Welcome to Litsy!

My morning reading! (How many cups of coffee does it take to survive grad school? 😂)

with all my other work handed in, it‘s time to focus exclusively on dissertation stuff.

“Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.”

#QuotsyDec18 | 20: #Fairytales

?: Made with Typorama

I absolutely loved today's chapter 😍
I feel like Tolkien in talking about me when he describes the way we become fascinated with fantasy stories and l see the attitude of so many non-fantasy readers in those that things fairy stories are just fir children.

And l love his humour 😆
#YearOfTolkien #LotRChapterADay

Just had a great discussion with my fantasy lit class about the uses of fantasy in a world of tragedy and systematic oppression by pairing Tolkien & LeGuin's "Some Assumptions About Fantasy"! Not bad for the second day of class. ?

An interesting essay on Tolkien's own conception of fairy tales, their roles and relations in life and literature. How he reconciled his deeply-held belief in the function of myths and fairy tales with his own profound Christianity was a particular interesting aspect. An editorial essay on the development of the lecture rather than complete reproductions of the drafts would have been more effective, a common issue with posthumous Tolkien editions

😂😂 I'm not at all sure where 1940-5 come in, perhaps because something mocking the ArchB of C during wartime would likely be interpreted as particularly inappropriate and unpatriotic? Or a product of propaganda? Still made me giggle

I am so weak! All it took was one new book on Tolkien and I HAD to go and see what else I could find. @elkeo I blame you for the David Day volumes (Thank you!)

"Fantasy is, I think, not a lower but a higher form of Art, indeed the most nearly pure form, and so (when achieved) the most potent.
Fantasy, of course, starts out with an advantage: arresting strangeness. But that advantage has been turned against it, and has contributed to its disrepute. Many people dislike being 'arrested'. They dislike any meddling with the Primary World, or such small glimpses of it as are familiar to them."

The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.