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#LGBTQ Tolkien stories
i-did-not-mean-to · 1 year
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THAUC 2022 - Masterlist
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Song as old as rhyme
A collaboration with @dimdiamond (who is truly amazing)
🎨 Artwork link (Check it OUT!!!)
Words: 11'075
Pairing: Ori x OFC, Thorin x Bilbo, Ori & Fíli
Warnings: Aroace!Character, Trans!Character, internalised homophobia, internalised transphobia
Summary: When the elusive author Ori is invited to Baggins Bookshop for a reading, he unwittingly topples both himself, his best friend, and his best friend's stern uncle into an unexpected adventure of self-discovery. A story about first and second chances, the importance of friendship, and the value of courage. (with cameos of our beloved friends and mods)
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Midnight ride
A collaboration with @freshvanillapng (who has been a delight to work with)
🎨 Artwork link (please give this amazing artist some love!!!)
Words: 3'990
Pairing: Fíli x OFC (Thorin x Bilbo)
Warnings: Mature
Summary: The Company arrives in Rivendell; Fíli makes an unexpectedly delightful acquaintance, much to the discontentment of all the authority figures present.
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It was a pleasure and an honour!
@fellowshipofthefics thank you for this opportunity!!!
@dimdiamond and @freshvanillapng, I am humbled and delighted by your immense dedication, creativity, and talent. The hard work you've put into this art leaves me speechless and I feel truly honoured to have been working with such amazing artists!
As ever, your humble servant and devoted friend,
lots of love,
IDNMT
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Yes, there are gay characters in Tolkien’s books
There seems to be an entrenched view among Tolkien fans that Tolkien did not write any gay characters, and that by interpreting any of his characters as gay you are going against what he would have wanted. Homophobes obviously believe this very strongly, and have always been hostile towards queer fans and queer interpretations of Tolkien’s works. Many members of the LGBTQ community also believe that they’re contradicting canon when they interpret Tolkien’s characters as gay—the only difference is they don’t mind doing so.
But is it so against canon to interpret any of Tolkien’s characters as gay? The assumption that Tolkien did not write gay characters hinges on his Catholicism, but I’m going to explain why this is flimsy reasoning.
First, it should be noted that Tolkien didn’t leave any writings expressing his views on homosexuality, so there is no evidence one way or another. But it seems relevant that Tolkien was good friends with W.H. Auden and corresponded with him over multiple decades. They first met when Auden listened to one of Tolkien’s lectures at Oxford and was inspired to learn Anglo-Saxon. Auden loved Tolkien’s poetry and prose and defended LOTR from critics at a time when it was seen as an unserious work in an unserious genre. Did Tolkien know Auden was gay? We don’t know for sure. But there’s at least a chance that he did: the secret of Auden’s homosexuality is one he “loosely kept”, according to an article in the Guardian.
So, Tolkien was friends with a gay man whom he may or may not have known was gay. But are there gay characters in Tolkien’s books? Unfortunately for the homophobes, even if you believe that Tolkien opposed homosexuality on principle, that still doesn’t mean no one in Middle-earth is gay. Actually, no one in Middle-earth is Catholic. I mean that literally, in the sense that Catholicism does not exist in the time period Tolkien wrote about, but I also mean it in the sense that Tolkien’s characters need not adhere to the tenets of his religion, even if it’s not named. Why would they?
It shouldn’t be controversial or surprising to point out that writers can, and often do, write characters that live very different lives from their own. Needless to say, Tolkien didn’t condone the actions of the antagonists of his work, but what about the protagonists? Are we to believe that all of them act in an unfailingly Catholic way at all times? In Laws and Customs of the Eldar, it is strongly implied that (especially in their younger years) Elves do have sex for pleasure and not just to beget children, something that is discouraged by Catholicism. That’s just one example.
(Please note that I’m not arguing that Tolkien’s Catholicism had no influence on his writings, because he explicitly said that it did. I’m saying that Tolkien’s characters themselves are not Catholic and do not necessarily behave like Catholics. So even if you think that all Catholics believe homosexuality is wrong, it has no bearing on Tolkien’s stories.)
Another line of reasoning goes that homosexuality is too taboo for Tolkien—but I have to wonder if people who believe this have read his books at all. The Silmarillion is full of taboo subjects. Túrin and Niënor marry, not knowing they are brother and sister; they find out the truth, and that she is pregnant, and they both commit suicide. Eöl’s relationship with Aredhel is one that, even if it didn’t start out as controlling and abusive—although I suspect it did—it clearly ended up that way, and depending on your interpretation of the text, he may have raped her. Celegorm attempts to force Lúthien to marry him, which would also involve rape, and there is a passage that implies that Morgoth also intends to rape Lúthien. Neither incest, rape or abuse are too taboo for Tolkien—neither are suicide, torture or mass murder, as the rest of the Silmarillion shows.
I don’t want anyone to take this in bad faith: I’m not saying that being gay is comparable to incest, rape or abuse, and I’m part of the LGBTQ community myself. What I am saying is that Tolkien clearly did not shy away from certain subjects, including sexual taboos, simply because they’re taboo. If you’re going to argue that none of Tolkien’s characters are queer because it wasn’t accepted at the time, that’s very unconvincing given the other subject matter in his books.
