-
-
-
Recent Posts
- March 2024 Viewing Diary
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “At some point, you have to set down the past. At some point, you have to accept that everyone was doing their best. At some point, you have to gather yourself up, and go onward into your life.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” –Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
Recent Comments
- Sheila on March 2024 Viewing Diary
- Biff Dorsey on March 2024 Viewing Diary
- Robert Valente on For Joseph Cotten’s birthday: Gaslight: His Listening Is Active
- Anne Whitehouse on 2023 Books Read
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- Jessie on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
- Melissa Sutherland on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
- Carolyn Clarke on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
- Lyrie on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- mutecypher on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- Mike Molloy on Three unknowable men from the same angle
- sheila on Three unknowable men from the same angle
- Mike Molloy on Three unknowable men from the same angle
- Shaharee Vyaas on The Books: “Finnegans Wake” (James Joyce)
- Mike Molloy on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
Categories
Archives
-
Tag Archives: Lord of the Rings
Happy Birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien
The German publishing firm of Rutten & Loening contacted Allen & Unwin in 1938 (the publishers of The Hobbit) and wanted to negotiate with them for a German translation of the book. But first and foremost, they wanted to know … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit
19 Comments
The Books: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Daily Book Excerpt: Memoirs: Next book on the Memoir/Letters/Journals shelf is The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m not a Tolkien fanatic, although I love The Hobbit (it’s my favorite), so this book is rather tough-going for someone not up to … Continue reading
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
Jessa Crispin has an interesting interview with Peter Boxall, editor of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I loved what Boxall said at the end: Having benefited from an extraordinary number of emails and letters as well as … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce
Tagged 1984, A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Tale of Two Cities, A.S. Byatt, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alice in Wonderland, Amongst Women, Animal Farm, Annie Proulx, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, At Swim-Two-Birds, Atonement, Cat's Eye, Catch-22, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, D.H. Lawrence, Don DeLillo, E.M. Forster, Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Edna O'Brien, Emily Bronte, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Finnegans Wake, Flann O'Brien, Flannery O'Connor, Frankenstein, Franny and Zooey, George Eliot, George Orwell, Great Expectations, Gulliver's Travels, Handmaid's Tale, Herman Melville, House of Leaves, Hunter S. Thompson, Ian McEwan, In Cold Blood, J.D. Salinger, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Ellroy, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Jeanette Winterson, John Irving, John McGahern, John Steinbeck, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Heller, Kazuo Ishiguro, Leo Tolstoy, Lewis Carroll, Lord of the Rings, Margaret Atwood, Mark Danielewski, Mary Shelley, Master and Margarita, Middlemarch, Mikhail Bulgakov, Moby Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Notes From the Underground, Oliver Twist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Possession, Pride and Prejudice, Primo Levi, Sense and Sensibility, Sexing the Cherry, Stephen King, Surfacing, The Catcher In the Rye, The Country Girls, The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit, The Passion, The Shining, The Shipping News, The Things They Carried, The World According to Garp, Thomas Mann, Tim O'Brien, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Ulysses, Underworld, Vladimir Nabokov, White Noise, Wuthering Heights
9 Comments
Happy Birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien: “It is no bedtime story”
Today is the birthday of JRR Tolkien. He was born in South Africa on this day, in 1892. I love that picture – mainly because it was the author photo on the back of my dog-eared copy of The Hobbit … Continue reading
Happy birthday to The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring, which was published – on this day – in 1954 – as the sequel to The Hobbit, which appeared in 1937. The publisher apparently only printed 3,500 copies (o ye, of little faith!). It went … Continue reading
“Of course, The Lord of the Rings does not belong to me”
I post this excerpt from one of Tolkien’s letters for all my Tolkien-fan readers, and also specifically to annoy Patrick Prescott (who moved off Blogspot – Yeah!) Patrick has finally come to the conclusion that he is an “unwashed heathen”, … Continue reading Continue reading
Frodo, Free Will, More Tolkien Mania
The excerpt I posted, where Tolkien discusses “the failure of Frodo”, in the end, to complete his mission, generated a very interesting discussion. If you’re a Tolkien freak like myself. Bill McCabe commented: You’re right, but he also makes the … Continue reading
“The Failure of Frodo”
Tolkien responds to many letters from fans and reviewers about the failure of Frodo, in the end, to complete the Quest. I have a lot more to say on this – Tolkien’s discussion of Pity, and Mercy – and how … Continue reading
“I am not Gandalf…”
Tolkien wrote a draft to an unidentified reader, and in it he describes his affinity to Faramir. (Or should I say, his affinity “with” Faramir? Patrick, Grammar Guru, care to comment?)
“The sequel to the Hobbit”
“I have begun again on the sequel to the ‘Hobbit’ – The Lord of the Ring. It is now flowing along, and getting quite out of hand. It has reached about Chapter VII and progresses towards quite unforeseen goals. I … Continue reading