oloriel | Entries tagged with fandom

I have been out of academia for so long that I have forgotten how to do citations ;_; Send help.

Then again, I don't think I've ever felt the need to quote a song in an essay for academia. I once did quote Monty Python's killer rabbit scene for the Shibboleth of Elizabeth I essay*, but quoting Meat Loaf in an essay (or is it just a shipping manifesto? meta? a pathetic defence of mah OTP? i don't know really) is a new one even for me². Is there even a rule for it? Damn, this is not what I signed up for ~~all I was supposed to write was a damn love story and this is what my mind comes up with WHYYYY~~

~~Incidentally, elleth, this is all your fault. But you should have done the job yourself BECAUSE I SUCK~~

- - -

*not the actual title of the essay but the tag I used for it on LJ.

²not the most inappropriate choice of quote though. I mean, my husband managed to quote Asterix in Switzerland for his PhD thesis in Chemistry. His geekery may be different from mine, but geekery it is.

Crossposts: http://oloriel.livejournal.com/573969.html

SOOO for the purpose of this month's SWG challenge I am re-reading Humphrey Carpenter's Tolkien biography. (The topic of the challenge is love stories. The muses insist on an essay. Don't ask.) I know I keep saying that, but maybe I haven't yet said it here, so let me put it out here: I really really wish that Tolkien's biography could be turned into a movie at some point, because WHAT A LIFE, WHAT A CHARACTER. Seriously, it would be like Angela's Ashes, only with more Elves?

But anyway. I stiiiill haven't fouuuund what I'm looking for, but I have found plenty of great anecdotes. I know some posts have been making the rounds on Tumblr about John "Road Rage" Tolkien, and him and C.S.Lewis attending a party (NOT a costume party) dressed up as polar bears, and these are indeed delightful tales, but there are so. many. more. Many of which have been dear to my heart for years but I keep forgetting half of them and only recall them upon re-reading, so let me share them now.

There's the debating society thing, where young JRRT gives his maiden speech on a motion supporting the objects and tactics of the suffragettes. I had completely forgotten about that! How unexpected is that! Mind you, considering that this is the school debating society, everything should probably be taken with a grain of salt as it may purely be meant to provoke. But as this is also the source of the motion (probably of his own devising) 'That this House deplores the occurrence of the Norman Conquest' and the '[...]sudden flood of unqualified abuse upon Shakespeare, upon his filthy birthplace, his squalid surroundings, and his sordid character', two convictions which appear to be taken as set in stone by a lot of fans and scholars, that's certainly interesting. ("his filthy birthplace, his squalid surroundings and his sordid character"? I mean YMMV but does that sound like it's supposed to be taken literally? Incidentally, I find it curious that Carpenter adds "probably of his own devising" to the thing on the Norman Conquest, since he earlier related the story of the teacher who insisted on the use of plain old English words rather than posh Norman loan words, cf. muck vs. manure. So yeah, the speech may have been Tolkien's, but the idea? Less so? Incidentally incidentally, for a linguist who supposedly so hated the Norman influences on the English language, Tolkien certainly uses a shitload of Anglo-Norman words in the Lay of Leithian, starting in fact with "Lay", but what do I know.)

Anyway.

There's the delightful description of Tolkien's graduation: 'The school-porter was sent by waiting relatives to find me,' [Tolkien] recalled years later. 'He reported that my appearance might be delayed. "Just now," he said, "he's the life and soul of the party." Tactful. In fact, having just taken part in a Greek play, I was clad in a himation and sandals, and was giving what I thought a fair imitation of a frenzied Bacchic dance.' (I WOULD PAY GOOD MONEY TO SEE THAT ON SCREEN OMG.)