There is another reason why I think there are gay characters in Middle-earth, and it has to do with Tolkien’s inspirations. It’s well understood by Tolkien fans that you can see echoes of other mythologies in Tolkien’s works. But which ones? When Lúthien brings Beren back from the Halls of Mandos, there are obvious parallels with the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice—though the genders are reversed, and Lúthien succeeds where Orpheus did not. There are parallels between Túrin and Kullervo. There are numerous examples of this kind of thing throughout the Silmarillion and LOTR. Even the name Middle-earth clearly has its roots in the Norse name Midgard. There are some influences that Tolkien explicitly acknowledged, like the Kalevala and the Völuspá, and some that Tolkien scholars have only theorized about. While there are some scholarly articles on Tolkien and the Aeneid, one thing I have never seen anyone discuss is the parallel between Beleg’s death and the story of Nisus and Euryalus.
In the Aeneid, Nisus and Euryalus are a pair of friends and lovers who are fighting for Aeneas in Latium. Nisus, the older of the two men, is said to be a skilled javelin-thrower and archer. Nisus proposes a night raid on an enemy camp, and Euryalus insists on going with him. During the raid they kill many men in their sleep, collecting some of their armor as loot, as was customary. But when they leave the camp, the glint of light on a helmet taken by Euryalus is seen by a group of enemy horsemen, who capture and kill him before Nisus can stop them. Nisus is distraught and kills many of them in retaliation, ultimately dying beside his lover’s body. (In some versions, it’s a stolen belt, not a helm—but the constant motif is the glint of light that reveals Euryalus to the enemy.)
There are so many similarities with Beleg and Túrin that it cannot be a coincidence. Beleg and Túrin also fight side by side, first on the marches of Doriath and later when Túrin is an outlaw. They are very loyal to each other, and clearly love each other. Like Nisus, Beleg is known to be a great archer. Meanwhile, although it does not feature in Beleg’s death scene, Túrin is associated with a particularly significant helm. There are differences too: Túrin’s captivity is the reason for Beleg’s raid on the Orc-camp, whereas Euryalus is captured after the raid; both Nisus and Euryalus are slain one after the other, whereas only Beleg dies in the raid on the Orc-camp. But there is still the overarching parallel of the night raid, in which the enemy guards are killed silently in their sleep; the raid’s connection with an attempted rescue; the chance moment that leads to the tragic death; the imagery of the flash of light; and the distraught reaction of Nisus and Túrin when they see that Euryalus and Beleg are dead. Tolkien read the Aeneid as a student and so would have been familiar with its contents.
There is also the fact that in some versions of the story Túrin kisses Beleg on the mouth in this scene. Although kissing someone on the mouth has not always been a romantic gesture in all cultures and time periods, the clear parallels to the scene in the Aeneid lead me to think that it is in this case. Whether you see the relationship between Túrin and Beleg as romantic is up to you—all that I’m trying to do is show that it’s a legitimate interpretation.
Ultimately, like I wrote here, I don’t think you need permission from anyone in order to interpret Tolkien’s stories the way you want to. If you want to interpret one of his characters as gay, you don’t need to cite obscure plotlines from the Aeneid to justify it. But I do take issue with the idea—which is so pervasive in the fandom—that Tolkien’s stories must not have gay, or bisexual, or trans people in them, and that any interpretations to that effect are against canon. At the end of the day, Middle-earth is supposed to be our world, and guess what? Queer people exist.
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dduane · 2 years
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Hi Diane! I’ve been a huge fan of your Star Trek work for years (and will now be investigating your original fiction I wasn’t previously aware of) and am absolutely thrilled to find you have an active blog.
I did a cursory search through your tags but didn’t see anything answering this so forgive me if you’ve already gone over this, but how do you go about publishing work that belongs to an already established franchise like Star Trek? Is it just through the publisher? Do you go to some branch of Paramount/CBS and get their approval for the story content? I’d love to know the process. I’m assuming with all the new Star Trek content these days, and CBS locking down on what’s “canon”, it’s probably more difficult to get a one off novel published using their IP anymore. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this (or be directed to a post where you’ve already explained).
Thank you for all your wonderful work!
You're very welcome! I hope you find my original work at least as enjoyable as the Trek.  :)
Re the business of working with an established franchise: yep, we've dealt with that here before, every now and then. But the tagging has been (admittedly) uneven. So let me just come at it again. :) (Always adding the note that this is how I did it, back in the day, and the methods or pathways of access may have changed.)
...So how did I get to be a published Star Trek novelist?
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(adding a cut here, because this is a long one)
I am a first-generation Star Trek fan. I fell in love with ST:TOS* as soon as it premiered, and immediately started writing fanfic in that universe. (It should be mentioned here that—a couple/few decades before the days of widespread internet-connectedness—not only did I have no idea that other people were doing something very similar, but I had no idea it even had a name. I was writing all alone, in a vacuum, with no support whatsoever… but however accidentally, I’d discovered something invaluable: it made me happy. We’ll come back to this later.)
So. Time went by and I slid from that genre of fanfic-writing into writing fic that was much more Tolkienian in genre, and from there, into writing original fiction that Tolkien would have found, well, rather different. Cutting another longish story short, in 1978/9 I sold and had published my first novel, this one—the initial volume in the LGBTQ-and-poly-ish Tale of the Five / Middle Kingdoms series that would later get me nominated two years running for the Astounding Award for best new writer in the SF/fantasy field.
