Shelfspace is a way of having it all in one place. If you haven't yet seen Jenny Dolfen's work, she's an illustrator who's done some fine Silmarillion watercolors, but others as well in Forgotten Realms, George Martin, RPGs, and general fantasy. Here's an image of a young merman, with a convincing 3-D aquatic feeling that is so often lacking from renderings of the merfolk. Enjoy— 8/5/04 Some dramatic changes: I'm taking donations to support this site, and myself. I'll detail it in a post, but long story short, I had to quit my job, for reasons which can be summed up here; after being lied to three times about training and promotion, and dealing with sexism and other headgames on a daily basis, and seeing yet another facet of the ugly side of Western Capitalism's phoniness - where the boss says that she wants people to "fear her" because that is what respect consists of and pits coworkers against each other with lies about them like grade school cliques, where - argh. The word is pi-ma-wên. So I walked. Insane, I know, at this time. But any job where you have to cut yourself to get through the day without having a public breakdown, I once said to myself, is a job it's time to leave.  I've got resumes out. But while I expect I can get a part-time job, or perhaps two, in my line of work, or else in retail, this isn't a good solution. There is no long-term prospect for me in capitalism, because I'm not a saleswoman, can't be, and I don't have the familial/crony connections to get me into management. I'll never be able to retire or even deal with an emergency, the way things are, and I can't afford to go back to school, either, which isn't a sure-fire thing anyway. So despite my misgivings - and insecurities - I'm doing what I see other online writers doing, and putting up a button so that readers may, if they like, contribute. If I get enough money, I will write (and other associated activities like researching and illustrating) full time, fiction and social justice both. (Not all of it will be online: I will also work on finishing one of my novels.) Part - make that most - of me thinks this is nuts, that the idea of say of 25 people per day being willing to donate US$3.00 to make up for my paycheck is as likely as me winning the lottery. I mean, we're all broke, right? But then I see other people doing it, fulltime, and I think - what the heck, I might as well try. What have I to lose, but my pride? 6/6/04 More of Scene VI - the next part, finally done being formatted. Warning, it gets a bit - rowdy. Last scenelet was devoted to the dynamic tension between Justice and Mercy, but those Powers have gone off to attend to other business, and left the younger gods in charge. (More is & has been done, but alas not finished and polished, let alone formatted yet.) Oh, and for anyone who missed it, I was finally pressed into getting a LiveJournal going. In fairly short order it underwent division into two, but I haven't figured out which is the evil twin yet. It's still mutating, but I've mostly figured it out (I think.) Thanks as always to all the folks who generously offered me codes in the past - it wasn't you, it's me, but someone finally framed it terms of duty, not belonging, and I couldn't argue. (Cue G&S music.) 5/31/04 Script Stuff: "Waiting" - an illustration, more for Terrible Gifts/Betrayals, but it fits in here as well, something I sketched in the margins of jottings back around Easter and finally digitized. Mature content. and finally - a large portion of Scene VI, written back in February mostly, finally edited and formatted. (There is more done, but not edited and formatted yet.) Luthien's choice explained, we hear from someone we have not yet heard from, logistics are considered and several people are rather rude. Oh, and some gratuitous Shakespeare refs, naturally. Hoping it's worth the wait— Other Stuff: A strange little project - it was supposed to go with an Orrery rant on the proper relationship of faith to reason, with regard to the natural sciences, but the rant hasn't gotten past jotted notes, and this is all done. Have fun with it - if anyone succeeds in making 3D ones, send in pictures and I'll post them. 05/15/04 ARX is live. Right now it's mostly stuff you've seen already, a little more organized. As soon as I can finish researching it, there will be information on how this war was planned for over a decade, and why that fact alone makes the conduct of it as well as to it, criminal and stupid. Or, more simply, why "We weren't expecting this/prepared for that" is not an excuse, it's self-condemnation. 05/13/04 Secret CIA Torture Manuals - the real thing. Download 'em right here, see what practices were recommended and which were followed, and which of their own recommendations were ignored by, er, OGAs. More scandalous deceptions and government lies to be exposed shortly. The truth *is* out there - for those who care to see it. We're deep in John LeCarre territory, folks - or maybe Graham Greene instead.  "I think the American people should understand - at least based on my decades of research into the CIA - that the kinds of activities that we've seen in these photographs would be incomprehensible for the CIA to be involved in, in my experience. The CIA has a pretty clear record of not engaging in that kind sexual humiliation or - or torture of people it's trying to interrogate." —Loch K. Johnson, University of Georgia, CIA expert, as heard on NPR Morning Edition, 05/11/04 (RealAudio file) towards the end of the segment 05/11/04 The situation is too fluid and I am too involved on a fast-moving level to be doing formal Orrery updates. I was caught off guard - I wasn't expecting things to come out until after June 30, and I wasn't expecting the PTB to be so completely, utterly, irredeemably moronic. To keep up, assuming you care an ounce about what I think about the geopolitics of thys middangeard, view the message board At the Sign of the Unhinged Mind. Until I get a chance to put together an Orrery page, some recommended reading/viewing: Mark Twain the strident anti-Imperialist? No joke, for those of you who missed the earlier memo. Read The War Prayer, something too hot to be printed in his own lifetime - he left it for us, with the cutting comment that only the dead dare tell the truth. Then follow it up with USMC General Smedley Butler's rant on War Is A Racket. The scales fell from his eyes, too. Films · Double feature, Three Kings/Gunga Din (Kipling is never out of date) · Dr. Strangelove, or How I learned to Love the Bomb (for surrealism, nothing beats reality) · Casablanca (don't watch it for the romance, watch it for the political statements -     a burnt-out liberal idealist exiled for unAmerican activities is challenged to fight the Establishment again.) · The Thin Red Line (a highly controversial but mostly accurate impressionist portrait of "The Good War" -    hey, they left out the explicit homosexual activity and the interesting things with canned peaches from the     original novel, which has, I remind you, been praised as highly accurate by many veterans of WWII.) · Lawrence of Arabia (grossly oversimplified, but there's still a lot more than just the pretty pictures - a     jumping off point to beginning political understanding that you will never find in school history books     unless things have really changed.) · Princess Mononoke (yeah it's a cartoon, but if you think it's one-dimensional - who's the good guy, the lady looking after her people against hostile invaders and exploiters, or the lady looking after her people against a hostile environment in an inhumane world? Whose cause is just, and whose is not, when it is life and death for both sides?) Books - the very short library list. Read Seven Pillars of Wisdom if you like, but I'm not prescribing any tomes. · Dawn, by Elie Wiesel - lifechanging, when I read it at age oh, 15? 16? and shattering of many romantic illusions. What happens to that little boy from Night when he grows up and becomes a freedom fighter? · Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff. This is what we mandate, when we send our armies forth. · Wilfred Owen's collected poems. · Siegfried Sassoon's collected poems. · e e cummings collected poems · Plain Tales from the Hills, Rudyard Kipling. Be careful -  he's British, which means he uses irony, and this is fiction, so don't assume that the character voices are the same as the authorial voice. He's more complicated than that.  · Bill Mauldin's Up Front, of course. · People, there is a reason why our fandom hates Narn i Hin Hurin, by and large. Read any and all of the versions of it. It has never been more relevant. For downloading, printing, forwarding, (please tell me if linking) - some pdf posters (all 300-400k range) in addition to Torture *Is* Terror, below.  White Man's Burden (in honour of David Brooks, most recent preacher of this theme) "I am a democrat because..." (little d, it still applies - and the author will probably surprise you) Matthew 25:31-40, version I. Matthew 25:31-40, version II. Poor Rummy (his loss is our gain) Family Values 2004 (remember the good old days?) For staying abreast and simultaneous backstory (besides Google and the Guardian) Jane's Information Group, the original, the first serious analysis of military technology now entering its second century - and they were against the advisability of this war from the beginning. Many of my predictions and fears were reinforced by their experts in interviews and on site. (While much of the articles are subscribers only, you can learn more from the summaries than the complete contents of most USA/NBC/CBS/ABC articles.) Dangerous Places — if