Then it's off to Oxford and the typical town vs. gown rags: 'At ten to nine we heard a distant roar of voices and knew that there was something on foot so we dashed out of College and were in the thick of the fun for two hours. We "ragged" the town and the police and the proctors all together for about an hour. Geoffrey and I "captured" a bus and drove it up to Cornmarket making various unearthly noises followed by a mad crowd of mingled varsity and "townese". It was chockfull of undergrads before it reached the Carfax. There I addressed a few stirring words to a huge mob before descending and removing to the "maggers memugger" or Martyr's Memorial where I addressed the crowd again." [emphasis mine]
*rolls under the table in helpless laughter* Fëanor? Fëanor is that you?

Or a brief return to his old school where he met up with his friends of the T.C.B.S. to perform the first ever play by an English dramatist performed at King Edward's School in Birmingham. After their performance of Sheridan's The Rivals, "the school magazine reported: J.R.R.Tolkien's Mrs Malaprop was a real creation, excellent in every way and not least so in make-up." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! (Aside from the fact that it amuses me to no end that this super-obsessed linguist would play Mrs Malaprop of all characters, I also relish the idea of Tolkien's exploits as cross-dresser.)

On that note, this also had me rolling my eyes: [...] while as to homosexuality Tolkien claimed that at nineteen he did not even know the word.
That's such suspiciously specific phrasing that I immediately feel reminded of the "Exact Words" section over at TVTropes. I mean, I can practically see the entirety of the interview: "And was there any kind of, hm, homosexual behaviour at your all-male school, Prof. Tolkien?" - *deadpan* "Homosexual behaviour? Good God, at that age I didn't even know the word. *chews on pipe* Back then, we simply called it buggery." - "CUT! CUT!"

...
At any rate, I think these crazy little episodes deserve more attention because a lot of fandom (and even more of "scholarship") has this mental image of Tolkien as this unworldly, uptight, super-serious scholar. So let's not forget that this supposedly unworldly, uptight, super-serious scholar danced on the table wearing nothing but a sheet and sandals, or hijacked a bus (WTF WTF?!) and made stirring speeches to a crowd of Oxford students and citizens (AHAHAHAH), and who strutted around on stage in petticoats and make-up. I think Tolkien scholars in particular could benefit from the occasional reminder of a frenzied Bacchic dance. Also, sympathising with suffragettes? I guess this is where Erendis got her rhetoric?

But of course the "Charge 'em and they'll scatter" story is gold as well. So keep on reblogging it, it makes me happy whenever I see it.

Current Mood: amused
Crossposts: http://oloriel.livejournal.com/573767.html

and the Advent season is upon us and soon the year will be over. Felix keeps asking why the year went so fast. I don't think I ever felt that years were going by too fast when I was that young. Birthdays were over too fast, yes. Vacations were over too fast. But years were endless things, and I would not for the life of me have dreamt of feeling in November that the year had gone by too fast. (After all, still a whole month until Christmas! We'll never get there!)

As "getting into the spirit" goes, I suppose this weekend was a good start. On Friday, I actually went to the cinema with my old Ring*Con pal Judith and a couple of friends. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In 2D (bless) and English (double bless). Which I quite enjoyed, despite having to spend 50 minutes for finding a parking lot (Friday evening in Cologne, I should have known). It turned out not to matter, because the movie started half an hour late. Also, something had gone wrong with the booking so instead of sitting in the penultimate row, we sat in the second row. Maybe that was why a lot of the camera movements were too fast for my brain to parse.
( Potential spoilers, so tread with care )

On Sunday, Felix' Kindergarten had a stall on the tiny local Christmas market and I spent two hours helping to sell stuff. (After first having spent an hour searching for my parents. Oh well.) Personally, I think it showed that we only learned about the stall, like, three weeks prior to the fact (which was, in fact, when the decision was made) so there was no unifying theme to what we were selling. So people were maybe drawn closer by the large folded paper stars, and then discovered that there were no small paper decorations. Or they were attracted by the knitted plushies, and then found that we didn't have other knitted things. Or they saw the cuddly pillows and then saw that we didn't have other retro sewn things. In the two hours in which I was there, we made maybe a hundred bucks.
But as all the things we sold were donations, and the stall was free for charitable institutions, I suppose it was enough of a success to repeat it next year, with maybe a better plan and more time to prepare. At any rate, it gave me a reason to go to the very picturesque and sweet Christmas market in Lüttringhausen, where, in spite of growing up one village over, I had never been before.

