#tolkien op eds

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Constantly thinking about her* 😔 Constantly thinking about him** 😔😔

*the Hobbit movies Guillermo del Toro might have made

**Adam Brown's Bilbo

#my moms in a mood so we're watching the appendices yet again #disgruntled octopus #tolkien op eds

[wutbju]

Did you catch this kerfuffle?

BJU Class of 1999, Timothy Scheiderer wrote an op-ed on Fox News trashing Wheaton as guilty of the crimes of teaching critical race theory and gender fluidity. He says:

But recently, the school in the leafy suburb west of Chicago has begun to mimic Harvard’s wokeness. Banning biblical words, teaching critical race theory, and psychologizing gender identity issues may not seem extreme in modern academia. But for a school which houses the works of Rev. Graham, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, it is adrift from its orthodox, Christian moorings. But this isn’t a recent drift. In the 2000s, the education department commended the teachings of Marxists. In 2016, 78 faculty members voiced support for a fellow professor who stated Christians and Muslims worship the same God. And five years later, the school held its first ceremony recognizing graduating minority students sans White students. And currently, Wheaton permits its professors to teach critical race theory. 

Good grief.

He ends with a real winner:

In light of these shifts away from the Bible, would Billy Graham, the most influential 20th-century evangelical, endorse his alma mater? In the 19th century, Harvard was slowly, and permanently, transformed from a Christian university into a secular one. Belief in a trinitarian God was eventually toppled by in vogue philosophies. At Wheaton, the biblical belief in only two sexes is being tainted. With this and the other shifts mentioned, it may seem like a slow drift. But a gentle tide can carry a boat far from its dock.

Slippery slope anyone?

#Bob Jones University #Wheaton College #Tim Scheiderer #Maryville #Ohio #Class of 1999 #Proof is in the Product

[leam1983]

Rings of Power: Electric Boogaloo

My Google News feed just pushed me an op-ed by some idiot who claims that The Rings of Power is an affront to Tolkien's "profoundly Christian" values.

Oh no, Black Hobbits and Dwarves, whatever shall we do?!

Here's a kind bit of advice to anyone who's objecting to this on the grounds of moral purity: go back to sucking Lewis' dick, it's a much better look for you.

No, it's still not a great show, but op-eds like this push me into a Devil's Advocate situation, and make me hope we'll see at least one implied lesbian couple in The Rings of Power.

The Conservabro Nerd Rage would be legendary, and I'd wring my hands Mister Burns style the whole way through.

#the rings of power

[hate-the-am-hate-the-pm]

previously: kaitogeijutsu

for myself:

-> #private: thing for myself i wanna remember

-> #personal: anything related to me or anything i want to keep for some reason

-> #stories: self explanatory

-> #e: miscellaneous stuff hfjwhdjd

-> #classic posts: classics lmao

-> #beatdown: when people are just getting absolutely beatdown in arguments its funny or just something/someone getting a beatdown

-> #life: just. yknow. stuff abt being alive and making life as good as you can and enjoying yourseld ans loving yourself and loving others and yknow living

-> #long post: looooong boy posts heh

-> #nsfw: anythin nsfw

-> #heritage posts: heritage posts fjjsjd

law and political stuff:

-> #law: stuff related to law

-> #court: stuff related to court

-> #politics(?): stuff i think??? is sorta related to politics maybe??

books/show/anything else literary:

-> #sherlock holmes: sherlock holmes stuff

-> #writing: stuff that's original work or something

-> #analysis: analysis stuff, jokey or otherwise

-> #poetry and quotes: self explanatory

-> #oda: anythin related to oda that isn't really like really really related to one piece

#op: ONE PIECE STUFF! i love one piece with such a burning passion but yes anything one piece related

#strawhats: the strawhats fjjdkfkqkq or anyone in the strawhats

#heart pirates: anythin heart pirates related

-> #honor among thieves, #dndhat, #hat, #dnd movie: the dnd honor among thieves movie stuff jdnakkdjs

#xenk yendar, #xenk: anything related to this hot ass paladin that i love with my whole entire being my gods

#edgin darvis, #edgin, #ed: edgin my beloved bard??? rogue??????? anyways he's somethin alright

#kira darvis, #kira: the child

#holga kilgore, #holga: gods ifbkadjskjdkfjwkjsjfjwjsj hot mommy

#doric: MY BELOVED TIEFLING DRUID JRJSKDJDKA

#simon aumar, #simon: simon hehe

-> #marvel: marvel stuff

#spiderman: anythin spiderman related

#atsv: across the spiderverse stuff

#hobie brown, #hobie, #spiderpunk: HOBIE BROWN MY BELOVED MY ANARCHIST MY EVERYTHINGJDKSKDD