Now when something like this happens to you, it gets a lot easier to pitch new novels to people. I’m not just talking about the increased attention that awards and nominations bring you. But just having a traditionally-published book out tells other potential publishers that you’ve mastered at least some important aspects of the novelist business: (a) being able to conceive of a plot that will sustain a novel-length work, (b) being able to go from concept to starting in on a novel, © being able to finish a novel, and (d) being able to cope with the editorial process—handling suggested edits, dealing with a copyedited manuscript, dealing with proofs, etc etc.
As it happens, while I was dealing with the sequelae to publishing The Door Into Fire—meaning the inevitable question “And what are you going to do next?”—I'd also been doing some typing for an acquaintance who was typewriter-challenged. They were writing a Star Trek novel. And I have to say that what I was typing up for them was giving me hives. It was…not anything like what I thought a Star Trek novel should look like. I remember saying to a friend or two, on the quiet, “I could eat a ream of typing paper and barf a better Star Trek novel than this.” And finally one of them—almost certainly David Gerrold, who (God love him) has a history of daring me into doing things I want to do anyway—turned around and called my bluff and said, “All right, go on then, quit your kvetching and just go do it.”
Which left me staring at the problem with a lot more intent. Fine, you’re going to pitch a novel to Trek: what story are you going to tell? It’s not like you’re constrained by a TV budget here. Stretch out and tell the biggest Star Trek story you can find: one that can only be told, or best told, in this universe. (This being my working “prime criterion” for stories told in other people’s universes. For best effect the story should only be capable of being told within that set of characters and circumstances. The jewel must be cut to suit the setting, not—however counterintuitive it might seem—not the other way around.)
So I sat with that concept for a while, and eventually the right idea, or set of ideas, presented itself. I can vividly remember the moment. I was sitting on a bus bench near Victory and White Oak in the San Fernando Valley when the idea hit. It was a long time before cellphones, so I had to wait an hour or so to get home so I could call my agent and say “Don, guess what? I’m going to write a Star Trek novel!”
There was the briefest pause, after which he said, only half joking: “Do you have to?” Because both of us knew perfectly well that from Paramount’s point of view, Star Trek novels were merely another kind of merchandising, like plastic phasers and James T. Kirk action figures. (And strictly speaking, regardless of how we love them, they still are.) …But then Don said, “Okay, do an outline and we’ll see what they think.”
And so I wrote the outline, and my agent sent it along to the editor of the Trek books at Pocket—who was then Dave Hartwell (God rest him, a fabulous editor of any and all kinds of SF)—and Dave read it and liked it, and he sent it to Paramount for approval, and they read it and liked it, and gave Dave the go-ahead to buy it. And that turned into The Wounded Sky. (A nice overview is here. But I am also charmed to tell you that this book has its own entry at TV Tropes.) As a tied-for-second novel went—So You Want To Be A Wizard was written at very nearly the same time—it doesn’t seem to have done too badly.
Anyway, after that got written and turned in and published, the people at Pocket—somewhat to my surprise—said to me, “Okay, what have you got for us next?”  It was that simple… and I was that lucky. I liked working with them: they liked working with me: and they liked what I’d done enough to ask for more. (And...though I have no data on this... I strongly suspect the first book sold well.) So I was in for eight novels more, spread over a fair bit of time. And I have one more plot lying around that I should really get in touch with present editorial about and see if there’s any interest. You never can tell…
So that’s how I did it. Everybody else’s mileage will inevitably vary. But I don’t think there’s going to be much argument with the idea that before working with other IP-holders in their worlds, you might usefully first do as much work as possible in your own. That way potential publishing partners will have something to look at to help them get a sense of what your voice sounds like outside someone else’s world.
…Now as for working with someone else’s IP—anyone’s—this is how I manage it.
(a) Remember it’s theirs. They were there before you arrived and will doubtless be there long after you’re gone. They own that property, are likely enough to have worked hard on it in their time, and—whether they originated it or are just its buyers—are almost certainly powerfully protective of it. You can press against the edges of their envelope—quite hard, if you’re careful and have permission—but break through the fabric of their corporate reality without warning and you are going to be in deep trouble.
Do your homework. Know your licensor: know their history with other creators. Find out where there have been problems in the past and keep your eyes open for warning signs that you may be about to discover some new one. If you were lucky enough to be invited in, act like a considerate houseguest (creatively speaking). While working in that universe, don’t (for example) sneakily attempt to jettison parts of the property that annoy you, or covertly subvert bits that seem to call for subversion. (Overt subversion is a different story. Be in communication with your IP owner about this, and you may be able to win them over.  [Though you should be prepared for them to take credit for this after the fact.] But I have seen people disinvited from franchises with extreme prejudice after they were caught trying to pull one or another kind of “fast one” on their publisher.) If there’s a work-with-us guide or in-house bible, sleep with it under your pillow.
(b) Know your subject/universe. KNOW it. It is an absolute certainty that no matter how well you think you know it, there are fans out there who know it better than you do—massively, obsessively, eat-drink-and-sleep-ively better— and if you put a foot wrong, they will come for you. Leaving aside the issue of not wanting to be left looking like an idiot on the Internet, you ought in any case to be deeply cognizant of your host-world’s internal verities before you can expect to write it flexibly and well.
—And add (b1) to this: Know your characters’ voices. Not just the way they phrase things, but the way they think about things and (possibly more importantly) feel about things. It’s not you the readers will have come for. It’s them. You must channel the core characters at the very least authentically, and (ideally) affectionately, or it’ll all end in tears.