After last week's temperatures moved around 10°C, this morning's -2,5°C came as a bit of a surprise and the car was completely frozen. Time to clear the barn enough to use it as a garage again. (At the moment, the driveway is full of firewood that has yet to be chopped.) I still haven't managed to prepare the garden for winter, there's still stuff that needs to be sown and beds to be covered and stuff. But, yeah. I had to do a lot of writing last week (not NaNo-related, alas, but money-related) so I couldn't use the mild weather. And I'll return to that writing now, too. No rest for the wicked...

Hope the 'mericuns (no-maj or otherwise ;)) had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Also hope you'll get your electional eff-ups figured out and sorted... :/

Current Mood: okay

(or maybe not?) FRIENDSLIST, I AM DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!

There's a new Star Wars (prequel sequel) teaser out, and I have to learn about it from OUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER rather than my fellow fannish contacts? For shame! I'm living under a rock, but what's everyone else doing? Where aaare you?!

I... quite like the look of it, I have to say. TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS!

It's almost 9 pm on January 3rd*. I have a glass of cider, and I have completed Chapter 18 of Golden Days². I have even managed to put two footnotes into a really short LJ post. That fully qualifies me for taking part in the birthday toast!

So, To the Professor, and to a good fannish year.

- - -
*CET, Gregorian calendar.

²It's ridiculous. When I look back at the original outline for Golden Days, it was supposed to have seven chapters. Now I've written the first lines of Chapter 19 and nothing is where it was meant to be. These characters just do what they want, man.

Current Mood: relaxed

In less accomplished news, this comic here is giving me such horrible fandom crack ideas. I mean, it totally works for Alqualondë/Losgar, too. ("Fry the chips." - "..." - "THE CHIPS! DAMN YOU! NOT THE SHIPS!")

(Oh dear. It's like a mash-up of "Verdammte Brandstifter!" and the Potato thing, isn't it.)

Current Mood: *snickering madly*

Today's XKCD wins my heart for various reasons.
I might consider adopting this approach whenever I hear someone else propagate the "medievals believed the world was flat" myth in the future...

Speaking of The Silmarillion, there's a Silmarillion Fandom Opinion Survey.
It's quite useless, to be honest, as it is extremely limited and only addressing one thing that apparently is a big issue in the fandom as represented on Tumblr. But hey, go there and skew the demographics a bit, or something. (I especially love how apparently these days, having been in the fandom for over 5 years makes you practically Unbegotten. I think most of my f-list is composed of people for whom 5 years means nothing, and 5 years is pretty random considering that the PJ movies are by now a whole decade old.) But oh well. It appears to be mostly tongue-in-cheek, so who am I to take it seriously?

Right. I'll go pester my bees now. Laters!

You know, it's funny. Whenever the "Are Elves (biologically/genetically) human" question comes up in discussion somewhere (As far as I am concerned, yes, they are, Tolkien pretty much explicitly said so, much of the textual "evidence" suggests it, too, why are we still discussing this), someone will pipe up and say "So Elves don't have pointy ears after all!"

The logic, it escapes me. Homo sapiens sapiens features a great variety in outer appearances. This starts on an individual level, of course, but there are also features that generally set different ethnic groups apart, right? Like, some people have (on the whole) darker skin than others. Some tend to grow a lot of facial/bodily hair (unless they shave), and others consistently have a lot less of that (if any). The point is, there are all sorts of physical features that may be "typical" for people whose ancestors come from a particular region or whatevs. I am not a biologist, but I'd expect that it isn't entirely impossible that, hypothetically, pointy ears vs. "rounded" ears might be among such features? So why does "Elves = human" equal "Elves =/= pointy-eared" in some people's minds?