#miguel o'hara, #miguel, #spiderman2099: the truamatized old latino man that i am absolutely feral for

#miles morales, #miles: miles sweetheart i love him hes so bby

#gwen stacy, #gwen: gwen the drummer my beloved also

#pavitr prabhakar, #pavitr, #pav: pav my bby boy i loooove him heheh

#miles 42, #prowler: MILES 42 HHDKSKDJE I LOVE LOVE LOVE

#peter b. parker, #peter: tired man whos' sexual appeal i get cause he be hot man😩

#mayday parker, #mayday: MAYDAY BBY SHES SO TEENSY SO CUTE MY BBY ARAÑA

#mj watson, #mj: my wife.

#spidernoir: my malewife.

#peni parker, peni: sweetest girl, she deserves the world

-> #cod: anythin call of duty

#price, #john price, #captain price: anythin price relateddd

#soap, #john mactavish, #johnny: johnnyyyyyy my bby

#ghost, #simon riley: ghost my mofo beloved gods id die for him

#gaz, #kyle garrick: the prettiest fuckin man i've done laid eyes on

-> #dc: dc stuff!!!

#batman: the batman stuff or batman comics stuff so also the robins and shit

#robin: robin stuff!

#superman: superman stuff!!

#wonder woman: the queen the absolute boss the best the man the myth the legend wonder womannnnn

-> #tolkien: anythin tolkien related that isn't really lotr or the hobbit (or i cant tell which is which jdkadfkak)

#lotr: lord of the rings

#aragon elessar, #aragorn -> aragorn

#gimli -> gimli

#legolas greenleaf, #legolas -> legolas

#thranduil oropherion, #thranduil -> thranduil

#the hobbit: the hobbit

#bard -> bard omg i love the man hes so fjqbkdndnd

#kili -> kili my sweetheart my beloved

#legolas greenleaf, #legolas -> legolas

#thorin oakenshield, #thorin -> thorin

#thranduil oropherion, #thranduil -> thranduil

-> #lok: legend of korra

#asami -> asami sato

-> #star wars: star wars duh

#anakins -> the anakins

-> #classic lit: literature considered classics ig

#shakespeare -> shakespeare?? obv??

-> #fanfics: fanfic stuff fjandj

-> #mythology: mythology

#greek myths -> greek mythology/stories

#aztec myths -> aztec mythology/stories

#mayan myths -> mayan mythology/stories

#egyptian myths -> egyptian mythology/stories

#norse myths -> norse mythology/stories

-> #movies: any movies, films, short films

-> #drama: anything drama related (think like live stage productions)

-> #musicals: musical related stuff!!

-> #anime: anything anime hfjajdj

-> #comics: anything comic related honestlt

-> #books: books! all kinds any kinds!

anthropology/archaeology/paleontology/other sciences and history:

-> #environment: stuff related to earth, the sun, positionings, nature, etc etc.

#ocean: anything ocean-related or ocean-based

#forest: anything forest-related or forest-based

#air; anything air-related or air-based

#earth: just everything nature in general

-> #animals: animals but like informative and like cool facts and stuff

-> #aminals: animals but like the dump posts not infortmative jdjahd

-> #plants: plants fkhajsja

-> #prehistoric creatures: self explanatory

#dinosaurs: DINOS!!!

-> #humans: self explanatory

-> #paleo: paleontology stuffsssss

-> #anthro: also human stuff but recent

-> #archaeo: human stuff but like looooong ago

-> #bio: biology stuff

-> #astronomy: planets! stars! more stars! galaxies!

-> #invasive species: invasive species!

-> #history: more modern history of science and so like archeo/paleo and others but... like... younger

-> #social issues: just stuff going on around the world and issues that've happened and also anything related to that

-> environmental issues: issues that involve the environment and stuff

-> #languages: languages! and posts that involve the use of languages!

-> #religion: anything about/on religion

-> #science: literally just anything science related jdksjf

arts:

-> #art: just art stuff

#modern art, #contemporary art -> modern art

#classic art -> art from like other periods in time like the renaissance and stuff

#my art -> my art if i ever post it

-> #music: anythin music related

-> #fashion: fashion stuff! includes dresses, suits, etc. but also jewelery!

games:

-> #ttrpg: tabletop rpg stuff!

#dm, #gm: dungeon/game master stuff (tips and tricks)

#campaigns: campaigns! all types!