For the duration of this work, you are in service to them. Treat them courteously and give them your best words to speak; but always in their own voices. Don’t be afraid to let them be more real than you are. For a lot of people, unquestionably, they are. If that’s a problem for you, you shouldn’t be doing this kind of work. (At least not more than once.)
© Don’t do it for money. Don’t do it for fame. Do it for love or not at all. ...Let’s be realistic: any licensing IP is likely to (in the great scheme of things) be far better and more widely known than you are. You may acquire some positive press for your work with it, but in many people’s minds the positivity will have to do far more with the property than with you, regardless of your gifts or how much you love that universe, or whether or not you “came up through the fandom.”
As regards money, some licensed work will pay competitively with original work done in the same genre, but most will not. Not even being a Hot Name with a given IP will necessarily guarantee you any kind of serious money. (In particular, IP licensors have a historical tendency to pay lower-than-normally-accepted royalty rates, and in the past it has taken very energetic and insistent agents to break them of this habit, even if only temporarily and on a case-by-case basis.)
It therefore stands to reason that, for the sake of your own best functioning as a writer, you need to be doing work of this kind because you really need to do it (or to have done it) to make yourself happy: to scratch a creative itch, or to give something back to a property/universe that you love.
Now, “do it for love” can cover a lot of ground. You don’t have to be head over heels in luuuurrrrve with a property to write for it well. (In fact I suspect this state could hinder a writer’s ability to do their best work for an IP. You need at least a little separation from it so that you can realistically evaluate how what you’re producing is stacking up.) You can just be in really strong like with a given property. But you ought to be in at least some kind of like. A personal commitment to the stylistic, rational or emotional core of a given property will get you through the times of challenge that will inevitably surround your involvement with it far better than any unrealized hope of a big payday or of more widespread recognition of your own talents. 
Finally: This may sound heretical, but I don’t believe that licensed work is necessarily most fruitfully viewed as a natural stepping-stone to doing original work. (Or even to becoming a licensor yourself, though that does happen.) I think that, well and thoughtfully handled at both ends of things—the auctorial as well as the editorial—not-your-own-IP-work can be entirely worth doing wholly for its own sake. To write for the enjoyment of readers who’re using licensed work to scratch the same itch or feed the same passion that fanfic readers/writers know—of just wanting more good story in that universe? That’s entirely honorable employment, in my book. You’re an entertainer! Entertain, and fear nothing.
(And read your contracts closely.) :)
HTH!
(ETA: for the interested or curious, another post looking more at the issue of how IP-adjacent book editors pick the writers to work on them is over here.)
*Isn’t it wonderful to have to specify which kind of Star Trek you’re talking about? The times we live in...  :)
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koala2all · 9 months
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Writblr Intro
Hi, everyone! I’m Koala 🐨
I’m a YA fantasy writer, and all my stories are set in my own world full of magic, monsters, and lots of interesting characters!
My first novel, the first of a trilogy, is finished and currently being queried! Wish me luck in this trying time 😆 🍀 Book two is almost complete, and Book 3 is off to a lovely beginning. This trilogy is all about the balancing act of trying to make the people important to you proud while also staying true to yourself and finding your own path.
I can’t only have one project, though, so I’ve got several other stories running through my mind. The one that’s trying to catch my attention the most is a story of a lesbian pirate who is on an epic adventure to save her Bonny Lass…
About Me:
I’m a big player of tabletop RPGs… World of Darkness and D&D being my top picks, thought it’s been a loooooong time since I slipped into the WoD… making up characters is one of my favorite passtimes
I love pirates, the ocean, fantasy, and being part of the LGBTQ+ community 🏳️‍🌈
My fandoms are Supernatural, LoTR, The Sandman, The Owl House, Firefly, and my guilty pleasure of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Favorite Authors include Neil Gaiman, Dan Abnet, Tolkien, Suzanne Collins…
I would love to meet other writers here, so don’t be shy to stop by and say hi! 😁
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tolkien-feels · 2 years
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Okay so I've been thinking about Tolkien... and I'm not 100% sure how to express my Thoughts but I wanted to dump them on you because I feel like even if I communicate it awkwardly you might understand what I'm trying to say and help refine what I'm saying.
So there are various criticisms of Tolkien wrt his ratio of male to female characters and how he's just not progressive enough, but I feel like a lot of people who use this to insult Tolkien and claim that he was a Bad Person and thus nothing he did was good (or if it was good, it was only accidentally so) don't even realize the much-more-relevant-to-his-era statement he was making about class!
LOTR is the best example of this, because literally all of the Company is royalty or akin to royalty or high class except for Sam. And while each one of them plays an important role in the story, the inarguably Highest Class character (Aragorn) in the most important part of the story is nothing but a distraction, and it's the inarguably Lowest Class character (Sam) who emerges as the most important part of the puzzle, the Real Hero. They are all heroes - Frodo is no less of a hero because he fails in his task, Boromir is no less of a hero because he temporarily falls under the thralldom of the ring, Aragorn is no less of a hero just because in the end he's not much more than a distraction so the Real Heroes can do their thing - but it's Sam, the lowest class one of them all, who is THE hero of the story. And while there are important discussions to be had and to tell in various stories that do include race and gender, I feel like it's disingenuous to ignore the important discussion Tolkien was having about class when talking about important discussions to be had.
