Ask Anything: Answers (4)
Jan. 7th, 2024 04:03 pmMore responses from this post.
First, from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pattrose :
What is your favorite fandom and why?
Tolkien. Always has been, really, and I don't see it changing at this point. It's had a grip on me ever since I was tiny, and I first saw the Bakshi cartoon. That little film, weird as it was, grabbed at something inside me that nothing else since has been able to reach, and it hasn't let go. There's this quote by CS Lewis, which explains some of it, but those words could equally apply to Narnia, Doctor Who, and plenty of other fantasy/scifi canons. While I like - love! - lots of other books, films and shows, nothing else has had quite the same effect on me.
With Tolkien, I think - though I certainly wouldn't have had the words for it as a kid - the appeal is that the whole thing is primarily about grief, and loss, and the consolation and the very specific kind of hope that grows out of that. It was the idea of accepting that there are things in the world beyond our control, that you will lose things (friends; places; ways of life; the natural world itself) despite your best efforts, that everything won't necessarily be OK, but that you keep on in spite of that, and do what you can to make things better. You grieve for what's gone, and then you walk on as best you can, because it's the only thing to do.
Fromgrundyscribbling :
Favorite characters?
Maglor is the easy one! He's had a grip on my imagination since I first read the Silmarillion, when he wandered out of known canon and into the realm of fair imaginary game.
I love lots of characters, though. Most First Age Elves. The Hobbits. Weird cryptids like Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadil. Characters that only get a brief mention in an appendix somewhere, but it's so tantalising (Eärnur! Faramir son of Ondoher! Malbeth the Seer!) Characters that are just echoes of possibility, like the Lady of the Blue Brooch.
Beyond Tolkien, I love Amy March, Sydney Carton, Alucard and Hector from the Netflix Castlevania show, the Eleventh Doctor, Vanessa Ives (actually basically all the Penny Dreadful characters), Lady Mary Crawley, Charlotte Lucas, Spike from Cowboy Bebop...the complicated ones, the ones whose choices we don't always agree with, but nonetheless those choices feel true to them and what life has done to them.
And how are your pets doing?
Mostly pretty good!
Balto seems to be out the other side of his stroppy teenage shepherd phase and is back to being (mostly) a total delight. He's so much fun to train and work with - desperate to please, super smart, so loyal. He can still be spooky with people he doesn't know but that's fine. I don't love everyone the first time I meet them either.
Kaspar is his usual chaotic-mischievous self. He's getting a little stiff; he's 8 now, so into the senior years for his breed. We're taking him to a new vet soon who offers hydrotherapy, so we'll see how he goes on with that.
The bunnies - we lost our oldest boy, Quill, just before Christmas. His best pal Layla, our gorgeous Belgian Hare doe, promptly fell out in lumps with Thena, the other doe she was sharing with. So now we have Layla temporarily by herself, Thena and Loki (siblings, black Dutch x Conti) together, and Peggy (mini lop) Happy (Angora x lop) and Misty (chinchilla rex) in the big aviary and run. I think Thena got jealous, having to share her brother with another doe, so now we're trying play dates for the trio and Layla to see if we might be able to bond them into a quad. I'm not super keen to go for one big group again as Thena's health is a little precarious (another reason why she can be rather grumpy) and our vet won't board more than 4 rabbits in a group, so if she needs to go in overnight for anything, we'd have to split the group up and then start the bonding all over.
If we really can't get Layla to take to the trio then we will look at rehoming another bun to bond with her, but I would prefer it if we didn't have to go that route. We never planned to have seven rabbits in the first place. It just sort of...happened.
We also have a small aquarium now, home to a betta named Curufin and a snail named Brian. And we almost ended up rehoming a gerbil recently, but decided against it. Kaspar just about copes with the rabbits, but something that to all intents and purposes looks like it should be his dinner would, I think, be challenging to manage.
Fromhhimring :
Maybe talk a little bit about Hidden Paths?
<3
Hidden Paths is an annual event that I run to celebrate the smaller (i.e. non-Middle-earth) Tolkien canons. It's deliberately low key; I post two sets of optional prompts during the event, but creators are welcome to make anything they like, as long as one of the small Tolkien canons plays a significant role.
I started running it last year, mostly because I've wanted an event dedicated to the smaller Tolkien canons for some time. Plenty of other events allow and even encourage content for these canons, but matching on them is challenging. I didn't want to run the event as an exchange because I didn't want people to feel pressured and nor did I want to give myself a heap of admin work, hence the loose format and lack of minimum requirements for the event.
The Tumblr promo post this year has been reblogged much more than last year, so fingers crossed for plenty new fanworks. In the meantime, the AO3 collection (which is always open) is here if anyone wants to browse or add something.
