Dear Reader,
Many things have happened in the past year since I've been on my blog. I've been traveling, learning the law, and learning God's lessons over and over again. But I have decided that the time has come for this blog to transform. Henceforth, this blog will be a dedication to my thoughts on the Irish author James Joyce, and the Oxford Philologist J.R.R. Tolkien. As the blog evolves, the scope of may widen or narrow, depending on the topic.
I also have a passion for writing and reading. Some of my ideas have indeed come to fore, and this blog will serve as a means for catharsis. I would not be able to die happily without having painted my masterpiece and Tolkien and Joyce are but a piece of the Great Pastiche of my ideas, my artist expression. My obsession with Joyce & Tolkien started as an interesting anecdote, to a hobby, to proper affect imagery.
Finding Tolkien for me was as intoxicating as being let into an old winery's special reserve room, and tasting each of the varietals. The exception being that Tolkien and Joyce are infinite and wine is finite.
Most people in the Tolkien community have been fans for a long time and soon learned I had some catching up to do. By chance, or chance you call it, I was chosen to participate in The Tolkien Professor's "Silmarillion Seminar," a series of podcasts on that great work of Tolkien. For those interested, the podcasting live continues to this day every second Thursday at 10:00pm ET on mymiddleearth.net. Studying closely the texts with one of the best Tolkien scholars in the world (Corey Olsen) was an honorable service that re-enchanted my sensibilities and oriented my aesthetics toward Tolkien. Still, my foundations were in Joyce, The Bible and the Classics of Eastern and Western Civilization, with special emphasis on Philosophy, Science, and Psychology.
In Joyce I found the "tough artist in exile" par excellence. A contemporary of Tolkien, Joyce's books, on the surface seem to be nothing like Tolkien at all. There are no Hobbits after all. Yet behind the non-linear, "stream-of-consciousness" prose, we find clear parallels. No wonder why there is an anecdote of Tolkien fiddling around with the Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon puzzles contained in Joyce's Finnegans Wake, notes of which are held at The Bodleian Library.
I have momentarily assigned these parallels the number ten (although there are many more than that) for the time being.
1. Phono-Aesthetic Sensibility or Musicality of the Prose
2. Dante
3. Mythology
4. Aesthetic Arrest
5. Philology
6. Sacred Geography-Landscapes having their own personality and force
7. Words. Entire worlds out of single words.
8. Hidden or Unconscious Catechism
9. Archetypes: The fighting brothers, the River Daughter, the Scholar, the Giant
10. Sacred Numerology: 3, 6, 7, 9 and 12 make enormous (albeit hidden) appearances in both works.
One last thing on this introductory blog post: It is no secret to anyone in academia that Joyce is revered by Post-Modernists (such as Derrida), and deconstructionists, semioticians and has been the topic of innumerable PhD dissertations across the country. Tolkien's literature, on the other hand, has gone mostly undiscussed in The Academy until just a few years ago where a concerted effort is being put together to bridge the gap between the intelligentsia and public opinion.
The tone of this blog is very non-academic and thus more inviting to you, Dear Reader. But know that I don't do this for you but for the tremendous fun and inspiration I get from comparing and contrasting Joyce and Tolkien. At times, there may be a post in pure poetic formula one day, and the next be a very "serious" discussion on Tolkien "Fighting the Long Defeat." Such posts acknowledge that the Internet, as a medium is primarily aesthetic. I would encourage you, Dear Reader, to look at the blog not as a reflection of some self-aggrandizement, but rather humbly as someone who happens to have as my canvas, a blog, for me to paint you a picture.
Yours Faithfully,
Brandon