And frankly, class is extremely important, and the fact that it's often overlooked in these conversations is very frustrating. To give the most extreme example of this: A black, female, lgbtq, Hollywood celebrity is going to be much less disadvantaged in life than a straight white man who lives on the streets and depends on free food pantries, soup kitchens, and charity to survive. And to say that the straight white man is privileged compared to her is stripping all of the complexity related to class out of that comparison. So I think that Tolkien's statements about class are extremely important conversation points, but which... largely get ignored just because that is the conversation that he was having (which I feel is much more relevant to his era) than conversations that people insist we should be having about him/his work.
And idk... maybe I'm just tired of people calling Tolkien a bad person when he clearly wasn't. He was at worst a product of his times, and even then while he didn't write a ton of stories about women it's clear that he respected women through the stories he told about them. And his infamous replies when Germany asked if he was Aryan proves something similar to his opinions on racism and antisemitism. And since he intentionally was writing a legendarium for his own country, to say that he was racist for essentially saying "the poc are the ones who live far away from where the main story is taking place" and thus were far away from the elves and the gods and things that were Good and so unfortunately were easily manipulated down a dark path by Evil is... well, it's disingenuous. Especially when you consider the important conversation topic he was addressing and was trying to talk about.
I do get what you mean! And I have so many thoughts on this, but I don’t want to share them lol
You see, there is a lot to be said about Tolkien’s social views - both in praise and in condemnation. But critical literary analysis of 20th century literature is an actual academic field, and there’s a reason for that. You need a lot of knowledge and a lot of hard work to be able to accurately, fairly assess a single work - let alone an author’s entire corpus. I, a random person on the internet without that background, am simply not qualified to make that kind of analysis.
Can I have opinions? Sure! I’ve had them since I first encountered Tolkien, and I’ve been refining them ever since! But these are personal and I don’t want the responsibility of holding up my ideas as Good Takes, because I’m very aware of my limitations. For things like “Hey do you have an opinion on this obscure character?” I’m thrilled to share all my opinions, but for things that are (rightfully!) considered such serious subjects because they affect real life people, I feel like the only thing I can do is take a step back and admit I probably don’t have particularly good answers.
Can you probably guess that I think Tolkien does some things right and some things wrong, just by reading through this blog? Absolutely, but that’s the nature of interacting with any kind of art. But to go out of my way to present A Unified Opinion is more than I am prepared to do.
I do think you make a very valid point, and I agree with much, though not necessarily all, of it, but to quote LotR, this would need “a week’s answer, or none.” As I’m not comfortable with sharing a week’s answer for the reasons above, I’ll just have to go with none, even though I very much get where you’re coming from with this!
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buffyfan145 · 1 year
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Happened to see a discussion on Twitter yesterday not only with the purists but actual Tolkien fans and accounts I follow talking about the show and Haladriel so not all of it was bad, but I found it interesting some of their points which even the purists think Amazon is doing to make the show sell and what got us shipping Haladriel. I do agree with most of the regular fans that it is ok to critique the show as long as they do it without attacking the fans, cast, writers, etc. It’s normal to critique art and entertainment and sometimes things are done better when it’s constructive but not with such hatred that some of them did. But the thing that made me laugh first was that a lot of the purists actually do love Charlie’s take on Sauron which I wasn’t expecting. LOL But they do feel the show did a romance take with Sauron and Galadriel (and her being more of a Buffy style hero) mostly to trap us “straight women” into watching, which first even though I am straight and an actual romance novelist (I also write other genres) that’s not the case with most of us as I’ve been a fan of LOTR since the movies came out when I was in high school and then I read the books and I know a lot of you in the fandom aren’t straight. Also we know now a lot of LOTR fans actually have shipped them for decades thanks to those other posts about the fic and the old fan meet ups in the 80s.  Plus they act like the “enemies to lovers” troupe is only in straight couples when that’s just a major romance troupe in all types of romance stories including in LGBTQ+ ones. Also the purists seem to be afraid there’s going to be more actual romance novels coming, which I will admit likely is the case as being a writer I do get inspired to write from all different kinds of things. It very well could inspire me later to create an original story. Again that’s totally normal with writing and I already read a romance novel last fall that was weirdly similar “Ship Wrecked” but was actually inspired by “Game of Thrones”, so I am expecting to see books coming in the next few years but like a lot of us pointed out really a ship like Haladriel already existed for centuries with Hades and Persephone. 
Again I didn’t mean to stumble upon this but finding it actually made me more amused at how these purists are (again most of them men btw) and for those that have been attacked by them just remember they aren’t most of the fanbase and most of the fans are actually really nice and welcoming. And like so many of my past fandoms going back to “Buffy” when I first got involved in online fandoms used to say “ship and let ship”. :)
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comraderaccoon · 2 years
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So, I’m very aware that, unfortunately, this might catch me some heat. I can’t stay quiet about it anymore, especially as a fan who’s a queer person of color. I want to make it abundantly clear that the issue with Amazon’s Rings of Power series is the company itself. 
You think that Jirt would like a company that’s probably going to outlive the actual rainforest it’s named after? 
What about all of the environmental damage that Amazon’s caused?
What about the company’s mistreatment of the poor, and the authoritarianism it has over its workers? 
You think Jirt would like something that embodies some of the worst aspects of industrialization? Have you all forgotten how this man portrayed greedy rich people? 
