(no subject)

[dragonlady7]

I was going to complain about a song that was mysteriously stuck in my head, but it has gone on its own and I am now terrified to speak its name for fear that it will come back. I used to not fear the earworms, as I always had my iPod with me, but now at work I can't exactly wear it, and there's no music playing at work, only TV (though I am tempted to bring in a radio on Sundays and listen to the public radio's Blues day), so earworms are potentially fatal for those six to nine hours.
But it's been replaced with a Fiona Apple song, so all is well.

Am still pouting over my lack of fetish gear. Also, the fact that Dave used to go to clubs and things before he knew me but now that I'm here and interested, he isn't. Pout. Lots of pouting. Which is just as well, as it's a dark and rainy day and I haven't bothered putting the lights on. So I'm pouting in the dark. And just sort of pouting to myself. I think it's good exercise for the facial muscles.

I have done Internet research on the essays in HoMe that I haven't managed to read yet. If I had discretionary income, not only would I have fetish gear, but also Peoples of Middle-earth and Morgoth's Ring, as those win out for number of things in them everyone tells me I must read. But. My discretionary income is stretched to the limit by my decision this morning that I couldn't live without 50 user icons and so I gave Livejournal six more dollars. Six dollars! I know. What was I thinking? I'm a wild child.

Dave got his cool car adapter for his cellphone and has busted apart the dashboard to install it only to discover that Toyota has proprietary stereo connectors and he's going to have to get adaptors for it. Which is a pain, as it means he has to put the dashboard back together to go get them so he can take them apart again. And it's stupid, Toyota, stupid. But anyway. It'll be cool, once it works, I'm sure, although he's going to stop needing a car adapter in another two weeks, but we won't get into that, because he's happy with his purchase and it was his money after all and he let me keep the extra thirty dollars which just about covers the Indigenous show except for the gas and food. Whee!

I have some three hours before work and am considering a lengthy sojourn in Valinor this time. The Elves are much more interesting than my money woes.

Shit. The song's back. Bastards! I shake my fist at eighties dance-pop.

Comments

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

Hi!

I just red your fan fic Cool Waters (you posted link at Claudio's journal). Very good story :)

I haven't red The Book of Lost Tales, yet, just red Gondolin's fall summary in someone's essay. Now I have a vision of Ecthelion's death and what the events might have looked like. You pictured the situation well, with emotions and images, I could almost see Ecthelion's flying hair and pale face before he and balrog fell into the fountain... Following Glorfindel's vision of drowning in peace and silence - as I would call it - was also great. It was nice to see Gondolin with his eyes, even in such sad circumstances. Great job!

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Thanks!
*blushes* I was just SSPing to him; I didn't even think about other people reading the comments. *feels yet more shameless. but not really guilty.*

The Fall of Gondolin is in Lost Tales 2, and is an interesting read, but do bear in mind that it's one of the first things Tolkien wrote, so it contains a lot of weird archaisms, and things he later changed. There's a lot of stylized tense-switching, and oh yes-- the Noldor are referred to as Gnomes.
So, part of my desire to write CW was because the Fall is in such an odd and difficult style, and i wanted to tell the story in a way so that the style wouldn't be distracting. (Don't get me wrong, the Fall as written works very well for me-- but that's because I like weird archaic language and am frankly a bit of a wanker.)
Here's an excerpt. Spoilers, but if you read CW you know already.

But now the men of Melko have assembled their forces, and seven dragons of fire are come with Orcs about them and Balrogs upon them down all the ways from north, east, and west, seeking the Square of the King. Then there was carnage at the barriers, and Egalmoth and Tuor went from place to place of the defence, but Ecthelion lay by the fountain; and that stand was the most stubborn-valiant that is remembered in all the songs or in any tale. Yet at long last a drake bursts the barrier to the north-- and there had once been the issue of the Alley of Roses and a fair place to see or walk in, but now there is but a lane of blackness and it is filled with noise.
Tuor stood then in the way of that beast, but was sundered from Egalmoth, and they pressed him backward even to the centre of the square nigh the fountain. There he became weary from the strangling heat and was beaten down by a great demon, even Gothmog lord of Balrogs, son of Melko. But lo! Ecthelion, whose face was of the pallor of grey steel and whose shield-arm hung limp at his side, strode above him as he fell; and that Gnome drave at that demon, yet did not give him his death, getting rather a wound to his sword-arm that his weapon left his grasp. Then leapt Ecthelion lord of the Fountain, fairest of the Noldoli, full at Gothmog even as he raised his whip, and his help that had a spike on it he drave into that evil breast, and he twined his legs about his foeman's thighs; and the Balrog yelled and fell forward; but those two dropped into the basin of the king's fountain which was very deep. There found that creature his bane; and Ecthelion sank steel-laden into the depths, and so perished the lord of the Fountain after fiery battle in cool waters.

(p. 183-84, Lost Tales 2)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Er, typo: "his helm that had a spike on it", not "help".