First, from
pattrose :What is your favorite fandom and why?
Tolkien. Always has been, really, and I don't see it changing at this point. It's had a grip on me ever since I was tiny, and I first saw the Bakshi cartoon. That little film, weird as it was, grabbed at something inside me that nothing else since has been able to reach, and it hasn't let go. There's this quote by CS Lewis, which explains some of it, but those words could equally apply to Narnia, Doctor Who, and plenty of other fantasy/scifi canons. While I like - love! - lots of other books, films and shows, nothing else has had quite the same effect on me.
With Tolkien, I think - though I certainly wouldn't have had the words for it as a kid - the appeal is that the whole thing is primarily about grief, and loss, and the consolation and the very specific kind of hope that grows out of that. It was the idea of accepting that there are things in the world beyond our control, that you will lose things (friends; places; ways of life; the natural world itself) despite your best efforts, that everything won't necessarily be OK, but that you keep on in spite of that, and do what you can to make things better. You grieve for what's gone, and then you walk on as best you can, because it's the only thing to do.
From
grundyscribbling :Favorite characters?
Maglor is the easy one! He's had a grip on my imagination since I first read the Silmarillion, when he wandered out of known canon and into the realm of fair imaginary game.
I love lots of characters, though. Most First Age Elves. The Hobbits. Weird cryptids like Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadil. Characters that only get a brief mention in an appendix somewhere, but it's so tantalising (Eärnur! Faramir son of Ondoher! Malbeth the Seer!) Characters that are just echoes of possibility, like the Lady of the Blue Brooch.
Beyond Tolkien, I love Amy March, Sydney Carton, Alucard and Hector from the Netflix Castlevania show, the Eleventh Doctor, Vanessa Ives (actually basically all the Penny Dreadful characters), Lady Mary Crawley, Charlotte Lucas, Spike from Cowboy Bebop...the complicated ones, the ones whose choices we don't always agree with, but nonetheless those choices feel true to them and what life has done to them.
And how are your pets doing?
Mostly pretty good!
Balto seems to be out the other side of his stroppy teenage shepherd phase and is back to being (mostly) a total delight. He's so much fun to train and work with - desperate to please, super smart, so loyal. He can still be spooky with people he doesn't know but that's fine. I don't love everyone the first time I meet them either.
Kaspar is his usual chaotic-mischievous self. He's getting a little stiff; he's 8 now, so into the senior years for his breed. We're taking him to a new vet soon who offers hydrotherapy, so we'll see how he goes on with that.
The bunnies - we lost our oldest boy, Quill, just before Christmas. His best pal Layla, our gorgeous Belgian Hare doe, promptly fell out in lumps with Thena, the other doe she was sharing with. So now we have Layla temporarily by herself, Thena and Loki (siblings, black Dutch x Conti) together, and Peggy (mini lop) Happy (Angora x lop) and Misty (chinchilla rex) in the big aviary and run. I think Thena got jealous, having to share her brother with another doe, so now we're trying play dates for the trio and Layla to see if we might be able to bond them into a quad. I'm not super keen to go for one big group again as Thena's health is a little precarious (another reason why she can be rather grumpy) and our vet won't board more than 4 rabbits in a group, so if she needs to go in overnight for anything, we'd have to split the group up and then start the bonding all over.
If we really can't get Layla to take to the trio then we will look at rehoming another bun to bond with her, but I would prefer it if we didn't have to go that route. We never planned to have seven rabbits in the first place. It just sort of...happened.
We also have a small aquarium now, home to a betta named Curufin and a snail named Brian. And we almost ended up rehoming a gerbil recently, but decided against it. Kaspar just about copes with the rabbits, but something that to all intents and purposes looks like it should be his dinner would, I think, be challenging to manage.
From
hhimring :Maybe talk a little bit about Hidden Paths?
<3
Hidden Paths is an annual event that I run to celebrate the smaller (i.e. non-Middle-earth) Tolkien canons. It's deliberately low key; I post two sets of optional prompts during the event, but creators are welcome to make anything they like, as long as one of the small Tolkien canons plays a significant role.
I started running it last year, mostly because I've wanted an event dedicated to the smaller Tolkien canons for some time. Plenty of other events allow and even encourage content for these canons, but matching on them is challenging. I didn't want to run the event as an exchange because I didn't want people to feel pressured and nor did I want to give myself a heap of admin work, hence the loose format and lack of minimum requirements for the event.
The Tumblr promo post this year has been reblogged much more than last year, so fingers crossed for plenty new fanworks. In the meantime, the AO3 collection (which is always open) is here if anyone wants to browse or add something.