the Soviets had read Kipling, I once heard, they'd never have invaded Afghanistan. If Washington had read Robert Young Pelton, Halliburton would never have invaded Iraq. Stars & Stripes, the official newspaper of the military. Army Times, the unofficial newspaper of the service. Many articles locked to subscribers only. Stan Goff, former Special Forces, now leftie peacenik dedicated to debunking the ethos of violent masculinity Arkhangel, current military, posting his thoughts on it all. DailyKos, by someone who knows what a bad combination money and mercenaries and US idealism can be - he was on the receiving end of it down in Central America. Eschaton, another hangout of the passionate and informed (and ethical.) Billmon and the regulars at Whiskey Bar, who had the scoop on Joe Ryan and the CACI contractors out days before the mass media, despite CACI attempts to hide it - too bad they didn't take GoogleCache into account! Proving that the military is not uniform in its thinking, the opposition view, under the command of Tacitus - the intelligent opposition that is, not the freepers and orcs of LGF. (If you have no idea what I just said, count yourself lucky.) And particularly now that KBR is cutting off army email on the pretext of virus prevention, to the extent of deleting all present hotmail and other freemail accounts, and blocking access to them - fellow fanficcer ginmar's blog which has received national and international attention. I've asked a retired officer from Veterans Against The Iraq War to look into the situation and help them, and so have lots of other people. —and you noisy (once noisy) Christians and arbiters of unflinching morality - make no mistake, you're on my list. The option to stand on the sidelines, and not discredit yourselves entirely, is not available any longer. You cannot feign ignorance now. You can stand idly by. History 's judment on you may not matter, because we will all be dead - and I leave you to consider the sinister implications of that, perhaps unintended - but as you and I believe, Someone Else will. Speak now, or ever after hold your peace, when Virtuous Pagans and Unbelievers speak. 05/05/05 For download, posting and printing: Torture *Is* Terror graphic. Web button: Large Color version, 370k Large BW version, 250k Inspired by an idea of Graydon's (who really is a BNF in sf fandom) - please feel free to print out, post, link as you see fit. The bandwidth shouldn't be a problem at all. With inkjet materials you can make your own stickers, t-shirts, etc. 05/04/04 A Bloody Mess - major Orrery rant, dealing with the most incendiary of topics - politics, religion, and fanfiction - and guaranteed to have something to offend absolutely everybody. Please heed the warnings. And no, this is not something I want to do; some windmills are fun to tilt at. Others . . . no. Too many personal demons involved. But duty called.  Sorry. —De profundis &c. Addenda: And there will be more, and political, oh yes, because we are standing on the edge of the Pit, and that is part of the long delays, as I strive to find some earthly way to make a difference, here, in "real life" and if anyone thinks that there is any justifying of these deeds and even mitigation of them, you are depraved — and ignorant.  Torture Is Terror. And it gives bad intelligence, which in turn brings battlefield casualties, q.v. Light Brigade, Charge Of, and Gallipoli, from the long list of immortal blunders. Quite apart from the retaliatory casualties - the only thing it's good for is sowing dragon's teeth. Be warned, just as you don't turn my religion into twisted badfic and then claim historical justification around me, you don't claim military necessity for atrocity and engage in bad coverups around me, either. Particularly if you have no military background whatsoever. The shield has always been tarnished, but there's a difference between failure to live up to an ideal, and hypocritical endorsement of an ideal that one has no intention of even attempting to live up to. Before the latter I'd choose the honest barbarism of apes, who cannibalize each other with no fine words and prayers. 