#dnd: dnd related stuff

#pf: pathfinder related stuff

sports:

-> #sports: sports stuff

#vball: anythin volleyball related

#bball: anythin bball related

resources for stuff:

-> #resources: resources (art, history, etc.)

[lie-where-i-land]

The opinion pieces are hot off the presses this morning, so I have some more words for you all.

You cannot separate the transphobia that bred this discourse from the conversation taking place. It is impossible. Trans people’s fear of tangible and real-world violence and discrimination is what has led us to have this conversation.

There is no witch hunt, there is no petty personal grievance. Trans people, including myself, are taking the time to explain paragraph by paragraph for you why these defenses of a transphobe do not hold water.

That is the conversation. We are talking about transphobia. We are talking about the transphobia of tolkien bloggers. We are talking about it publicly.

Where should we have resolved this? Privately? I imagine everyone would have preferred to sort this in a manner that drew less attention. I fully believe that private disputes should be resolved privately.

Transphobia is not a private crime. Trans people are not private victims. We are discussing it in public because it is already happening in public.

How do you prefer we discuss it publicly?

Without names? (Names of transphobes)

Without screenshots? (Screenshots of transphobic words)

We are replying directly and with evidence so that no argument can be made over what is true or false. We are replying directly so we might point out the specific instance of transphobia and define it.

I think that’s vastly preferable to the trite little op-ed posts mischaracterizing a score of trans people as bitter gossip-mongers.

#mainecoon76 #nimium amatrix ingenii sui

[hadtochangemyurlquick]

can u write more leachel please

no but i can fuck ur bitch

Leah’s first public reading was not packed. Of course, the seven of them all filed into front row seats and of course her parents, grandparents, Ian, and most of her teachers were scattered throughout the audience. Even Emily, her friend from middle school who she hadn’t really talked to since she went to private school, showed up. It was a sweet gesture but beyond the people who knew Leah personally, only around fifty or so were actual fans. It was fine and Leah did an amazing talk and afterwards Rachel slapped her hand against her thigh, wishing she could actually clap.

Leah’s tenth public reading was standing room only.

The National book festival was held once a year in DC and while there were two panels Leah was put on, they also asked her to do her own talk because she had a new book coming out. It’d been called by the New York Times book review “the most anticipated book of the year!” And Rachel had only been allowed to read the first draft of the first chapter, which was slightly killing her. But her girlfriend had a process, even if that process was to solely talk to Nora about it. Nora and sometimes Toni.

When Leah walked onto the slightly raised platform the entire room erupted into applause. It was a standing ovation and Leah looked beautiful and also incredibly embarrassed. Her eyes found Rachel’s immediately and they were so fucking intense, Rachel just wanted her to keep looking at her forever. Forever and a half.

“Wow,” Leah began when she reached her microphone. “I haven’t even said anything yet.” There was laughter, more cheers, gradually people sat down. “Thank you all for coming, I know there’s some pretty amazing panels going on right now. There’s still time to go to Roxanne Gay’s talk, it’s a few rooms down.”

More laughter, more cheers, a “We love you Leah Rilke!”

Rachel shook her head, smiling. Leah could pretend all she wanted, but Rachel saw what was happening. The entire world was slowly coming to life under her touch. The English language was being shaped to fit Leah Rilke.

Every think piece, ever op-ed, every review, mentioned the words Leah Rilke somewhere in there. Every teenage girl was talking about her like they’d talk about the Bible. TV studios and movie execs sat in rooms and discussed about how they could capture her writing style. Publishing houses wanted to find their very own Leah Rilke. Tattoo artists were adding to their pre drawn collections symbols from her books.

It was happening slowly, a little at a time, but time happened all at once. And history textbooks were being printed in Texas for the year 2032 that had an entire chapter about Leah Rilke.

The world was changing, and for the next half-century it’d be one where Leah Rilke was alive. And after, it’d be one where everyone was looking for the next Leah Rilke, however futile.

Leah didn’t see it, but Rachel could. And Nora. They talked about it sometimes, when a Dolly Parton song came on or Tolkien happened to come up in conversation.

“I’m not really afraid of public speaking,” Leah continued. “But can you all look somewhere else for a minute? I just need a break, I feel like you all are staring.”

There was more laughter and Rachel felt her phone buzz. Her eyebrow furrowed and she ignored it, instead focusing on the woman wearing her engagement ring.

It’d taken her a minute to propose, insecurities thriving with Leah off giving talks or going to conventions like this one. In a big empty house it wasn’t hard to feel less than, especially with one hand.