(And before you start on the age-old discussion whether Tolkien's Elves would have pointy ears: Please take that discussion elsewhere, I don't care to have it here. I can off the top of my head think of two instances in which Tolkien states that Yes, they do, so for me, that case is as closed as the "Are they human" question. Oh, and I simply don't care whether Balrogs have wings or not.)

Yes, these things bother me. Deal with it or ignore at will!

TWO THINGS.

1) Ok, this is something that you wise people and experienced heretics may be able to help me out with.
Look. This is something I knew but completely forgot about, and now I randomly remembered and can't keep it to myself.
We all know how Lúthien is basically Edith Tolkien née Bratt, right? Self-insert, Mary Sue, what-have-you. I mean, Tolkien even had the name put on her grave. So yeah. The thing is, WHAT OF LÚTHIEN IN HER FIRST INCARNATION? Because some early draft had Her robe was blue as summer skies,
but not so blue as were her eyes;
'twas sewn with golden lilies fair,
but none so golden as her hair.* or somesuch.
Compare that to the later descriptions (Her robe was blue as summer skies,/ but grey as evening were her eyes;/ 'twas sewn with golden lilies fair,/ but dark as shadow was her hair.*), and, indeed, to dark-haired, (presumably) grey-eyed Edith and it's obvious that Lúthien initially was somebody else (or no-one in particular). At any rate, Lúthien wasn't always Edith.
So here's the question: Is anything known about that? Was golden-haired, blue-eyed Proto-Lúthien someone specific, or just a generic fairy-tale princess that later got rewritten, or what? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.

(I can't believe I only remembered that now. When I was relatively new to Tolkien, I regretted that he ever changed the description of Lúthien because I wanted to cosplay her, and I'm blue-eyed and blonde. I mean, you can hardly say "I'm cosplaying Lúthien from the first drafts of the Leithian", can you? And when I dye my hair black, it actually comes out aubergine. Been there done that. Well, I'm not exactly Most-beautiful-woman-alive material, either, but that's a different matter. Edith Tolkien ain't no Halle Berry either. (I made the robe anyway, too.) Point is, I knew there once was a blue-eyed, golden-haired Lúthien. And then I went and completely forgot it and lived the "Lúthien was inspired by Edith, duh" lie. Bzuh!)

- - -

2) Fantastic something that's come to my attention thanks to my cooperation with

gwailome. I love this and it's giving me plotbunnies without end. Namely:
HOW DID FINGOLFIN "KNOW THAT HE WAS BETRAYED" WHEN HE SAW THE SHIPS BURN?

Correct answer: He didn't. He might have guessed it, but he might just as well have believed that the servants of Morgoth did it. ("OH CRAP WE HAVE TO GO AND SAVE MY HALF-BROTHER'S ASS! AGAIN!") Or that it was an accident. I mean, those boats were made of wood. Caulked with (presumably) flammable material and sealed with pine or birch tar. That stuff burns like a treat. Now, combine that with people carrying torches and lanterns and hurrying to get ashore...
It could've been lightning. Or, well, Orcs. Or vengeful relations of the Teleri.
As we know, the Silmarillion was recorded in retrospect, and by predominantly anti-Fëanorian chroniclers. So of course by the time they wrote it, them bloody traitors did it. But at the time it was happening? THEY VERY LIKELY DIDN'T KNOW.
Actually, what with oral history and unreliable narrators, maybe it actually was an accident. (Fëanor: "I'm gonna unload my portable forge now." GM: "Roll please." Fëanor: "CRAP. FUMBLE.") And later the Fëanorians told themselves they totally meant to do that, good riddance. And by the time the Fingolfinians reached the shore, they actually believed it? LOOK, I DON'T KNOW. But it's a wonderful little twist for head-canon. Isn't it. I want to play with it forever!

And that concludes today's heretic geek-talk. Probably.

- - -

*Somewhere in the History of Middle-earth 3: The Lays of Beleriand. I'm too lazy to go and get my copy right now. And no, I don't know the entire Lay of Leithian by heart. Just a few lines. *shifty eyes*

Current Mood: excited

Random fannish squee moment of the day, via

ladyelleth.

