It’s the third day of Christmas, the feast day of St. John the Apostle–patron of authors and publishers–and a good day to sit around the common room, drink some spiced pumpkin juice, and contemplate magical things. To start, we have Christie over at Spinning Straw into Gold posting about Father Christmas as Fairy Tale:
[St. Nick's story] is a fairy tale. Or a folk tale, if you prefer. Many elements of a fairy/folk tale are present: an ordinary person called to do or be something extraordinary; a journey, whether symbolic or literal; dealings with faeries (elves); reward and justice; the sense of mystery or more questions left than answers. Here is a figure as universal but specific as Baba Yaga.
Going on with news and commentary:
King’s Cross Station has now opened a little official Harry Potter memorabilia shop at Platform 9 3/4.
Jon Michaud over at the New Yorker argues that The Hobbit is a better book than The Lord of the Rings.
The Atlantic’s Noah Berlatsky condemns the portrayal of violence in Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit: “The Hobbit’s gory battles don’t just pad out its run-time. They contradict the story’s message about mercy.”
I haven’t watched this yet, owing to extreme holiday busyness, but China Miéville’s explanation of ‘why science fiction is not superior to fantasy‘ will almost certainly interest me. The usual arguments about what exactly constitutes and divides those intricately related genres follow in the comments on the linked post.
A never-before-known tale written by Hans Christian Andersen has been recently unearthed. The tale can be read in English here.
HuffPo has a post on celebrities who have modeled for book covers.
In numerical lists: 20 amazing Tolkien-inspired tattoos and 10 songs inspired by books–the latter of which, however, does not include any of the wrocking wonderfulness that has come since Harry and the Potters laid down the track for “Save Ginny Weasley”.
Lastly, for some further Christmassy cheer: famous authors playing in the snow.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The article on violence in The Hobbit film is interesting. I think I agree- to a point. There’s a good observation in there about the dwarves (mainly Thorin) accepting Bilbo only once he’s proven he can be a warrior. But the scene where Bilbo refrains from killing Gollum is not overshadowed by the Goblin/Dwarf fighting scene, but can be seen as more of a contrast to it. I also think we might see more “mercy moments” in the upcoming films.
P.S. On a different note- the tree of Gondor in white ink is a very cool idea! I’ve got one Tolkien tattoo, but I just might consider getting that if I were to ever get another one…
I still have yet to see The Hobbit, so don’t have the experience to make much comment other than that I could see the Bilbo/Gollum moment working as you say. Though the likelihood of much violence, the precedent for which I remember all too well from the Lord of the Rings, is one of the things damping my enthusiasm about getting down to the theater. (I don’t handle gore well.
) There are certainly some good opportunities for mercy moments in the future installments, however.
The tree of Gondor in white ink was my favorite of those! I’ve never tattooed, but if I were into it I’d be all over that one.