Into the Archive: A Variety of Interests

 

(See that book on his knees? I happen to know that is a diagram of Shelob's Lair. At least forty years too early.)

Well! I didn’t really expect to get a delivery on Sunday, especially since I’d only made the order on Thursday. But there the Amazon box was at 11 AM this morning. I quickly brought it in and opened it up, and the first thing I did was that I read:

 Tolkien: Lighting Up the Darkness (Graphic Novel, Hardcover 2024)

by Willy Duraffourg (Author), Giancarlo Caracuzzo (Artist)

I said I was going to get it and I did. It only took about an hour or so to read, which I did with some attention. All in all, it seems a good production, though there are a few minor details that I find kind of annoying and which take me out of the narrative with a bit of a bump. For one thing, they use a variety of terms and phrases that don’t ring quite true for the times; for example, a school-fellow calls a young Tolkien a ‘newbie,’ a word that is only recorded from the 1970’s.

Another interesting development I find (it was dominant in the biographical movie Tolkien, 2019) is the growing tendency to try to ‘explain’ The Lord of the Rings by relating it largely to Tolkien’s experiences in WWI. Perhaps this whole trend was started in some way by John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War (2003). The main body of the graphic novel is taken up with the story of his service, with a slim section on his childhood and courtship with Edith at the front, and an even slimmer summation of his writing success and final years. I can understand the easily produced dramatic potential of romance and adventure of the time; even Humphrey Carpenter in his authorized biography claims that ‘nothing much happened’ to him after the war years. Nothing much but lived his life and developed all the stories he became famous for. 

Duraffourg does a good job of the ‘enjambment’ of bits of the early ‘elven’ poems written at this period, though they seem to have little to do with the action around Tolkien as he writes them, save as a haven away from horrors. Tolkien himself has stated that neither World War had much to do with his tales, that the main inspiration for the Legendarium was language. But long difficult nights working in hours stolen from his waking days would be much more difficult to dramatize.

But, all in all, and in broad terms, it is a fair summation of an exciting phase in Tolkien’s life. The artwork is good if a little bland sometimes (faces tend not to be too characteristic). Although I enjoyed Lighting Up the Darkness for a brief hour, I’m not sure I can see myself coming back to it very often. But I had to read it.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Penguin Classics) Paperback – January 1, 2000

by Anonymous (Author), Anne Birrell (Editor, Translator, Introduction)

This major source of Chinese mythology (third century BC to second century AD) contains a treasure trove of rare data and colorful fiction about the mythical figures, rituals, medicine, natural history, and ethnic peoples of the ancient world.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas explores 204 mythical figures such as the gods Foremost, Fond Care, and Yellow, and goddesses Queen Mother of the West and Girl Lovely, as well as many other figures unknown outside this text. This eclectic Classic also contains crucial information on early medicine (with cures for impotence and infertility), omens to avert catastrophe, and rites of sacrifice, and familiar and unidentified plants and animals. It offers a guided tour of the known world in antiquity, moving outwards from the famous mountains of central China to the lands “beyond the seas.” – Amazon.

I remember seeing this book in our local Hastings, maybe 20 years ago, and being very intrigued. Now, with my renewed interest in Chinese tales, it seemed the time to finally get it. It may be a while before I finally get to it, but it awaits.

 

The third and final object in my haul was A Man for All Seasons (1966; DVD 2007). I first saw this film in an English class in middle school. The movie itself (based on a stage play) obviously doesn’t care for Saint Thomas More’s stand for his religion so much as his situation as a parable about Liberty of Conscience under pressure from the state. Still, a worthy stance. I am going far to having a string of historical movies covering Edward the III to Charles the II. I suppose I’ll have to get Anne of a Thousand Days and Cromwell next. Jam-packed with great actors.

• Director‏ : ‎ Fred Zinnemann
• Media Format: ‎ Multiple Formats, NTSC, Widescreen, AC-3, Subtitled, Color, Dolby, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, Special Edition
• Run time‏: ‎ 2 hours
• Release date ‏: ‎ February 20, 2007
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, John Hurt, Colin Blakely (Kent in Olivier’s King Lear)