Escrick sapphire ring's mystery history sparks meeting

LOOK AT THAT RING. THAT IS CLEARLY A STAR OF FËANOR. Well, very nearly. Very very nearly. 7th to 11th century? WELL MAYBE MAGLOR LOST IT.

~~Say, mirien, would you say you can replicate something like that? I mean, it's a genuine historical find, so it ain't touching copyright laws, no? :D~~

Icon used for ironic relevance.

Current Mood: excited

Because why write entries I should've written weeks ago when I can waste time on a meme?

Name a fandom you know (or you think) I might know, and I will tell you these things.

1. The character I first fell in love with
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now
3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t
4. The character I love that everyone else hates
5. The character I used to love but don’t any longer
6. The character I would totally smooch
7. The character I’d want to be like
8. The character I’d slap
9. A pairing that I love
10. A pairing that I despise

- - -
Actually, there are not many fandoms for which I can answer these questions. While there are a few fandoms and series that I'm at least vaguely familiar with, in most of them I'm not emotionally invested enough to have favourite characters or know about common pairings or so. But hey, we can try!

Done:
- The Lord of the Rings (requested by

samtyr)
- The History of Middle-earth (requested by

shadowbrides)
- The Silmarillion (requested by

elenbarathi)
- Firefly (requested by

lainvess)

You gals are almost as predictable as I am. ;)

Current Mood: calm

OK as I may have mentioned, I haven't touched The Hobbit in eleven years.
So the last time I read that book, I hadn't read the Silmarillion. (SHAMEFUL I KNOW)

I have to admit that I did the book a gross injustice; I had filed it in my head as "cute, but not really to be taken serious, totally whimsical 1930s kiddie book, not at all like the LotR". Which is not wholly untrue, but not wholly true either. I mean, there's a lot already in place, just in allusions and paraphrases.

And then there are the bits I just didn't pick up on, back then. (I would have, had the Annotated Hobbit already been in existence and my property back then, because they really explain all the shit. But it wasn't, so I didn't.)

YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MADE ME REALISE.

PJ totally has the chance to do some Silmarillion stuff even though the rights to that book aren't his, BECAUSE OF ALLUSIONS IN THE HOBBIT.

Like, when Thranduil's merry bunch first fool and later arrest the Dwarves, there's a bit of elaboration on the difference between these wood-Elves and THE ELVES WHO HAD GONE TO FAËRIE AND SOME OF THE DEEP ELVES MADE GREAT STUFF AND SOME OF THEM RETURNED TO MIDDLE-EARTH.
...
...
...
CAN WE HAVE THAT IN THE NEXT FILM PLEASE. SOME SPECIFIC DEEP ELVES IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.
(Fun fact aside: The first German Hobbit translator, Walter Scherf, translated "Deep Elves" as die Unterirdischen, "Underground Elves". BWAHAHAH. Noldor = Drow? XD)
Also, allusions to why the Elves can't stand the Dwarves, because "They had fought wars against each other and the Dwarves stole a great treasure from them but to be fair the Dwarves said they had only taken their due because the Elf king had refused them their proper payment". SACK OF DORIATH OMG OMG OMG! CAN WE HAVE THAT TOO. SILMARILLION FLASHBACKS FTW. INCLUDING VENGEFUL FËANORIANS PERHAPS?
...
SQUEE.

Probably not. If the Nauglamir appeared, its Silmaril would forever be confused with the Arkenstone, so PJ will probably avoid that. Still, a girl can dream. I mean, that would certainly explain the "short book = movie trilogy" development...

Crap, now I got my hopes up. :P

- - -
ETA: further fun with the German translation: Drachen wissen zwar mit all ihrem Besitz nicht viel anzufangen, aber in der Regel kennen sie ihn auf Mark und Pfennig....
Tee hee.
(FWIW, I would've translated that as Heller und Pfennig -- even now, Mark feels too modern. These days, of course, we're using Euros and Cents, but I dearly hope nobody is going to change this in current editions! Also, now I can't help wondering whether there were/are editions going Schilling und Groschen or Franken und Rappen...? XD)

Current Mood: hyper

... because this really amused me to no end.

