Well, it looks like cuturally, my Fandom will be ending with the culmanation of PJ’s LOTR film treatment. That is, what else is there possibly for me to look forward to? Yeah, there will always be a new interest, yet LotR is and was such a formative and personal structure of my life. I look on this with a bittersweet view, like a small Grey Haven of my heart. I move on, the world moves on, all passes. Happy and Sad. Young and Old.
I feel however, that I have outgrown and passed Fandom – like Frodo’s Dreme, I look at the home of Fanboydom and it’s not mine anymore. I’ll never be there again, never to return, for still they speak not, men that I meet.
When the EE for ROTK has come and gone, when the eventual Enormous DVD/CD sets have been released and purchased, Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?
Namárië!
Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
mi oromardi lissë-miruvóreva
Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
ómaryo airetári-lírinen.
Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?
An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo
ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë
ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë
ar sindanóriello caita mornië
i falmalinnar imbë met,
ar hísië untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë.
Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar!
Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar!
Nai elyë hiruva! Namárië!
About 10 years ago a man wrote a symphonic/dance/chorale work called “The Tale of the Rings of Power”, and set most of the poems in LotR to music.
Galadriel’s Lament is a soprano solo.
I have a tape of it.
I’ll give you a copy.
Superior.
I hate to sully your journal with the mention of Anne McCaffrey’s “Pern” – but I used to be quite a fan, did the online play by email fan fic writing thing for a while. I know how you feel about it wearing away. I’m kind of glad for it. It was strange because people in fandom can be so political and petty in their online world… a phenomena I wonder if sociologists have studied (not the pettiness but the online fandome community in general).
I still have the depth of appreciation (and the exitement). It’s reading people over at http://www.minastirith.com, and the whole existence of FANDOM in capital letters.
I tire of having my interests strictly define me. It’s the inability to hold separate opinions, or tolerate the opinions you disagree with. I.E. fan-on-fan hate because someone doesn’t like a character the other does, or the very idea that someone can predict the supposed intent of a deceased author.
Perhaps I’m getting soft in my old age. Then again, I’ve never been fond of pushing opinions as concrete reality.
I’ll always be re-reading LOTR, and it is very powerful to me. I still can’t see chiding others because their interpretation is doesn’t jibe with my personal interpretation (or the most popular interpretation).
People is weird.
Greyhaven? ;}
Thinking of the Grey Havens scene always reminds me of the bittersweet release of closure. Like King Arthur being sent to Avalon and Winter Solstice.
(I was just trying to be cute since Greyhaven is the city in which I write. Or pretend to write, since I haven’t much lately.)
But the whole thing is beautiful.