04/11/04 Catholic priest accused of homosexuality calls for conservation, wetlands protection — Inversnaid, another "illumination" for the Commonplace Book, I'm still not happy with how the colors are rendering but it's all right, I guess; PDF file, 70k. BOCKP3C3HIb, if I got that right, since we're all celebrating Easter at the same time for once, Eastern and Western Christians, along with last year's Anastasis - more subversive Spring meditations concerning natural, supernatural, and the borders between... No promises, but a lot of stuff is very nearly done, including the Script, and hope to have it postable soon. (Yes, as in RSN, I know.) It's been a rough Lent for a lot of reasons (and giving up one's good computer involuntarily doesn't count, I'm afraid, any more than giving housework for Lent!) and I'm still sorting out the resonances and echoes of the biggest one, connected with Discernment and what to do when handed a flaming sword and told "Okay, you deal with it as you see fit." My vocation, it seems, is persecuting Christians...the ones who elevate badfic to an altar and refuse to distinguish between canon and fanon. Sheesh. --At least if I get it done this month, I will still be within the two-year mark. 04/04/04 —Soon. 02/15/04 The opening of Scene VI: home stretch underway. This is some of the oldest material in the Script - it was composed simultaneously with Act II, particular sequences in "Houseguests from Hell" being written with these very confrontations in mind. And the poem is not mine, I cannot claim credit for anything but minimal editing of the lines. Megakydos to anyone who recognizes it; it's so obscure that I can't help feeling some sort of prize ought to go to the first readers who do so. (Maybe a hand-colored digital sketch?)  02/14/04 Two lovely new pieces of fanart provided by Pika a while back and belatedly posted - one of the ever popular "Luthien in Nargothrond" theme, and a character sketch of our favorite Philosopher-King looking rather wry and sardonic at the moment. 2/05/04 Announcement and apology to anyone who has sent me email in the last two months: some of it has been going into a server oubliette. (Some of it, OTOH, just to be contrary, was coming in doubled.) I now have, thanks to some retrieval work on the part of tech support (on whom be praise!), ALL of the missing email of the last two months. After having deleted out all the 160+ MyDoom spam, this still leaves me with two dozen real emails that have been in limbo. On one level, being overwhelmed with work and other RL stuff, this isn't what I need, at all - but I'm glad to have it. The upshot is, if I haven't answered your email, it isn't just because I've been too tired or rude, or that your letter wasn't interesting enough, or the like. We have now arranged it so that this should not happen again, and I will work on catching up to all of you over the next weeks. (Assuming of course that tomorrow isn't St. Murphy's day and something else doesn't happen to the comlink.) And be sure to keep your virus software updated and your firewalls burning! (Hm, that sounds like it has filk potential: "Keep the firewalls burning/MyDoom is returning..." to the tune of "Keep the home fires burning.") But I cannot say this enough, and it is truer than it was when I first started saying it years ago. Even if you are using Macs, as there are still a few nasty Mac virii out there as well. 1/26/04 Manumission, a new page of free software recommendations and links, all programs which I have used myself for some time and can vouch for. 1/22/04 ~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~ Guo Nian Hao — Happy New Year to all readers celebrating the Lunar Calendar (those are supposed to be lucky oranges, since I can't do ascii lions or monkeys.) The introit seems apt on a lot of levels, since it's the Year of the Monkey, and the Monkey King is either a teacher's nightmare or dream-come-true: how a prof responds to a student who starts dancing with absent-minded glee at being exposed to new knowledge, while all the rest of the class sits still in conventional respect, would seem to be the ultimate test... 1/17/04 The "arthedain annex" of movie-related rants is temporarily down, due to the amusing fact that the FW apparently still cares so much about my opinions, and is so offended by my expression of 'em, that they had to run over by the multiple hundreds to see what I said and then complain about it, thus blowing my freesite bandwidth sky-high. —I am serious, btw, about letting me know if you intend to pillory something I've said: if I had known that site traffic was spiking almost 400% from previous weeks, I would have reorganized and moved graphics temporarily to another host, so that viewers could continue to form their own opinions of my arguments. But practicality as diplomacy being equally alien to them (I'll say nothing of the rest, spelling and critical thought &c), the consequence is that arthedain won't be back up until tomorrow. (I've already taken steps to reduce the bandwidth, being myself practical. Having obviously the upper hand, since they a) concede my words authority and b) are afraid to confront me directly, diplomacy in this case can go hang, for all of me.) But if there are any quirky links, I'll thank regular readers in advance for continuing to let me know.  1/13/04 Act IV, Scene V.xxxix -xli Three scenelets, and the close of Scene V. More obscure canon brought to light; Eol makes trouble; Yavanna makes more. A fair amount of angst, but changes on the horizon. (And a Nibelungenlied ObRef, just for — er, fun.) 1/12/04 I couldn't help it - it wouldn't let me rest until I got it out, like a driving flame waking me up at night and forcing me to write. Here are my thoughts on "The Triumph of Death" aka the Jackson-Boyens-Walsh vision of Middle-earth, in Promises Kept (but not the right ones.) It's shorter than it could have been, had I not restrained myself, at least. Script update tomorrow. 