Sooo, the Silmarillion anniversary.
Sep. 8th, 2007 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielAs I noted last week, the published Silmarillion celebrates its 30th birthday on September 15th, that is, in exactly one week.
Now one week is a very short time to get any kind of party started, but the date is fixed, so we can't help it. To make things easier we can make the party last a week so next Saturday is only the beginning, though.
Somehow people have been asking me (why me?) just what to do, and my answer still is:
EVERYTHING. Whatever the heck you can think of that suits the occasion.
Now of course I realise that a proper challenge and/or project has to be worded differently, so I'll try to come up with something official-looking:
The 30 years Silmarillion project
"I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd."
~J.R.R.Tolkien in a letter to Milton Waldman, (probably) in late 1951
As time and fandom have shown, that wish wasn't all that absurd after all, and has long since come true. This September 15th, let's celebrate it! As this ison very short notice, we'll keep the field broad so hopefully everybody who wants to can tag along, focusing on the three 'categories' mentioned in the quote plus an additional one that's part of the experience.
Paint: Fairly obvious. This is for the artists, the calligraphists, the icon-makers, the wizards of pen, paintbrush or pixels (yes, digital art is totally ok). Illustrate your favourite scene, turn a poem into a visual piece of art, try your hands at Tengwar, make icons or moodsets or whatever you can think of. We'll expand this to include sculpting and weaving and jewelling (all important crafts in the Silmarillion, after all) or any art or craft really. It doesn't have to be new - we all have a life besides the 'net, and a week is a short time for a piece of art - and it doesn't have to be perfect - although of course it should be to the best of your ability; it just has to be linked to the fandom. And if you don't produce paintings yourself but want to link to your favourite fan artist or the most beautiful elf costume you've ever seen, bring it on!
Music: If there are people among you who do original music or filk and have produced (or can produce within the week!) œuvres fitting the fandom: AWESOME. Share recordings or just the sheet notes or lyrics and I'll be squeeing like mad. For those who cannot sing with the minstrels and stir the unseen with a throbbing string*, perhaps you still have playlists for your favourite character/pairing/tale/scene? Share those, too: post the list of songs or tell us why you have chosen certain songs, upload the whole thing or just link to the lyrics, create fanvids - just fill the Void with sound! :D
Drama: This is for all the fanficcers and poets, of course. Whether a drabble or a 50,000-word novella, a poem or your personal idea of a Silmarillion movie script: Here all you wordsmiths can run wild and let us share your visions and tales.
And finally, Response: Firstly, for all the scholarly types who can tell us just why they like the Silmarillion and what they like about it (or why and what they don't), and for essays on archetypes, imagery, backgrounds, style and whatever else you can come up with; secondly for all those who just want to talk about their first reading, or their favourite tale or scene, or their experiences with the fandom, or any other Silmarillion-related topic.
- - -
Participation isn't limited to any one field, you can do as much as you can and want. (I think in my youthful enthusiasm I'll try to do something for each category myself, but we'll see whether that works out.)
As this is about the published Silmarillion, not the Quenta as such, scenes, topics or characters from the Ainulindalë, Valaquenta or Akallabêth are perfectly fine, or even from Of the Rings of Power..., although of course it shouldn't drift too far into LotR territory). I think it's fair to include Silm-related information from the HoME, too; all that stuff was, after all, part of its development.
I wonder whether to start a community where everybody can post their results next week (rather than having lots of random scattered entries all over LJ), or at least post links to their entries so people can find them. What do you think? Reasonable? Superfluous? Other ideas?
Contributions should, I suppose, be posted under cuts for length either way, and with appropriate warnings (if applicable ;)).
Party - that is, exchange of results - takes place on September 15th but can be prolongued if we want it to be a feast of many days.
If you like, please pimp in your journals or fandom communities of your choice!
- - -
*Bonus points if you get THAT allusion!
- - -
Lalala, back to paper-writing; the beast has to be in Cambridge by the 14th. >_>
Now one week is a very short time to get any kind of party started, but the date is fixed, so we can't help it. To make things easier we can make the party last a week so next Saturday is only the beginning, though.
Somehow people have been asking me (why me?) just what to do, and my answer still is:
EVERYTHING. Whatever the heck you can think of that suits the occasion.