It’d been Dot who talked sense into her. Dot surprisingly sensible when she herself had eloped with Fatin, annulled it, and eloped again.

“Okay,” Dot said. “Maybe she’s too good for you. So what? She doesn’t know that.”

“Exactly,” Rachel said. “That’s my fucking point. She’s gonna find someone better and realize that I’m just… me.”

“Yeah,” Dot nodded.

Rachel glared at her. “You aren’t making me feel better.”

“I’m not Fatin, or Shelby, or Martha.”

“I know that,” Rachel said.

“It sounds like you wanna marry her,” Dot said. “So fuckin’ marry her. Then she won’t be able to fuck off with someone else.”

“But I want her to be happy,” Rachel said.

“So fuckin’ make her happy,” Dot said. “I don’t get what the fuckin’ problem is.”

So she proposed. Leah said yes immediately, not even a moment of hesitation, and they were planning a small wedding with a rabbi they both knew and a Huppa but not a Ketubah. Some sort of halfway for the both of them.

Rachel’s phone buzzed again and she turned it off, slipping it in her backpack to focus on Leah.

“This is probably the hardest book I’ve ever written. Not because its deeply personal or anything, just because I had to do so much research for it,” Leah said. “I even had to dedicate it to my sister in law because she spent hours with me looking at flight patterns and chess strategies. Do you guys know how many different kind of tulips there are? I can’t say I don’t understand the dutch a little better now.”

Nora squeezed her wrist and she looked over at her. Shelby caught her eye from beside Nora and passed her a phone, the notes app open.

Jeffs here.

Rachel frowned. Jeff Greene? The book review guy? Or maybe Jeffery Wilson, the Sony guy. Didn’t they have a neighbor named Jeff who liked to complain about their noise level to the police?

“Jeff?” She mouthed back.

Shelby was stone faced when she nodded and something sunk in Rachel’s gut.

Fuck. Jeff.

Leah was still talking but Rachel couldn’t hear her.

Where?

Shelby took the phone back.

The back.

Rachel clenched her jaw and Nora squeezed her wrist again, eyes wide.

Has Leah seen him?

Shelby shook her head and Rachel let out a breath of relief.

She got to her feet, and cast a quick smile back at Leah who’s brow furrowed at her. She kept talking though, stumbling a little on her speech. Behind her, Fatin, Martha, and Shelby followed.

Jeff wasn’t hard to spot. He was the washed-up has been, with the fraying hair and dark circles under his eyes.

“You need to leave,” Rachel spat.

“I’m just here to apologize,” Jeff said. “I don’t even—”

“You’re leaving,” Shelby cut off. “Now. Or I’ll call security.”

“Take this outside,” Someone hissed and Fatin dragged him out, shoving him roughly through the open door. Several more people waiting outside slipped inside, entirely grateful.

“Listen, I know I fucked up, I want to apologize,” Jeff said.

“She was a child,” Fatin said. “You’re a fucking predator.”

Jeff paled.

“Wait,” Martha said. “Are you here to apologize for dumping her, or for raping her?”

“I didn’t—”

Maybe it was Shelby that threw the first punch, or maybe Rachel. Maybe they both came at him at once. But Martha didn’t hold Rachel back like she normally would’ve, and Fatin snapped at some people to put their phones away.

Leah said it was ironic later, that Fatin was telling people to put their phones away, while Martha urged on a fight.

But it wasn’t a fight, it was a beat down.

Shelby had taken Toni to enough kickboxing lessons over the years to know how to throw a punch, and Rachel had been picturing this moment with Jeff for too long.

No one intervened once Martha pushed a couple people away explaining he was a pedophile who prayed on teenage girls. One person said, “Isn’t that Jeff Galanis?”

And Martha said: “Yes.”

Jeff Galanis hasn’t published a book in five years at that point, he wouldn’t publish one again. Leah wasn’t happy Rachel broke her only hand, and Toni started going to kickboxing lessons alone.

“It was stupid,” Leah told her, when she met her outside after they’d all been thrown out. “I don’t give a shit about him anymore. I just wanted you there.”

“I know,” Rachel said. “But it wasn’t stupid to me. I wanted you to know you wouldn’t have to see him again.”

“Rach,” Leah sighed. “You remember how when we were driving here a Smith’s song came on?” Rachel nodded. “I realized then I literally couldn’t remember his last name.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Leah said. “We’re getting married in a few months, my new book is coming out, your starting your new job. We’ll probably be aunts as soon as Toni and Shelby finish those foster parent classes. Jeff is like—probably the least important person in the universe right now.”