1/03/04 Dromonds. Not Junks - sometimes a nitpick is more than a nitpick: a short article (really) on how small details, messed up, can have much broader significance. (Small spoilers for ROTK-M) 1/02/04 Happy New Year to everyone who follows the Roman calendar system; Yes, I've seen ROTK-M twice, but I haven't had time to finish analyzing everything that's wrong with it, from mischaracterization to afflicting everyone in it with the stupid plague to the fact that it's less "realistic" when it comes to the non-fantasy stuff than any James Bond movie - and if I were to start cataloguing the rampant and egregious errors in merely military matters, (like trebuchets!) I'd be busy till next year. But I was motivated to scribble up some sketches over lunch break the past few days at work and digitize them at home, so for everyone who was wondering what on Arda happened to "Die now and curse in vain!" -- enjoy.  The Downfallen 12/23/03 Not much new, unfortunately; RL has its demands like Time and Tide and all. I do want to praise www.digitalspace.net, however - because within ten minutes of my reporting that the site had been defaced, their free live technical support had restored it all from their own day-old backups. As a webhost, they're simply top notch. Thanks to Mark and Architeuthis for reporting and sleuthing on the Brazilian Matrix fan hackers.  A couple of "storyboard" sketches on the Arthedain annex - missing scenes from ROTK-M, doodled up while fighting with other work that wasn't cooperating, and organizing exchanges for the forthcoming Scene VI...  Off to finish undone stuff, like buying more wrapping paper.  12/15/03 Legolas runs out of ammunition! Aragorn trips and falls on the stairs! Gimli doesn't act like a doof! No, it isn't the "bloopers and outtakes" reel from TTT-EE, it's "Helm's Deep" scripted the way it was written. 12/11/03 Act IV, Scene V.xxxvii-xxxviii Revelations — a whole slew of 'em, and of many sorts, and not all welcome; a Moment of Truth; a Request, and a Question answered, at long last. Yes, I make very free — but always upon foundation. (And a direct borrowing from the Bard, to boot.) 12/9/03 Irrelevant and Anticlimactic? The "Scouring" Considered, for Readers and Others A brief but serious discussion of that part of the book, with minimal spoilers for any film fans who have not yet read the LOTR but wonder what the trouble is all about. Act IV, Scene V.xxxv-xxxvi in which Luthien has a meltdown, Maiwe is on to schemes, Aegnor agonizes over past choices, old misunderstandings are revealed, and — this is beginning to sound like a soap opera rather. Except that soap operas don't have *spoiler* or *spoiler* in my experience; if they had, I might watch them.(Or more Yeats references, or Anglo-Saxon history in-jokes, or mention Ragnarok either, usually.) 12/8/03 All the TTT-M rants have been given their own little annex (courtesy of Netfirms) since I need to save space on this host for the Script.  12/6/03 Two Script updates - this is slightly confusing, because I've been too preoccupied with RL to keep up with coordinating updates, but the way it works is: here is update 1, which anyone who has been to the Script index since 11/30 has already found: Act IV, Scene V.xxxi-xxxii deals with (finally!) The Duel; the complete inside story, from a loftier perspective; also includes questions of "negative theology" and a Babylonian myths ObRef. after reading this, you can continue via the link at the bottom of the page to the next part of the Act, which is a separate file to make downloads easier. Or, if you've already read the above scenelets, you can go directly to  Act IV, Scene V.xxxiii-xxxiv in which obscure canon and speculation are spun very tightly together, there is a Crisis and some resolution, and a free Yeats ObRef too. If there is any doubt, start with the first one (file 4d) and then go to the other (4e) which will probably be the last segment of Act IV. 11/16/03 Tilting at windmills again — (think of a beat-up, surplus T-54 with ROCINANTE stenciled on the side) — in "Broken Promises," a longish rant on TTT-M, with vitriol, of course, as well as footnotes, bad puns, military acronyms, ObRefs all over the place, and a revelation of a level of movie geekdom which came as something of a surprise even to the author. (It gets worse, this is only the iceberg's tip. If I was expanding to say, comedy or costume drama for comparisons…easily three times as long.) I don't apologize for my opinions…I give evidence for 'em. If you don't like it…just make a good counter-argument!!!1!!1! 