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the quotation! :) There are no spoilers here since I knew already before that Ecthelion dies. Now I know details 8)

*blushes* I was just SSPing to him; I didn't even think about other people reading the comments. *feels yet more shameless. but not really guilty.*

Than perhaps it is my turn to blush, for I always read what others said on a subject I find interesting. Just like on a discussion board. I guess it is nothing bad as LJ is a public site, but I don't know well the customs here. I'm more accustomed to Deviant Art and feel free to red there whatever I want. As people at DA do and are always happy to receive a comment.
But there is a difference - DA wasn't meant to be a net diary, as I understand LJ was. Even if it evolved to pbem RPG groups and other kind of role playing here. And there is no 'friends only' case at DA. Maybe because DA rules don't allow for some kinds of mature content and always you can note moderators if someone tries to abuse you. No anonymous comments there. It looks like there was so much flaming here that people were forced to close their journals, fan fics writers, at least :/

So I hope it was not insult from my side that I've red your discussion with Claudio about writing fics? I just treat LJ as a kind of message board and generally look for fan fiction and Tolkien related themes, sometimes read more of people I find interesting. It's not DA so I usually don't comment at unknown people's journals (ah, almost everyone is unknown on the net ;) ). But I want to when I find an author who's fiction I appreciate.

Small question - what does it mean 'SSPing'? I'm not native speaker and don't understand all net shortenings ;)

And the same reason it is not so easy for me to read the Lost Tales. I've got some essays in txt format and tried to read it - Of coming of elves for example. I didn't get what was going on when I've red of gnomes O_o Later I found they were elves ;) But understanding this text was really hard for me and I gave it up for some time.

I made a mistake a few years ago when LT were published in Polish and it was easy to buy. I thought I'll buy the book later. Mistake. LT disappeared and was never issued again (I've heard of some problems with Tolkien Estate, they don't like HoME to be translated; Spain is the only lucky country with translation of it). I was searching for the original books in some shops with foreign literature but no complete HoME there, in one place I can order LT only. But I want the last 3 volumes :( Perhaps I need to go shopping to the other city or to Germany - I leave near border. I can't order at Amazon or other net store, have no credit card. So you have problem with HoME for 6$ spent on LJ and I with finding a book at all. ;)

But I'm patient with it for I learn a lot from essays on net and in discussions with other maniacs on Tolkien boards. That's fantastic when people read for example Ósanwe-kenta and then explain it to you :)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Oh, I read all comment threads on entries I find interesting. If the journal owner doesn't want them public it's easy enough to screen them, so if they're visible, it's OK to read them. I just didn't expect anyone else to be interested, is what I was saying. ^.^ I'm being falsely modest.
Oh-- SSP is Shameless Self-Promotion. In old fanfic mailing lists people would write SSP to denote that they were announcing a fic they'd written-- it meant that if you weren't interested in reading self-promotional posts, you could easily skip it, but if you were looking for new things to read, you could look for the SSP tag. It's one of those things. I personally wish my friends would Shamelessly Self-Promote a bit more-- there are people on my friendslists who write under other usernames and after months I haven't even realized that there are lovely stories by them I'd adore to read and don't know about. Me, I'm pretty shameless in general.

I've been on Livejournal since 2001 and I am a bit old-fashioned in that my journal is primarily just that, a diary. But no matter where you go on the Internet, fandoms will have wank and flaming, and that's just how it is. I haven't had much of that in my journal because it's just a journal.

Oh yes, the language of Tolkien's posthumously-published stuff is all terribly difficult. i can't imagine working through it. I mean, even the Hobbit and LotR have archaisms left and right-- I was 10 when I read the hobbit and had to look up and find out what smote, smite, smitten was, and clove, cleave, cloven-- and he meant that to be a children's book. Eep. That's what you get when professors of Old English write recreationally.

I admit that I've only read bits of HoMe and have found them, mostly, not to be worth owning. But it is so difficult to write fanfiction when you can't check all your details. Bleah.
And that sucks, that they're not translating them.

What might help is searching on Amazon and finding the ISBN # for the books you want, and then going to a bookstore and having them order the book-- I think a bookstore would do that for you. It would most likely be more productive than forlornly poking through the shelves.

I have to admit that a great deal of my knowledge of the Silm and HoMe has come not from reading the books, which are almost impossible to digest, but from reading the essays of others on the topics raised by the books. The important thing is making sure you understand what's canon and what the fanfic/essay authors have improvised themselves. I do have a bit of trouble with that.