“Sorry I missed the talk,” Rachel said.

Leah kissed her, soft and easy like they’d never once been.

“It’s okay,” she promised. “There’ll be others.”

There were.

#gus writes #leachel fanfic #leachel #leah rilke #toni shalifoe #some post canon hcs for you my love #the wilds fanfic #the wilds #gus answers

[eloquentdreams]

Today’s speculative op-ed is titled “Your Problematic Authors List is Problematic” and outlines how purist notions of “good” literature run rampant in online book communities, how many claims that an author is problematic aren’t actually about the author at all, and how many of these claims depend on stretched, factually incorrect (as in, “that’s not actually what the text says”), or purist interpretations.

There ARE problematic authors, absolutely, but I think most of us understand them to be problematic because of stuff they’ve done or said outside of a given text (that may or may not illuminate some concerning things in what they’ve written) and not because they, you know, write realist depictions of conflict between characters or have characters that voice stigmas so that they can be addressed in the story.

Also if J. R. R. Tolkien (racist, ethnic purist—if you cannot get to this link tell me) isn’t on that list with R*wling (TERF) and like… Heidegger (literal Nazi), Lewis Carroll (questionable relationships with young young young girls), Andy Orchard (Beowulf scholar and translator of some Icelandic sagas who is a known sexual predator), etc., then I don’t quite understand what the matrix for “problematic” is.

#booktok #bookstagram #booklr #literature #irl #a speculative op ed is one that I’m fantasizing about writing but might not actually write.

[maxwellyjordan]

Wednesday round-up

Briefly:

Mario Ariza reports for the South Florida Sun Sentinel on a cert petition that “highlights what experts say is a glaring legal loophole that allows the federal government to seize the property of innocent citizens at little cost or consequence to itself.”

At Bloomberg Law, Jacklyn Wille reports that “[t]he U.S. Supreme Court on Monday signaled its interest in a lawsuit over the University of Pennsylvania’s retirement plan by asking university employees to respond to the school’s petition for review.”

At the Daily Caller, Kevin Daley reports that “Justice Neil Gorsuch invoked J.R.R. Tolkien’s tri-part epic ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in a Monday concurrence that suggested the Supreme Court may need to curtail the use of nationwide injunctions.”

At Inside Sources, Neil Turkewitz warns that Google v. Oracle America, a dispute “over Google’s copying of 11,500 lines of Oracle’s computer code,” presents “a clash of ideologies that goes far beyond the technical issues related to computer interfaces.” [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel to the petitioner in this case.]

In an article for the Wake Forest Law Review online posted at SSRN, John Vlahoplus discusses Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, in which the court will decide whether federal law covers employment discrimination based on sexual orientation; he “details textual grounds for Bostock’s claim and landmark judicial decisions consistent with those grounds.”

Michael O’Sullivan reviews the new documentary “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” for The Washington Post (subscription required), observing that “the film reveals much, while at the same time leaving us to wonder much.”

We rely on our readers to send us links for our round-up. If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two or three days) article, post, podcast or op-ed relating to the Supreme Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion in the round-up, please send it to roundup [at] scotusblog.com. Thank you!

The post Wednesday round-up appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

from Law https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/01/wednesday-round-up-509/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

#law #justice

[qjack061-blog]

Op-Ed Comparison

I originally thought finding opinionated articles on this topic would be pretty difficult but as it turns out, a lot of people have a lot to say about racism in the fantasy genre. I definitely was not expecting to find full-out essays on this topic.The first article I looked at was How Fantasy Games Deal with Race which can be found here. 

This article talks about one of the most popular series on the market in the fantasy genre, The Elder Scrolls. If you’ve played any sort of fantasy game, you’ve at least heard of this series. Throughout the article the author, Dennis Jansen, talks about how race is utilized in this series, and how the different races interact. Jansen makes an interesting point saying that, “With many developers insisting that their games are not political in any way, and with recent games desperately trying to say as little as possible about their subject matter, many critics find that there is once again a need to stress this point.” 

Games need to own up to the politics they discuss whether they admit their games are political or not. Jansen believes the Elder Scrolls series needs to do the same regarding race.

Instead of distinguishing races through social/cultural links, they are distinguished using biological links. So, races in games like Oblivion have bonus attributes added to their stats. To delve more into the main topic of this article, they use the game Skyrim to really describe how your character interacts throughout the game. In this game, you can pick from a number of races such as; Nord, Imperial, Khajiit, Breton, Dark/High/Wood Elf and Argonian.