11/14/03 A project, long delayed, which may interest the musically-inclined: the first edition of the first volume of a planned series, self-publishing made possible at last by the long-promised arrival of print-on-demand services. The spiral binding is reasonably sturdy, and the paper quality equivalent to any copy shop's. Any mistakes are, of course, mine. 11/12/03 Act IV, Scene V.xxvii-xxx Another version of events previously recounted, plenty more obscure canon, some relationship counseling by someone withlots of experience, plans good and bad (and crazy) , and a Shakespearean sonnet (ultracompact model) included just for fun. (Points to anyone who spots the sonnet ref.) 11/11/03 Words from the War to End All Wars In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. —Major John McCrae, M.D., 1915 10/02/03  A very large Script update, endlich: Act IV, Scene V.xxi-xxvi, containing some angst, a little speculation, and a lot of obscure canon as Luthien's perspective on recent events unfolds (and Aredhel manages to insult her cousins, humans, and Huan all in one go.) Meanwhile Yavanna points out some troubling parallels. (Any apparent allusions to "Narn I Hin Húrin" are all there and intentional.) 9/20/03 Some gorgeous artwork featured here at the Rolozo art archive by Damien Farrell; these colorful landscapes, based on Tolkien's own illustrations of the settings, are so free and vivid that they have the feeling of 19th-century travellers' sketches while abroad. (Readers lucky enough to own the anthology of the Professor's own art will recall a similar little watercolour showing Lake Mithrim in the First Age included there. Mr. Farrell's excellent work is very much in that same style.) With so much bad illustration out there (pro and fan), it's a delight to find art of this caliber being created. FYI: I've recently upgraded to the latest build of Mozilla for my web browsing and email. Although there are all the dire warnings about it being an experimental program etc, and "end users" being better off sticking with Netscape, I've found the latest builds of Netscape so hideously glommy that I won't use them. And Mozilla has done nothing horrible to my system at all. Instead, it has a marvellous, effective pop-up blocker that can be customized, and which doesn't crash my system the way Pop-up Killer used to; it has a similarly effective and customizeable cookie manager; it doesn't use so many resources that I can't run Photoshop at the same time with a mere 196MB of RAM (that "mere" is a bit ironic, of course) and I don't get weird error messages all the time accessing newer pages. Nor is there advertising as with Opera. I'm not so big of a fan of the "tabbed" feature which so many people tout about Mozilla, but it isn't a problem, as you don't have to use it. Cons: installing the Java plugin can be a bit of a hassle (though there's plenty of troubleshooting help on Mozilla's site), it doesn't have an integrated spell-checker, and the Composer feature generates some of the worst code I've seen outside of MS Word. So I am still using the Netscape 4.73 Composer (with Write for finishing touches,) but otherwise I have no complaints about Mozilla for ease of use. (I didn't like the stripped-down Firebird and Thunderbird separate email and browser versions, however, and don't recommend them myself.) It blocks popups automatically, people! I am a Mozilla convert now. And its developers actually work on improving it. An art-nouveauish, fairy-tale style illustration of Canto XIII, " 'The road was wild,' she said, 'and long,' " along with a closeup detail and a scan of the preliminary margin sketch, to scale, in ball-point pen — in lieu of/advance of the next Script update. This was all drawn digitally, over the scan of the doodle, using a pen-mouse in Photoshop. I highly recommend the Wacom tablets myself. 9/01/03 I pledged a response as soon as appropriate to the Columbia disaster; however, it is not poetry this time, as it would take a satirist of the caliber of Swift or Byron to do this injustice justice in rhyme. "Fixing the Widgets" is a more prosaic response to the release of the accident report, at some length, looking both backwards and ahead (though not especially hopefully) with, of course, footnotes, in the Orrery. Also, a preliminary sketch for a digital painting to illustrate Exultation of Gold. (163k) Feel free to save it with no special permissions required, if you want: it isn't hi-res, so it won't print well, but it's large enough to use as wallpaper, for instance. (Just don't claim it as your own, please. Not that I expect plagiarism, but it has happened to other artists in the fandom.)

