Eä Tolkien Society Meeting Notes for March 19th, 2022

March 19, 2022 Ea Tolkien Society Meeting

Attended:

Hawke, Anthony, Brian (Chris, Gary online)

1. Brian reads Notes for February 2022 meeting

2. Hawke update on the RPG Center property: broadcast studio, RPG
museum, community center, headquarters for rpgresearch.com and
www.rpgcenter.org. Youtube channel and Twitter.

3. 101 N. Stone St. 99202 Building A (older) and B (bigger).

4. Already broadcasting from there. www/www.rpgresearch.com/donate and
smile.amazon.com and choose charity of choice “rpg research”.

5. Anthony’s read of A Wizard of Earthsea (liked it), and a discussion
of genre (YA… is it helpful?). Genres of music as well. How do you curate
cultural creations? Some don’t fit neatly.

6. Gary’s comment: Priscilla Tolkien just died… Sarah Zama wrote about
it. Two links here.

a.
https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2022/03/01/112398-priscilla-tolkien-dies-aged-92/

b.
https://medium.com/middle-earth-literary-gazette/why-tolkien-fans-should-become-more-proactive-83009457a948

7. Chris opens the Can of Worms ™

a. The Superfans Faction

i. Danger of Two
Agendas: modern woke cultural agenda; capitalist agenda of gamifying
Middle-earth

ii. Two kinds of fans:
Book-lover purists and Jackson purists

b. Gary’s comments asking for clarity; some wisdom

i. Analysis re:
Jackson’s adaptations and editing choices.

ii. What segments of
our society think we need to be in this age, or is it true to Tolkien’s
mythos?

c. Anthony’s cautiously optimistic about series. Distrust corporations.
Hope it stays true to the spirit of Tolkien.

d. Hawke’s opinion

i. Fandom problem:
“the fans own the works”. So lost the ability to be respectful and critical
in discussions.

ii. Speaker problem:
who speaks for the creative direction?

iii. Modification
problem: changes from disrespect vs. changes from sympathetic mods.

e. Defend Applicability (Universal Themes)! No agenda/direct allegory
correspondence (this = this)

8. Anthony reads JRRT Letter 199

i. Tolkien’s
critique of Eddison… appreciates his world-building but critical of his
worldview.

ii. Narrative debt

iii. His writing process

iv. Note: abandoned part
of Mordor adventure and Saga of Aragorn.

9. Discussion of and contrast of Michael Moorcock vs. JRR Tolkien.

a.
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/en361fantastika/bibliography/2.7moorcock_m.1978epic_pooh.pdf

10. For next time: Fritz Lieber and Northern mythology
vs. racism/activism (why the latter fails to intepret Tolkien correctly).

a. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser

11. Next meeting Saturday, April 16.