Amazon stands against everything that Tolkien was trying to tell us. With all that being said, I’m pretty sure the story’s going to be soulless and surface level as a result. The story is NOT going to be ruined by the inclusion of LGBTQ people, disabled people, or people of color. For Christ sakes, guys, all those people were already in Tolkien’s works! They’re not the issue. Hell, I’d argue that even if we got the original cast from PJ’s trilogy, the series would still suck. Why? Cause Amazon stands against everything that Middle Earth is about. It’s not in their favor to portray Tolkien’s works accurately. 
To me, the people who believe that inclusion is to blame for the series sucking, are right up there with Amazon. And I mean right up there with them, you’re doing EXACTLY what Amazon wants. So good job being their bigoted little puppets. I’m sure they love the free advertising, and clout. 
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faustandfurious · 2 years
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Book rec ask: 28, 58, and 71!
28. A book you wish you could read as a beginner again
In some ways I do wish I could erase all my Tolkien knowledge and read LotR like I read it the first time, without any idea what it was about or where the story would go
58. A book with an orange cover
How The Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria and the Riddle of Mental Illness by Allan Ropper and B. D. Burrell, which is a really good intro to neurosyphilis and the historical reasons for why neurology and psychiatry are two different branches of medicine
71. Your favourite LGBTQ+ fiction
Maurice by E. M. Forster and Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, and boy do those two have extremely different vibes lol
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ifonlyitweregay · 1 year
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Camp NaNo Directory: ifonlyitweregay
— Share a bit about yourself —
hi, i'm eleanor! 22, she/her, queer. i'm someone who writes in a lot of different genres and hops between projects a lot, but i mostly write fantasy and poetry atm.
— What kind of stories do you like to read? —
fantasy, classics, nonfiction, lgbtq lit, + poetry! some of my favorite authors are tolkien, terry pratchett, and shakespeare.
— Goal(s) —
my goal is just to write every day for at least 15 minutes. i'll be keeping track of my daily progress here!
— Camp Project Title/Description —
i chose a time-based rather than project-based goal because of my tendency to project-hop. here are some of the projects i work on most frequently and will more likely than not spend some time on this month:
polar fantasy series, book 1 - my main wip, if i can be said to have one. i'm rewriting book one of a political polar fantasy/mystery series. when a powerful magical artifact goes missing, everyone in the city is out to find it and use it for their own ends. my favorite thing about this book is having such a large cast of characters who are often actively working against each other.
mystery novella series, book 1 - this is a spinoff/continuation(???) of the polar fantasy series. i don't know how canon it is, really, but they're my books and i do what i want! for this one, think fantasy agatha christie. i'm currently outlining/drafting book 1.
king arthur retelling - king arthur sailed to Avalon after his defeat and is foretold to return in the future . . . what happens when he does? very loose king arthur-inspired tale set in a medieval fantasy world, focusing on the figures who orbit his return. asking a lot of meta questions about the power and limitations of story & myth. main inspirations: tolkien's fall of arthur, "soldier poet king," sir gawain and the green knight. currently writing first draft.
poetry - i frequently write about family/heritage, queerness, religion, and contemporary politics.
other projects i might work on include essays, flash and short fiction, a witchy novella series, and more!
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abysscronica · 1 year
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I know this is different from your usual asks but could you tell us what fantasy books or series you read and which ones would you recommend? I'm intrigued.
Sure! I think I mentioned before that I mostly read classics, so I haven't read a tremendous amount of fantasy books, but I can quickly go through them. I'll start from my loves and dislikes, and I include a complete list of what I read at the end, so you can see what I left out from both categories.
My all-time favs!
A Song of Ice and Fire by Martin. All the books, including spin-offs. I rarely came across a writer that kept me enthralled so much I literally never wanted to put the book down and couldn't wait to get back to it afterwards. It's heartbreaking to think that the series will likely remain unfinished.
The Neverending Story by Ende. In my opinion, this is a book that every kid should read, and the adults too. It's a truly magic book, if you can get your hands on the old edition written in red and green, the experience is even more magical.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by Klune. A recent read, I strongly recommend this book if you need a soft, comforting stress-release from your everyday life. It's also LGBTQ+ friendly.
Other good reads.
The Princess Bride by Goldman and The Witches by Dahl will always be two untimely classics to enjoy.
No, I'm not forgetting The Lord of the Rings, but you have to like Tolkien's style. It was an enjoyable read for me but also daunting at times, sorry. If you're looking for something on those epic fantasy lines but much less demanding, I'll suggest to glance at the Dragonlance series by Weis (& other writers). It's developed from DnD campaigns and has all the elements of Tolkien's world except it flows like the wind and you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the ride.
Personally, I'm a sucker for myths and epics itself, so I cannot leave out the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. In particular the Iliad shaped my conception of how an epic war should be structured (and yes, Tolkien doesn't fall too far off some of Homer's standards - AND YES, Oda's Marineford has something to do with it as well). If you like Greek mythology, throw in Metamorphoses by Ovid for good measure. And Paradise Lost by Milton! It's Christian lore but one cannot forget Paradise Lost, although you'll have to be ready for the ride, like for Tolkien's.
If you like goth/dark stuff, Edgar Allan Poe is my go to.
What I didn't enjoy
[please remember this is solely my opinion and it's perfectly fine if you disagree]
I only liked the first book of The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis, then whatever attempt I made to continue the series was cut short. It's not just the indoctrination purpose that rubbed me the wrong way, I found the other books boring.