 Another important point the article brought up was regarding the interesting interactions you can have in the game.“My grey skin did not even prevent me from joining the Stormcloak rebellion, despite the fact that this rebellion was led by the Jarl (leader) of the aforementioned city of Windhelm and was for a significant part driven by xenophobia and anti-Elf racism.” You get a clear look of the way society is set up in the game, but do not experience that racism themselves.

The other article I looked at was, Race: The Original Sin of the Fantasy Genre which can be accessed here.

This article talks about issues stemming from Tolkien’s work, The Lord of the Rings and how its inherent racism has led to works inspired by it to also have that inherent racism.

As the article progresses, it talks about how Dungeons and Dragons was inspired by the series, and how it incorporates that inherent racism. In this game, you can encounter racism with the existence of the dark elves (or drow). This race adds to the notion that fantasy races with black or darker skins are inherently evil. They even mention how the inspiration for the dark elves came from an actual black actress, and how that makes the issue even more pressing. As they drive their point about dark elves and how they are racist, they include a video of a man cosplaying as a dark elf, and how similar it looks to blackface. I personally do not believe it counts as black face since there is no comical depiction of an African American, but I can see why others may view it as such.

The end of the article is a call-to-action to other contemporary writers to create more works of fantasy that include people of color, and push away from the toxic norms that plague the fantasy genre.

These two articles are vastly different. The former seems to be more analytical and professional while the latter seems to be more opinionated and like a blogger wrote it. Although these two articles have similar topics, the way they go about explaining them is vastly different. These articles are quite useful for exploring others’ opinions and it has taught me a lot about how some people may view the fantasy genre as something inherently racist since the days of Tolkien.

#op-ed #comparison

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Thinking about gay Thorin and straight Bilbo and I must admit..... Prime comedy.

#the dwarves: this hobbit is almost stereotypically gay. homosexual. we must try to get him and Thorin together #meanwhile Bilbo is the hobbit version of a rich fuckboy dandy who only likes women and thinks Thorin is also straight #i could make myself sad but im choosing to think its v funny #disgruntled octopus #tolkien op eds

[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Horrors of the Hyborian Age, Tarzan, Keith Taylor, Atomic Tunnels!

RPG (Modiphius): Horrors of the Hyborian Age is the definitive guide to the monstrous creatures inhabiting the dark tombs, ruined cities, forgotten grottos, dense jungles, and sinister forests of Conan’s world. This collection of beasts, monsters, undead, weird races, and mutants are ready to pit their savagery against the swords and bravery of the heroes of the Hyborian Age.

Drawn from the pages of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, this roster also includes creatures and alien horrors from H.P. Lovecraft ’s Cthulhu Mythos, to which Howard inextricably bound his Hyborian Age. Other entries are original, chosen carefully to refl ect the tone and dangers of Conan’s world.

  Fiction (Mercatornet): This well-known Lord of the Jungle has many characteristics that any reader would be glad to check off from their favourite hero’s must-have list: strength; courage; resourcefulness; dignity, and nobility. And he uses them all in abundance as he wins his way to the top of the food chain. As well as winning over all who get to know him, he captivates the imagination when he kills lions, out-wits savage cannibals, avoids becoming a human sacrifice, foils the treachery of rogue Russian spies, and, not the least, successfully navigates the complicated reefs of the human heart in search of love.

  Writers (DMR Books): Keith Taylor’s birthday has rolled around once again. Keith informed me today that he’s enjoying the anniversary of his nativity in his sunny hometown of Melbourne, Down Under. Rather than reviewing one of Keith’s books–as I did last year--this year I thought I’d apprise the Gentle Readers of the DMR Blog of what Mr. Taylor is working on now and what his fans can look forward to in 2019.

  Book Review (DMR Books): When the gods of Blood and Thunder drop a book on you from a great height, there’s an implicit demand that one ignores at one’s peril.

A couple of months ago I was heading out on a business trip and was casting about for an engaging, immersive — and most importantly fun — read; one that strummed the right chords but wasn’t related to a project or anything that feels like work. That can be a problem for me. I kept running across an author named Jonathan French and a book titled The Grey Bastards.

“Sons of Anarchy in Middle Earth!” or “Mad Max in Tolkien’s Middle Earth!”

  Science (Yahoo): In the 1970s, Los Alamos National Laboratory explored a science-fiction approach to tunneling: using nuclear power to literally melt holes through rock and turn the melted rock into tunnel lining.