 

Guest Stars

5/10/02 Protectors of the Plot Continuum
             Exiled unjustly from ffnet, here you will find PPC: TOS, by Jay & Acacia, aka Harpwire, Assassins Extraordinaire,
             numerous spinoffs, and the PPC Posting Board.
Back up and running 3/11/03!

        "Do not meddle in the affairs of assassins, for we are
         heavily-armed and quick to anger. And not noticeably subtle."

            Henry and Eliza, A Novel
           "As Sir George and Lady Harcourt were superintending the Labours of their Haymakers,
                    rewarding the industry of some by smiles of approbation, & punishing the idleness of others
                    by a cudgel, they perceived lying closely concealed beneath the thick foliage of a Haycock,
                   a beautifull little Girl not more than 3 months old..."

            Jack & Alice, A Novel (in 9 chapters)
                    "The Johnsons were a family of Love, & though a little addicted to the Bottle & the Dice,
                    had many good Qualities."

            Frederic & Elfrida, A Novel (in 5 chapters)
                    "From this period, the intimacy between the Families of Fitzroy, Drummond, and Falknor
                    daily increased, till at length it grew to such a pitch, that they did not scruple to kick one
                    another out of the window on the slightest provocation."

            The Visit, A Play in 2 Acts
           WILLOUGHBY.
                           Come Girls, let us circulate the Bottle.

                       SOPHY.
                           A very good notion, Cousin; & I will second it with all my Heart. Stanly, you don't drink.

                       STANLY.
                            Madam, I am drinking draughts of Love from Cloe's eyes.

                       SOPHY.
                            That's poor nourishment truly. Come, drink to her better acquaintance.

            A Letter From a Young Lady, whose feeling being too Strong for her Judgement, led her into
                        the commission of Errors which her Heart disapproved. —
                             Just what it says...
 

Original Fiction

For your delight or horror:

"The Script"
      A Boy, A Girl, & A Dog: The Lay of Leithian Dramatic Script
             (with apologies to Messrs. Shakespeare and Tolkien)

7/12/03 Geneology chart (rev 3) with the combined royal houses of the Eldar and the Edain, based on LOTR & Silm., with some input from HOME, in  plain black and color formats; (many thanks to Vorondis for indicating where references in HOME could be found.)

(Stories from the cycle For One Year of the Sun: Terrible Gifts  - short story, complete, very dark,  R for violence-with-reason. Context provided in the Notes . Betrayals, Renunciations— - sequel to Terrible Gifts: Tol Sirion II. Not as violent as the previous story, but more psychologically oppressive. Complete. Shadow and Silver - Tol Sirion III. Complete. PG13 - R for thematic reasons, not for the treatment of them. Fell Knowledge - Anfauglith. Complete. Fairly short; PG13 - R for horror, some violence.  Hunting - short and practically cheerful (PG for monster slaying) set late in the First Age. Complete. In Brethil's Shade - short story, First Age, minimal angst. Concerning Two Kings and a Message from a Lady...Complete. Exultation of Gold - Extremely Short Story, First Age, Complete, G -- Never Laugh at Live Dragons . . . Because he isn't a fat gray iguana! Ongoing - begun 5/17/02. Updated 8/20/02. Silmarillion story: the Fall of Gondolin from an unusual viewpoint.       The Timelost            I. A Rede            II. Ringa – The Coldness            III. Únyárima – A Tale Beyond Telling            IV. Rúkin – 'I fear it'            V. The Sky is Like the Sea            VI. Hecilë – She Who is Lost and Forsaken            VII. Úquétima – What Cannot Be Spoken           Timelost Glossary

           Without Hope: Eight Days at Gondor Medical

To the Halls of Mandos With Them!
          The essay that got evicted from ffnet.

Sturgeon's Law in Action, Parts I & II
           What would have been the next part of the essay.

A structured interactive project, Arvernien.
 

Very Short Rants (because I'm too busy/lazy to do longer ones)

Of Farmers and God-Kings, or, Elven Princesses Don't Shop at The Gap
   (slightly-edited version of a Henneth-Annun post)

"Keep these X" -- Mandatum for Writing Arda Immortals
    How not to write Ally McBeal of Imladris or Friends of Middle-earth  or Ages of Our Lives . . .

Feminine Naming Conventions in Middle-earth, or, why you will never meet Serella, Elanna, Callysta, Savina, Vedilia, Carelia, Analae, Telperion, Sydney, Hoshi, Zoe, Faith and Friselle anywhere north-west of Mordor...
   (Summary & title all in one)

The Sexism of Jane Austen

Ack! It Ate My Post!
   A brief address to the problem of software-eaten e-mails and online review forms, with helpful tips for averting the same.

 "The Case of the Robotic Reviewer,"
   or why a few words is not always enough, and sometimes just four more are necessary.

Just Give Me the Facts,
   A combined report/rant explaining the rationale for hitcounters.
White Elephant in the Agora
   A related examination of "free" services.

The Real Idiot's Guide To The Silmarillion
Severe vitriol alert: those offended by caustic and merciless sarcasm should probably steer far clear.

How NOT to Write Ardaverse Romance
Sarcasm alerts, naturally.
 