His Dark Materials series by Pullman, once again, I only enjoyed the first book (The Golden Compass). I liked it a lot, so I was quite disappointed by the rest of the trilogy, I felt like nothing made sense and the author had not really thought it through, but maybe that's just me.
The House of Earth and Blood by Maas. I hope people won't burn me at the stake for this but... what the actual fuck? I picked up this book recently because there was so much praise over it, even from famous reading sites, and I thought "Yeah, I'm really in the mood for a good fantasy, it's been ages since I got one, hand it over!". And. How is this book so praised is beyond me. Don't get me wrong, the worldbulding is great and it has a big cast of characters, which is something I always like, but. But. I better shut up on what I think of this book. Bye.
Here below is the list of most of the fantasy I read, I'm sure I forgot something along the way.
Myth/Epica
Beowulf, Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Metamorphoses (by Ovid), The Divine Comedy by Dante, Paradise Lost by Milton
Popular/big series
The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, A Song of Ice and Fire by Martin (all available books including Fire & Blood and The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), the Harry Potter series by Rowling, the Twilight series by Meyer, the Hunger Games series by Collins (although it counts as sci-fi more than fantasy), a shitton of Dragonlance books by Weis & co., His Dark Materials series by Pullman, the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis
Dark/Goth
Dracula by Stocker, Carmilla by Le Fanu, The Castle of Otranto by Walpole, all Edgar Allan Poe, Coraline by Gaiman, Bestiario by Cortazar, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Marina by Ruiz Zafon, Frankenstein by Shelley, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson, a lot of Lovecraft
Others
The Neverending Story by Ende, The Princess Bride by Goldman, some of Martin's short stories, the Eagle and Jaguar trilogy by Allende, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Twain, some Shakespeare that also counts as fantasy I guess, Gulliver's Travels by Swift, Peter Pan by Barrie, The Witches by Dahl, The House in the Cerulean Sea by Klune, Sirene by Pugno, The House of Earth and Blood by Maas, A Christmas Carol by Dickens, some of Banana Yoshimoto
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renamusing · 2 years
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6, 18, 38, 44, 61, 66, 71, 86, & 135 🧐✍️
for the book recs ask game ! 💕
omg rae tysm i didnt expect so many !!!!!!!
6) a book with a pink cover:
convenience store woman by sayaka murata. my edition has a pink cover. it's a super short book about a social-misfit woman who finds her purpose working at a convenience store. very humbling and heartwarming story. i adore it.
18) your least favorite book ever
not gonna include 'trash books' here cause we all read those from time to time and they are what they are. so i would probably choose a little life by hanya yanagihara. absolute slog to get through. even though i enjoy angst, this was misery porn. the more i read the more i wanted to end it all. reminded me a bit of the goldfinch but without any payoff, anything redeeming story-wise. same reason i also have a long-standing beef with wuthering heights.
38) your favourite series
OKAY NOT THE EASIEST QUESTION FOR ME because i love so many and all of them for different reasons. i guess ursula le guin's earthsea series might be my favorite because i relate a lot to the way she approaches characters and relationships, but i also love her hainish cycle (books 1-3 link very nicely to each other!), and i have to mention asimov's foundation trilogy for the ingenious way he weaves politics into the plot and grrm asoiaf series for the sheer size and scope of what he tries to achieve.
44) your favourite fantasy novel
tolkien's the lord of the rings. it's part of my identity.
61) your favourite horror novel
yo i need to read a lot more horror yet but bram stoker's dracula is a classic for a reason. i also really enjoyed the vampire lestat by she who must not be named.
66) a book that fucked you up
george orwell's animal farm! and honorable mention to ursula's novella the matter of seggri. that was some fucked up shit! and octavia butler’s kindred! tf happened there?
71) your favourite LGBTQ+ fiction
i dont know that it's my favorite but i've recently read the house in the cerulean sea and it was pretty cute. my favorite lgbtq+ fiction spiritually? the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers.
86) a book with an insane plot twist
anthony bourdain's kitchen confidential is bonkers from beginning to end. that man lived 100 lives and i miss him a lot.
135) recommend any book you like!
piranesi by susanna clarke. read this book immediately! no summary, no spoilers. just inject this book into your eyeballs!
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i-did-not-mean-to · 1 year
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Introduction
So, ever since starting several events, I've gained another few followers.
It might be time to do this...
Welcome friends
💌 My name (for intents and purposes) is IDNMT but you can call me whatever you want LOL (I am a cis/fem woman, but - again - you can call me anything you want and I won't object)
💌 I am born in 1989, so I am quite old lol
💌 I am European
💌 I am also a woman of East Asian descent
💌 I write things (which does not necessarily make me a writer)
💌 I am a fervent lover of art and I commission things on the regular.
💌 I am autistic and I need to be clued in; if you need anything from me, don't be afraid to ask. I will read your story (or at least parts of it, as time allows it) and I will cheer on you. I need to be prompted though.
💌 I try to be kind to people, but I can't always tell whether what I mean is coming across.
💌 If you're here, you need to be prepared to see a lot of art, a lot of reblogs, a bit of my stuff, and a whole lot of other things.
💌 My main fandom is Tolkien (in the largest sense of the name), but there's a lot of things I like and will reblog to show support.
💌Many of these things will be on either side of what different people consider good taste. There'll be fluffy gen, romantic cis/het love, but also smut, LGBTQ representation, and a voice for different minorities.