Now, of course, I will spoil the fun and point out that the OP actually has a point. Even if they've read the book, I think we're all aware that the movies (movieS!) are (are going to be) slightly to wildly different. And even if they weren't, having read the book still doesn't prepare you for the visuals, because whatever you imagine in your head will not necessarily look much (or even one bit) like PJ's version.
So "don't spoil me" for the first movie to a book that's been in print in England for 75 years isn't nearly as stupid as they're making it sound.

The replies are still funny, though, aside from the "You haven't read the book" smartass who just might be missing the point.

Me, I'm not going to see the Hobbit for a couple of days (possibly weeks) either, due to lack of available babysitters. But I'm not avoiding spoilers. In fact, I'm diving into LJ friends' spoilery film reviews head first, because reading their squees and gripes is almost as good as discussing a movie you've just seen with the friends with whom you went to see it. Except I haven't seen it. Never mind. I probably won't be able to see it with much company, looking at how difficult it is these days to find a day and place that fits everyone. So reading on LJ shall be my surrogate!
(I am currently re-reading the book for the first time in a decade. I may regret that later. Or maybe I won't. I was surprised to discover, for instance, that this Azog dude is totally mentioned in the text! I had forgotten him if I ever noticed him at all. Also absurdly excited that the German edition of the Annotated Hobbit (shut up, I won it fair and square, so I might as well read it before Felix has torn all the pages out) contains (of course) translated material from the HoME which has hitherto not been translated into German. This is good because clearly, more German people are going to read the Annotated Hobbit in German than they're going to read the HoME in English? I SAY SO ANYWAY.

Also, the "food in fantasy" rant/ramble is now more imminent than ever, but not today. Now I must make food for ourselves. I've rambled enough for the moment!

Current Mood: amused

(first seen at

fileg's.)

If I take part, I won't be able to join online as I'll be on vacations w/ the family (Brittany, hell yeah!), but even so, I thought I'd share the fun. :D

- - -
In other, not exactly related news, Felix got his first pair of Wellies today. Because there's no keeping that boy inside (which is good), rain or shine, and The Cold And Wet Season Is Coming*.

- - -
*Insert rant about ASoIaF here. Of course, Winter is Coming is still a pretty awesome tagline. And I HAVE TO KEEP SAYING IT and then I'm reminded of that book and AUGH. Though of course the thing they call winter seems to me more properly named "Ice Age", because - wait, I was NOT planning to get into ranty mood! OFF!
Of course, Spring is Coming as well. As are Summer and Autumn, in turn. That's the good thing about seasons...

Current Mood: cheerful

dawn_felagund has summed up pretty much exactly what I think about the topic, so I am - hurrah! - no longer feeling the need to put my thoughts into words. I'll merely quote her:

Let's be frank, folks. If critique of a policy, no matter how heated, was what caused a fandom institution to close its doors, then it wasn't long for the world anyway. I say this as an admin and, again, with the recognition that you have to expect these kinds of problems, and you either deal or you don't. There's certainly nothing wrong with reaching the point where you can't or won't deal anymore, but pretending like an otherwise healthy and thriving fandom institution came suddenly crashing to the ground because of a critique over a ratings policy would be laughably ridiculous if I hadn't seen so much finger-pointing to this effect.

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. Signed a dozen times.
(Her full, thoughtful and intelligent entry can be found here. It says everything I might want to say on the matter - only better, and providing background explanation I wouldn't even have thought of.)

(Actually, I might want to say more on the matter, but that would leave the territory of reasonable and diplomatic discourse. So I shall hold my tongue. Unless anything comes up in the comments to this entry here, of course. ;))

Current Mood: relieved

a.k.a. fannish ramblings, feel free to disregard.