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

Fortunately I had no problems with TH and LotR language, translation was really good and even it was old language, it was easy to follow :) Boredom catching me from time to time might be the only enemy... But a friend told me that she really fell in love with LotR when she started reading the original version. Perhaps I'll try one day but not now. I'm not that interested in LotR I prefer TS. I have it in original and it's quite easy to understand what's going on for I remember most of events ;) And with HoME - I think the last 3 volumes are worth owning, but I'm just Silm freak and they're sort of Silm extended ;)

Essays are great source of knowledge but there is a danger also - if the essay's author is wrong and you can't check it since you don't know the source text. Fortunately I already know some trustworthy people :)

So be more SSP and tell me of your Viking novel - is it somewhere on net to read? This is historical or fantasy? I like the topic and I'm interested in Nordic mythology (and in mythologies at all). If you want to see I've got on my homepage pictures from the international Viking Festival in Wolin 2002 (called Jomsborg or Wineta in middle ages) and a few sound samples of Gny and Fidelius who played medieval music there - all. *checking out the url* No, you can't see it now, the page is not working again, it's on an old, bad server :/ *sigh* But it's also my friend's server, easier to do anything if I need admin's help. Server works or goes down randomly, so try it anyway - Forgotten Isle (http://www.isle.px.pl/index_eng.htm) - Vikings are in the gallery (text is in Polish, but pictures tell you all ;) ).

Then I will SSP also - as you're the experienced author and native speaker you may tell me not only if you like a story but also about it's language. I translated it myself, than sent it to a friend who corrected it and then I sent it to another who corrected again. But someone told me that it would sound better without all the 'he/him/etc.' used too often. I agree, for I avoided to use them in original, but I wasn't sure if it would be possible to understand without them in English. So if you'll have time take a look at my The First Snow - at DA (http://www.deviantart.com/view/15203069/) (version with an image) or FF.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2265388/1/), it's very short vignette, notes are longer than the story itself ;) [ Winter morning in Himring, the siege of Angband time. Maedhros'es POV]

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I've had this window open forever and have never gotten around to responding to the comment. :)

My viking novel is on my lj in my memories (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=dragonlady7&keyword=Vikings+Novel&filter=all)-- but it needs to be totally re-revised again (again! ugh) before I can get past ch. 7 again. Meh!

Oh my, yes, Vikings (your site was working)-- that looks like fun!! My parents were into historical reenactment when they met-- but their historical stuff was the American Revolution. I want to do Viking reenactments! That'd be awesome.

I liked your first snow story. The language is a little awkward in a few places, but I didn't have any problems with the pronouns (he/him/etc), and nothing was too terribly weird or incorrect or anything. Still, I do understand how difficult translation is-- I took a class once where the professor told us of a medieval myth that most translators accept as a suitable metaphor for translating.
The myth goes that there's this man who takes a faery wife, and she gives him a choice: either she can be ugly but a good and faithful wife, or she can be beautiful-- but unfaithful. And that is the choice translators face with their works: Either they can be faithful-- and ugly, or they can be beautiful-- but unfaithful. And it's very hard to choose. I've only done a little bit of translation, and I swear I wept blood most of the time because understanding the original was so precious, and what I wrote of my understanding was so very, very dull and ugly.

[sirielle.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading :) I hope the language is not too awkward.

The metaphor is really good. Rarely it happens that you can have both but usually something is missing during translation - or opposite, the translation becomes richer :)

The site works, it has been moved to better server now, I hope the troubles are over.
And I hope to go see Vikings this summer, too :D An hour and half by train and I'll be in medieval village full of warriors and maidens ;)
The festival have been arranged in Wolin for a few years, about ten, I just discovered it late. Uh, but better late than never ;)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

> not too awkward

Not at all. It reads nicely.

> metaphor is really good

Wiser folk than I came up with it.

> Vikings this summer

Sigh. I am not sure where Wolin is, but I know for darn sure it's not a day trip for me. :)

All that she wants is another baby.

[(Anonymous)]

OK, this weekend we'll go to the Continental and you can wear whatever corsets you want and your seamed stockings and black eyeliner and we can drink Kleiner Feigling and listen to Depeche Mode and dance with ourselves in the mirrors and a good time will be had by all.

Any other Buffalonians here want to come out with us and Goth out hardcore? It's fun! The Continental is, actually, a pretty fun and extremely chill for Chippewa.


- Z

Re: All that she wants is another baby.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Really? Really truly???
WHEEEE!!!!

... But I don't have any Goth corsets because I didn't buy one. :(

And you'd have to be in costume too! At least eyeliner. Please?

Kleiner Feigling yay!

Re: All that she wants is another baby.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeh, I'll wear busted-up fishnet stockings on my arms and clip twenty-five yards of chain to my excessively baggy pants. But you cannot make me get pierced, and you cannot make me listen to Tool.

- Z

Re: All that she wants is another baby.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

1) You would look dumb pierced.
2) I have fishnet-stocking gloves from a long ago Halloween costume.
3) Tool: Not bad, but only tools listen to Tool, and that's really just how it goes.

[elvses.livejournal.com]

Check for used HoME volumes on Amazon. I picked up a copy of Sauron Defeated for $8.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

You're probably right. But it really ought to wait until I've got a bit more dough; am still v. guilty over the $6 Livejournal purchase.

But excellent suggestion.