America’s Mad Scientists Wanted to Use Nuclear Power to Create Tunnels in a Shocking Way

Digging out deep underground complexes or undersea bases could be expedited the Atomic way, in an alternate universe where the wildest ideas of the 1950s, 60s and 70s came to pass. Although our own timeline relies on mega-engineering for transportation, energy and architectural infrastructure, for the past half-century we’ve mostly relied on conventional power sources and design principles.

  Lovecraft (Murray Ewing): Earlier this year I read Bessel van der Kolk’s book on the effects and treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, The Body Keeps the Score (2014). Its description of what happens to the brain under traumatic stress and afterwards, when the trauma is re-triggered, was fascinating, as were the various methods that could be used to treat PTSD. One that really got me thinking was van der Kolk’s description of how taking part in reenactments of Ancient Greek tragedies helped traumatised combat veterans.

  Culture War (Paul Lucas): I’ve never subscribed to any of the big SFF magazines because whenever I’ve picked up a copy, a load of the stories have been rather smug and unengaging – a polite way of saying ‘dull’. Yes, some of the stories are exciting and interesting, but not enough. The characters have always been too passive, and we’ve all heard about stories which have been ‘workshopped to death’.

As Rawle Nyanzi said, the stories are ‘written for other writers, not an actual reading audience’. Look at the big awards in science fiction like the Hugos and the Nebulas. The Nebulas are voted on by other writers – peers, not punters. The Hugos today are voted on by people who want to be writers – wannabes, not doers. These people without skin in the game get control of an industry, and run it according to their view of the world, and not according to reality.

  Fiction (Scott Nicolay): Campbell’s novella “Who Goes There” in particular—his most successful story and probably the most obvious selection we’ve tackled—has left an enormous footprint on science fiction, horror and The Weird. This time around we explore “The Black Destroyer” and “Discord in Scarlet,” a pair of closely related stories by A.E. Van Vogtwhose combined impact may just be to “Who Goes There” what King Ghidorah is to Barney. The shadow of these two tales falls heavily over some of the most famous films and franchises in the speculative fiction universe. From tiny eggs, my friends…

  Tolkien (Middle Earth Xenite.org): Q: Was J.R.R. Tolkien a Racist?

ANSWER: No, J.R.R. Tolkien was not a racist. In fact, he would have struck many people as a very enlightened man for his generation. Nonetheless, many people falsely allege that J.R.R. Tolkien was a racist because they believe that The Lord of the Rings was written as a “white people against all other skin-colored peoples” story, which is simply not true.

There are many white-skinned characters in The Lord of the Rings who are engaged in the most egregious evil, including Saruman and Wormtongue.

  Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): I welcome the coming collapse of the current pop-culture machine.

Marvel’s zeitgeist ends this year with the fourth Avengers film, which will open the door to all of the SJW bullshit that’s killed Marvel Comics. The tell is Captain Marvel, which is all about that poz, and if that film fails to meet expectations I will be pleased. Depending on what is done to undo The Snap, we’ll see if the SJW meme-disease comes quick or if they’re going to be sly about it.

Mouse Wars whimpers its last this year. Be grateful.

  Culture War (Niche Gamer): Jack Thompson has returned for an op-ed on Tallahassee Democrat blaming the Parkland school massacre on violent video games.

The former lawyer pointed to Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz playing “hyperviolent” video games “up to 15 hours a day,” and that a “neurobiological age-based differential” between teens and adults is what led him to go crazy and shoot up a school.

  Gaming (Gaming While Conservative): Remember kids: Girl D&D is Fake D&D.  It’s a perversion of the wargame cake with RP frosting added in post-production.  It’s all frosting with a few crumbs to maintain the semblance of respectability.  That metaphor is so perfect that whenever the YerTerbs algorithm crams another LiveD&D Let’s Play Cast into my pristine SDL and Bear-Fest heavy feed I think of this scene from Death Becomes Her.

          Sensor Sweep: Horrors of the Hyborian Age, Tarzan, Keith Taylor, Atomic Tunnels! published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[hollywoodjuliorivas]