Now of course I realise that a proper challenge and/or project has to be worded differently, so I'll try to come up with something official-looking:
The 30 years Silmarillion project
"I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd."
~J.R.R.Tolkien in a letter to Milton Waldman, (probably) in late 1951
As time and fandom have shown, that wish wasn't all that absurd after all, and has long since come true. This September 15th, let's celebrate it! As this ison very short notice, we'll keep the field broad so hopefully everybody who wants to can tag along, focusing on the three 'categories' mentioned in the quote plus an additional one that's part of the experience.
Paint: Fairly obvious. This is for the artists, the calligraphists, the icon-makers, the wizards of pen, paintbrush or pixels (yes, digital art is totally ok). Illustrate your favourite scene, turn a poem into a visual piece of art, try your hands at Tengwar, make icons or moodsets or whatever you can think of. We'll expand this to include sculpting and weaving and jewelling (all important crafts in the Silmarillion, after all) or any art or craft really. It doesn't have to be new - we all have a life besides the 'net, and a week is a short time for a piece of art - and it doesn't have to be perfect - although of course it should be to the best of your ability; it just has to be linked to the fandom. And if you don't produce paintings yourself but want to link to your favourite fan artist or the most beautiful elf costume you've ever seen, bring it on!
Music: If there are people among you who do original music or filk and have produced (or can produce within the week!) œuvres fitting the fandom: AWESOME. Share recordings or just the sheet notes or lyrics and I'll be squeeing like mad. For those who cannot sing with the minstrels and stir the unseen with a throbbing string*, perhaps you still have playlists for your favourite character/pairing/tale/scene? Share those, too: post the list of songs or tell us why you have chosen certain songs, upload the whole thing or just link to the lyrics, create fanvids - just fill the Void with sound! :D
Drama: This is for all the fanficcers and poets, of course. Whether a drabble or a 50,000-word novella, a poem or your personal idea of a Silmarillion movie script: Here all you wordsmiths can run wild and let us share your visions and tales.
And finally, Response: Firstly, for all the scholarly types who can tell us just why they like the Silmarillion and what they like about it (or why and what they don't), and for essays on archetypes, imagery, backgrounds, style and whatever else you can come up with; secondly for all those who just want to talk about their first reading, or their favourite tale or scene, or their experiences with the fandom, or any other Silmarillion-related topic.
- - -
Participation isn't limited to any one field, you can do as much as you can and want. (I think in my youthful enthusiasm I'll try to do something for each category myself, but we'll see whether that works out.)
As this is about the published Silmarillion, not the Quenta as such, scenes, topics or characters from the Ainulindalë, Valaquenta or Akallabêth are perfectly fine, or even from Of the Rings of Power..., although of course it shouldn't drift too far into LotR territory). I think it's fair to include Silm-related information from the HoME, too; all that stuff was, after all, part of its development.
I wonder whether to start a community where everybody can post their results next week (rather than having lots of random scattered entries all over LJ), or at least post links to their entries so people can find them. What do you think? Reasonable? Superfluous? Other ideas?
Contributions should, I suppose, be posted under cuts for length either way, and with appropriate warnings (if applicable ;)).
Party - that is, exchange of results - takes place on September 15th but can be prolongued if we want it to be a feast of many days.
If you like, please pimp in your journals or fandom communities of your choice!
- - -
*Bonus points if you get THAT allusion!
- - -
Lalala, back to paper-writing; the beast has to be in Cambridge by the 14th. >_>
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 12:17 pm (UTC)Hope you enjoy yourself dear!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 01:54 pm (UTC)I do, actually; the problem is I enjoy the researching so much I don't get any writing done... >_>
no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 04:58 pm (UTC)Aw, hahahaha, well, I usually get started somewhere and then I lose track of my target entirely *lol* That's my problem, I get to involved in the topic and not the major topic mostly XD
no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 05:23 pm (UTC)With the other, I keep getting side-tracked, but it's easier to combine the stuff I've read on the topic to one essay. It's just that there are sooo many other fascinating aspects I'd like to get into...!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-09 12:34 pm (UTC)It's really short time to create fanfiction... I have so hard week ahead so I am still hoping that I have even time to tell why I love Silmarillion the best.
Hmmm... unless... I have times when I suffer insomnia, and work all night long.
Anyway, that is great idea!
~Sil~