💌 I am notorious for my inability (and unwillingness) to pick sides; no matter what floats your boat, I am on board with most things.
...except...
ABSOLUTELY NO HATE
I am viciously protective of my friends and I don't care what right you think you have to judge people, if you come here to spout your nonsense, I will be very displeased!
I have been working through my own issues dutifully and I won't let myself be dragged back into a world of entitlement and hate. Thank you very much.
Me, my two dogs, my one cat, and my ever-supportive husband welcome you on this blog...
(and if you're in need a friend, of someone who listens, of someone who is desperate to love you, you're at the right place...You are not alone!)
youtube
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aslanscompass · 2 years
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my position re: Rings of Power
I am planning to watch it.
I am hoping to enjoy it.
Sources I trust have said cautiously optimistic things about what they’ve seen so far; furthermore, I try not to judge before experiencing a thing.
Things I hope people keep in mind when watching:
1. A part is not the whole. The teasers and trailers and promotional images can only present a part of the whole.
2. Some changes are necessary when adapting. I’ve seen several posts calling the show out for condensing the Second Age timeline. Well, the movies compress Frodo’s time in Rivendell to about a week, compared to two months in the books. And the Council of Elrond took almost a full day in the book, versus less than an hour in film.  Film and literature are different genres and require different tools.
3. ‘Diversity’ and ‘representation’ mean different things to different people. Tolkien is not a 2022 author; his work should not be judged on how many LGBTQ or non-white characters he has. At the same time, I am willing to accept racebends if they are well-integrated into the story.
4.  There will be original characters and changes to existing characters. The existing material on the Second Age is nowhere near as expansive as LOTR or even the Hobbit. The important question is whether it stays true to the spirit of Tolkien.
5. And finally, I will try to tag my relevant posts. Don’t like, don’t read. 
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ishaslife · 2 years
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Why Anne with an 'E' deserves a season 4.
This is just my opinion, please be gentle. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. This post does contain spoilers for the whole series.
I know I am a little late on this one but it really pisses me off that Anne with an 'E' is not going to get another season, I know 'tis been a while since it was cancelled and I have known this for quite some time but it's truly sad because Anne with an 'E' was... a truly good show. It was light-hearted, touched on hard topics very well without making them too obvious, sad, or painful and spread beautiful messages, gently. These messages were conveyed with the utmost softness and joy for both, children and adults. Anne lives in a society where the community is small, everyone knows each other and they are close-minded but SHE changes that or at least tries to, she changes her friends and her family. She helps Cole find his true self and makes him feel confident enough to get him to where he belongs, she and her close companions make Bash, Mary and her friends feel like family in a place where they felt ostracised but... she is far from perfect, in her excitement, she says things she isn't supposed to and makes mistakes like any child or person but she realises this. She knows she is/was wrong and tries her best to make up for it and grow to become a better person. She is sensitive, an idealist who has had her fair share of troubles in her young life and strives to be as much of a comfort to people as she can be, so much so that she can often come off as pushy or end up hurting people even if she meant well and that makes her more human.
Apart from all this, she is still a girl who worries about never being kissed, not being pretty enough or not being able to puffy sleeves, not having a romance with someone and that makes her somewhat relatable. I love that episode where Marilla practices this whole speech to tell Anne about kissing but when Anne talks to her, all Marilla says is, "when someone loves you, Anne, then, then you'll be kissed" and I find that to be a beautiful message, 'tis a moment of motherly love that Marilla feels for Anne because that is true. Don't get me wrong, this show has its dark and heavy moments like that time when Anne leaves home in the second episode or her visit to the orphanage that ruined her childhood, but it always ends with a revelation or realisation and focuses on the good side of life, it tells you that even though life is tough, you will always have people who love you surrounding you, who will push you on and make life worth living. As Tolkien said, "it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.” I feel this show embodies that quote very well.
Like I said before, this show is a breath of fresh air, with its beautiful aesthetics, important lessons and morals, lovable characters and childlike innocence that never fails to bring my mood up and I'm sure many would agree. It's all lovely, childlike memories wrapped up in a series and it's a shame that it was cancelled because adults weren't watching it? As if it was made JUST for adults? It's beyond me how that was their reasoning. This is just my opinion but I genuinely believe that if more shows like Anne with an 'E' existed, we'd be just slightly happier because let's be honest, what we watch does affect how we feel and view things. And that's why I think this show deserves more seasons, it is a comfort series to come back to every time one feels down. It shares some beautiful stories, and ideas and handles topics such as racism, and LGBTQ quite well. I will never forget this show and story because it helped me through a tough time. It taught me to be stronger, happier and realise that there is indeed a lot to live for and dream about.
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ahobbitsjourney23 · 3 months
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Hello There~
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Hello! You can call me J!
I'm a 21 yr old nerd from the midwest
My main nerdy affliction is the lord of the rings/hobbit but you may see so others when they pop back up like:
*Harry potter(marauders), Marvel, Percy Jackson, Doctor Who, Maneskin, etc.*
I may also post some stories if I decide to get out of my writers block
Yes, my favorite character is Merry Brandybuck...
Feel free to message me, I'm always up to say hello and make new friends!
*This is an LGBTQ friendly blog so if your homophobic and a Tolkien fan I have no idea how you exist but be gone!*
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ao3feed-bunny · 4 months
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