The Politics of Cowardice David Brooks JAN. 27, 2017 Continue reading the main storyShare This Page Share Tweet Email More Save 208 Photo President Trump outside the White House on Thursday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times This is a column directed at high school and college students. I’m going to try to convey to you how astoundingly different the Republican Party felt when I was your age. The big guy then was Ronald Reagan. Temperamentally, though not politically, Reagan was heir to the two Roosevelts. He inherited a love of audacity from T.R. and optimism and charm from F.D.R. He had a sunny faith in America’s destiny and in America’s ability to bend global history toward freedom. He had a sunny faith in the free market to deliver prosperity to all. He had a sunny faith in the power of technology to deliver bounty and even protect us from nuclear missiles. He could be very hard on big government or the Soviet Union, but he generally saw the world as a welcoming place; he looked for the good news in others and saw the arc of history bending toward progress. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story When he erred it was often on the utopian side of things, believing that tax cuts could pay for themselves, believing that he and Mikhail Gorbachev could shed history and eliminate all nuclear weapons. The mood of the party is so different today. Donald Trump expressed the party’s new mood to David Muir of ABC, when asked about his decision to suspend immigration from some Muslim countries: “The world is a mess. The world is as angry as it gets. What, you think this is going to cause a little more anger? The world is an angry place.” Consider the tenor of Trump’s first week in office. It’s all about threat perception. He has made moves to build a wall against the Mexican threat, to build barriers against the Muslim threat, to end a trade deal with Asia to fight the foreign economic threat, to build black site torture chambers against the terrorist threat. Trump is on his political honeymoon, which should be a moment of joy and promise. But he seems to suffer from an angry form of anhedonia, the inability to experience happiness. Instead of savoring the moment, he’s spent the week in a series of nasty squabbles about his ratings and crowd sizes. Sign Up for the Opinion Today Newsletter Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. SEE SAMPLE MANAGE EMAIL PREFERENCES PRIVACY POLICY If Reagan’s dominant emotional note was optimism, Trump’s is fear. If Reagan’s optimism was expansive, Trump’s fear propels him to close in: Pull in from Asian entanglements through rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Pull in from European entanglements by disparaging NATO. It’s not a cowering, timid fear; it’s more a dark, resentful porcupine fear. We have a word for people who are dominated by fear. We call them cowards. Trump was not a coward in the business or campaign worlds. He could take on enormous debt and had the audacity to appear at televised national debates with no clue what he was talking about. But as president his is a policy of cowardice. On every front, he wants to shrink the country into a shell. J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote, “A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a shortcut to meet it.” Desperate to be liked, Trump adopts a combative attitude that makes him unlikable. Terrified of Mexican criminals, he wants to build a wall that will actually lock in more undocumented aliens than it will keep out. Terrified of Muslim terrorists, he embraces the torture policies guaranteed to mobilize terrorists. Terrified that American business can’t compete with Asian business, he closes off a trade deal that would have boosted annual real incomes in the United States by $131 billion, or 0.5 percent of G.D.P. Terrified of Mexican competition, he considers slapping a 20 percent tariff on Mexican goods, even though U.S. exports to Mexico have increased 97 percent since 2005. Trump has changed the way the Republican Party sees the world. Republicans used to have a basic faith in the dynamism and openness of the free market. Now the party fears openness and competition. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story In the summer of 2015, according to a Pew Research Center poll, Republicans said free trade deals had been good for the country by 51 to 39 percent. By the summer of 2016, Republicans said those deals had been bad for America by 61 percent to 32 percent. It’s not that the deals had changed, or reality. It was that Donald Trump became the Republican nominee and his dark fearfulness became the party’s dark fearfulness. In this case fear is not a reaction to the world. It is a way of seeing the world. It propels your reactions to the world. As Reagan came to office he faced refugee crises, with suffering families coming in from Cuba, Vietnam and Cambodia. Filled with optimism and confidence, Reagan vowed, “We shall seek new ways to integrate refugees into our society,” and he delivered on that promise. 208 COMMENTS Trump faces a refugee crisis from Syria. And though no Syrian-American has ever committed an act of terrorism on American soil, Trump’s response is fear. Shut them out. Students, the party didn’t used to be this way. A mean wind is blowing.

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Do you think Bilbo Baggins and Master Worrywort ever explored each other's bodies

#have a feel of me tubers indeed! #tolkien stuff #tolkien op eds

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Book Gandalf is my enemy. Hate that old gay cunt. Dickhead idiot (derogatory)

Movie Gandalf is my best friend. Love that old gay cunt. Dickhead idiot (loving)

#watching DOS and Gandalf at Beorn's is truly a performance of all time i love him #disgruntled octopus #tolkien op eds

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Watching Hobbit appendices and I have opinions as usual but Richard Armitage really put his whole pussy into those mediocre movies 😔

#i enjoy them for the most part obv but theyre not good 💛 #Mr Armitage i saw you. i saw your efforts. #disgruntled octopus #tolkien op eds

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Sam and Frodo were in love btw

#watching fotr and like... hobbit love.jpg #disgruntled octopus #tolkien stuff #tolkien op eds