Why?

[blaze1616]

The medical system is failing me and it is so beyond frustrating and infuriating. I'm going to lose it.

[alxarasm]

Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan

[bobaboob]

the song of lúthien tinúviel

[fisheatingowntail]

Mutilation of the arm or hand in Tolkien. turin and eowyn are both mutilated in the process of killing a thing that cant be touched. beren and frodo are both mutilated because their hand contains a valued object, and the object is bitten off of them. sauron and frodo both lose a ring finger. maedhros and beren both lose a hand at or nearabouts the gates of thangorodrim. maedhros and frodo are both saved in the mutilation.

[blaze1616]

That's JRR-i-dont-write-allegory-Tolkien for you. Definitely not using the loss of a limb or body part as symbolism of losing some of yourself on your journey. Definitely. Not.

[g1veadamn]

The thing I appreciate most about the locked tomb series is that its doing something that most current media has given up on: trusting the audience to pay attention. There is nothing simple about this book, but Muir is very intentional with the parts she explicitly explains. Enough is left for the readers to connect and conclude for themselves. I appreciated being slightly confused the entire time reading Nona. It felt good to actually need to think critically about what I was consuming.

[dillusion-art]

- Nona loves the beach.

ig: d.ill.usion

[morphmaker]

the silmarillion bride

[blaze1616]

You know, I really don't think the world of sports appreciates Jon Bois enough. Yeah, he's won awards for 17776, The History of the Seattle Mariners, and a Webby...I just don't think that's enough. Between The Bob Emergency, all of Dorktown, and Fighting In The Age Of Loneliness the man just deserves more. Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm just a stats nerd, but the video he posted a few hours ago to YouTube as Ep 7 of his current The History of Charging The Mound series, about records in baseball unlikely to be broken, left me with this feeling that he needs to be appreciated more. And I'm not even a sports fan, I just like data and graphs and spreadsheets.

[cereal-abyss-mage]

none pizza with left beef this, none pizza with left beef that. what about the MIETTE reference in htn?

[blaze1616]

Went to see Evanescence last night for the first time since The Open Door tour (which was apparently 19 yrs ago? Crazy). It was a lot of fun, and while I haven't listened to anything they've made since Open Door, I do owe a lot to them for my music tastes. While I would have certainly found my way into metal at some point without them, Evanescence is what got me there in this timeline. So thank you Fallen and Open Door for leading me to Symphonic metal, and from there down the dark hallway that is the infinite soup of metal subgenres.

[outofangband]

I’m sure I’m not the first person to say this but the sea longing is a concept so imbued with potential for horror to me

Being unable to find peace in your own skin, in your own home. Being drawn against your will further and further away. The agonising call of the lands beyond the ocean, carried like a parasitic song in the gulls and sandpipers.

A distant echo never leaving your mind

There is such a visceral horror already to me in the elves of Beleriand and Middle Earth who never wished to come to Valinor, who die whether through misfortune or violence, and who return to life only to be separated forever from their home.

And the sea longing is a quieter, more subtle and insidious strain of this horror

[blaze1616]

To me it's another example of Tolkien's wisdom, he just gets it. I see this in my father all the time. This year will be 50 years since he left his home, his friends, and his family to find a better life, knowing he wouldn't be able to return. Calling it a "distant echo never leaving your mind" is perfect. I see it in the way he doesn't talk of home without prodding. I see it in his eyes the times he does talk of home. The longing to see the streets, the fountains, the architecture, the two rivers. But he can't.

[jenechhka]

Little Galadriel ( or the memory of little Galadriel) in Alqualondë

[blaze1616]

OP you got me by the eyeballs. I LOVE this piece. Galadriel would have the gift of foresight, and her downcast eyes and melancholic face while frolicking on a beach suggest she knows some of the darkness her future holds, and this being in Alqualondë is all the more powerful.

[blaze1616]

The algorithm really weirded me out last night. I've been thinking a lot about Sisyphus lately due to work and health issues. But I've never said anything aloud, never mentioned it to anyone, never searched for any related terms, never wrote anything down. And yet somehow last night while scrolling YT there were a bunch of videos about Sisyphus being recommended. I genuinely cannot figure out how it knows.

[jewish-joy]

Last year, I befriended a Catholic seminarian. We've gotten to be pretty decent friends. Seeing as he was staying in town for the summer and I wasn't, I entrusted him with caring for my plant.

He did a wonderful job, but as he was returning my plant to my custody, he explained "I watered her every other day, I gave her new dirt, moved her into the sunshine, prayed the rosary-"

"What?"

He looked at me, confused. "Isn't she a plant you pray with?"

"No," I said slowly. "She's a prayer plant. That's the... colloquial name of the plant."

Upon seeing his stricken face, I realized something went wrong. Turns out, this entire time, he's been including my plant in on his prayers and leaving her near icons.

Listen, totally cool. My plant becoming Catholic is a great deal for her not dying over the summer. But now I must navigate this interfaith household. Keep me in your thoughts.

[jewish-joy]

#i love prayer plants but they're fussy so I don't keep them#can we have a picture op they're so pretty

Behold, Dorothea

(Naming my plant "Gift of God," and then giving her to a seminarian with just the explanation that it's a prayer plant? Okay, that's my bad.)

[jewish-joy]

I should also add- I ran into my rabbi and explained the situation. I then asked, earnestly, if there was a remedy. A mikveh of sorts, or a beit din, or something.

He turned to me, sighed, and said in a very deadpan tone-- "Plants don't have covenants, Joy,"

So Dorothea's a free agent according to rabbinic opinion. I guess I'll permit her to be Roman Catholic.

[stardusted-penguin]

I’d rather carry you.

•

Something about the ghosts of the 6th.

They make me so sick😭

A big thank you to Josh for typesetting this, rendering it and essentially making my silly little drawings look better than I could’ve made them. Please follow him on Twitter (@BeAstronomica1) and check out his work!

[pomegranatefae]

nona the ninth is a fucking roller coaster from start to finish. it's the third book in a series and it starts with three returning characters who were barely in book 2 and everyone else is new. It follows a gravity falls arc in tone, ie it starts as a slightly weird slice of life story and by the end they're fighting ancient eldritch abominations from actual hell, and not a moment in that transition feels out of place or jarring. our first impression of the main character is the list of people she wants at her birthday party and the first five names on the list are dogs. our last impression of her is some of the most heartbreaking dialogue ever written.

[goldensunset]

>‘this thing is too generic and tropey’

>look inside

>forefather of that genre

[firestorm09890]

[frankbelloriley]

[blaze1616]

How it feels talking about Tolkien a lot of the time. Even larger scope things, like a reddit post a few weeks ago asking about fantasy books that are in conversation with each other, but then didn't want to talk about Tolkien and it's just like...my guy open your eyes.