Medieval and Renaissance Music Files

Early Music - midi files, nicely arranged, hosted w/permission of the arranger.
 
 

Original Poetry

(Sonnet sequences, so far) written a while back:

           Century of Dreams

           Space Shuttle
 
 

Silliness

Cartoons, for the moment.

Lull in the Battle — adapted from an illumination in the St. Mary's Psalter. (100k)
Silliness, Silmarillion-style — a cartoon in GIF format (115k).
 

Calligraphy Commonplace Book

An experiment: playing around with typefaces to make graphically-exciting versions of selected texts. Feedback welcomed.

(A Commonplace Book was the old name for a blank book filled with hand-copied versions of your favorite poetry and prose selections. I have such an anthology accrued over the years, and there is something both comforting and particularly memorable about writing out a text in india ink with a crow-quill pen.)

The Fall of Kings
Excerpt: Canto XII of The Lay of Leithian, PDF format. Font is Insula. 158 K.

Earth has not anything to show so fair
I was a bit surprised to find this, myself, so you might not know either that William Wordsworth, the "poet of nature," wrote one of the most spectacular lyric praises of the City in English literature. PDF format. Font is Calli. 77K.

The Valley of the Black Pig
A wonderful Yeats poem, inspired by one of the Celtic names for Armageddon, short and memorable, written in 1896. PDF format. Fonts are Ravenna, Visigoth, Celtic Patterns. 32K.

He Hears the Cry of the Sedge
Another short early Yeats poem, combining Apocalypse with lost love in its theme. PDF format. Fonts are Ravenna, Visigoth, Celtic Patterns. 31K.

Cat
What our little domestic predators are really thinking, by JRR Tolkien. Font is Marigold. Illustration was done in ball-point pen and Pentel Presto Jumbo Correction Pen. Grayscale GIF format, 70K screen version; 500K printable version here.

Ataremma
Aia Maria
The existence of these two texts, the Elvish language versions of the Our Father and Hail Mary, shouldn't come as a surprise to those who are aware that Tolkien was as serious about his religion as he was about his writing. In the essay "On Fairy-stories," in fact, he not only defends fantasy as a permissible thing, but as a fundamental "human right," and even perhaps a Christian duty. I've arranged the texts in two different ways, both combining the transliterated Quenya text, the tengwar script originals, and the English versions; the Ataremma is supposed to look rather like a very early manuscript, while the Aia Maria resembles more the engraved inscriptions on medieval bells. NOTE: this was created from Ardalambion's version of the texts using TengwarScribe, and may well contain transcription errors of which I am unaware. As with Project Gutenberg's editions, any further revisions (if errors are found) will be so marked. Grayscale GIF format; high-resolution versions of the Ataremma ( 216K) and Aia Maria (180K) also may be downloaded. Fonts are Dan Smith's Tengwar Sindarin and Omnia.
 

Willie & Joe - Fugitives from the Law of Averages

        "Soldiers at the front read K-ration labels when the contents are listed
            on the package,  just to be reading something."
                        --Bill Mauldin, Up Front, 1944

A different view of 'The Good War', by someone who lived it as well as drew it, created at the age of 23.
 
 

01/24/03
It is with great regret that I must inform readers that cartoonist Bill Mauldin has died at the age of 81. The New York Times dedicated a long tribute to the legendary WWII artist and satirist, which may be accessed through their website, under Obituaries. (Registration required, no fees or obligations, and an alias may be used.)
 

        Fugitives from the Law of Averages - fairly large graphics
 

                "Perhaps he will change back again when he returns, but never completely.
                 If he is lucky, his memory of those sharp, bitter days will fade over the years
                 into a hazy recollection of a period which was filled with homesickness and horror
                 and dread and monotony, occasionally lifted and lighted by the gentle, humorous,
                 and sometimes downright funny things that always go along with misery.
                         I'd like to talk about some of the things he will remember, and then I'd like to
                  forget them myself..."
                                             -- Bill Mauldin, Up Front, 1944
 
 

LINKS

I generally disapprove of collections of links, simply because one has no control over what happens on the other end, and pages just of links, mostly terminating in 404s, can be so extremely frustrating. But these seem stable. More will come eventually.

In addition to the tours offered, there is a great deal of personal, human information here about the men that will help convey what it was like for J.R.R.Tolkien and his comrades at 'the Bloody Somme.'