A Tolkien Influence
One of ye downsides of old age and poor health is that I haven't ye requir'd stamina needed for public events, & thus have become almoft entirely reclusive. Even going to movies or plays is near-impossible because I either begin to fall asleep or suffer from discomfort, legs cramps and back pain. (I kinda think that these pains may be partially psychosomatic.) So I don't go see films, ever, and thus have missed ye big-screen experience of new things. I discover'd The Lord of the Rings films after deciding to buy the first film on dvd. I fell in love with it and bought the other films. Last month I decided to take a chance and watched the first of The Hobbit films on Xfinity. I liked it, and so I ordered the second Hobbit film on dvd. Before it arriv'd in ye mail I went ahead and watched the third Hobbit film on Xfinity. Didn't care too much for the third one, but when THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG arrived I really liked it. I've been itching to watch AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY again, so to-day I ordered ye special five disc dvd set--to get the full experience.
To-night I dug out my annotated edition of THE HOBBIT so to begin rereading it. My new interest in it is related to my work as a writer. This past many months I've been feeling a keen ache to really progress as a writer--to try and go in some new direction. At first I thought this meant getting away from writing Lovecraftian fiction--but the need to be Lovecraftian increases always, and the idea of writing work that is non-Lovecraftian no longer appeals to me. I gotta be me. This new growing fascination with THE HOBBIT has instill'd within me a wonder, a pondering, if I can in some way do, in a very wee way, ye "epic" thing. I have my own Middle Earth in my creation of the Sesqua Valley, a region of supernatural wonder that I could explore more intimately, more intensely, in new ways. I have made oblique references to so many aspects of the valley, to the mysterious twin-peaked mountain and its lake, &c. So my brain is boiling with fictive possibilities, and perhaps I can create some longish new things that will make up the new fiction in my forthcoming second collection from Centipede Press.
David Barker and I have completed our proofing of ye galley proofs for our new book, and the trade paperback edition will be publish'd within ye fortnight by Dark Renaissance Books so that it may make its debut at CthulhuCon (to be held in Portland, Oregon April 25-26). The fabulous Erin Wells has created a magnificent cover illustration for ye book, whut I share with ye below. I'm quite pleas'd with ye contents of the book and think it will please Lovecraft fans who may purchase it.
Okay, darlings. I'm off to dreamland. Shalom.
That is a cover of wonderment. I am looking forward to this one very much. I always thought thee twin peaks of Sesqua Valley had somewhat of the dream-like quality of The Misty Mountains but with more decadent occupants. Of course, HPL had Randolph Carter follow a Dream-Quest similar to those of Bilbo and Frodo. Ooh, I would love to read such a venture through Sesqua Valley. I always enjoyed maps like those found in many editions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit so I could place the events and follow the escapades along the path. What a super connection. Good luck with it. The portrait of Sesqua House is very reminiscent of illustrations in my old copy of The Hobbit. Have youn noticed how tree branches in Cthulhu Mythos books take on tentacular properties? Quite bizarre. Hope you are well. G. ;-)=
ReplyDeleteAll geography is haunted by past deeds and romance.
Wilum, I highly recommend the eight-part lecture series on The Hobbit by Corey Olsen (AKA "The Tolkien Professor"), which he later adapted into his book "Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit". You can download them for free at http://www.mythgard.org/activities/exploring-the-hobbit/. It can really increase one's appreciation of the depth of the work.
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