I was planning to put together a little overview of what I did during this year's B2MeM. I probably wouldn't have done it, however, so I'm really glad that

aliana1 made a little questionnaire. It's always easier to answer other people's questions.

So here goes...
( ...under the cut for the unconcerned )

And now, it's Back-to-Business month. More or less. I hope it'll still leave me a chance to continue a few of those WiPs - and to read other people's responses, because seriously, SO MUCH POTENTIAL!

Current Mood: cheerful

One of ~~today's~~ yesterday's prompts for B2MeM is "Middle-earth = Middle Ages" on the Silmarillion Fanon card, which means we are to create something that contradicts that particular fanon.

( Here be lengthy pseudo-scholarly fandom rambling. Feel free to skip if you couldn't care less. )

In short: We're looking at a colourful mix of influences and historical inspirations. If a "Middle-Earth = Middle Ages" fanon genuinely exists, it's bullshit. Or, more gently put, it has no basis in either canon nor logic. Of course, everyone is free to depict their personal version of the Elves and Gondorians and Hobbits and what-have-yous in whatever terms they desire. But they can't expect everyone to subscribe to the same set of rules, and shouldn't.

Now I crave me some steampunk Valinor fanfic. Anyone seen such a thing recently? Link me? (Please do, before I have to write it myself. >_>)

Current Mood: cheerful

"Fannish First", discovered over at

lanyon's.
Because it tickled me and I haven't pestered you with memes in too long, anyway.

( Cut for length just in case )

Current Mood: nostalgic

Okay, by now we've all seen the Hobbit trailer and squeed at the Dwarf song, right?

Recently,

fileg linked to a video where a lady sings the whole 27-stanza thing to the tune from the trailer.

This should, in principle, be a wonderful thing, but somehow I can't enjoy it.

One issue is probably the recording software or otherwise the sound system of my computer - either way, it sounds kind of overdone and overdriven, particularly the pseudo-ethereal background vocal.

Which brings us to issue #2: The vocals. I don't know enough about singing to be able to judge the quality of her singing as such, so I'll leave that judgement to more able minds and ears. Suffice it to say that they just don't fit the song. I'm unsure about the lead vocals, but I'm damn sure I don't like the background wail. (In this context, mind you. There surely are contexts where it would fit, but it is not Far over the Misty Mountains cold.)

I mean, everything about this lovely lady - from the dress to the voice - screams Elf/Faery. (1990s Elf/Faery, what's more, but that's a different kettle of fish.) This is a dwarf song. It should not sound pseudo-Elvish/Elfin.

At which point I must realise that I'm being kind of sexist, here, because of course Dwarves come in two sexes, too (although, at least if you take the Pterry view of them, they traditionally only come in one gender...). As Gimli so kindly reminds us in the movie adaptation, they don't crawl out of the earth. ~~Neither should the Uruk-haî, technically, but that's yet another topic...~~
However, even granting that Dwarf-women might sing this song, as likely they would, I can't hear it sounding like that.
Which brings us to the question of: What do Dwarf-women sound like, really? Considering that they have beards, I've kind of been assuming that they'd also show other signs of heightened testosterone levels - such as deep voices. Even if we assume that this is fantasy and doesn't do the whole RL hormone thing, I'd just instinctively assume that Dwarf-women are Altoes at the very least.
And that's where, for me, the linked video goes wrong. Because even if I'm ok with the lead vocals (about which, as I said, I am uncertain), that high-pitched background vocal ruins it. Maybe a Dwarf-child might have such a high voice, but this is not a childish voice singing (don't ask me to explain, as I said, I have no idea about the technique, but you DO hear it).
Which brings us to yet another question, namely, the question of sharing things. I mean, I like to sing, for instance. I like to sing songs that were never written for my (pathetic) vocal range. Many of the songs I sing to Felix aren't meant to be sung by an unschooled mezzo-soprano. Shanties, for instance. That's ok, because Felix is not (yet) particularly picky and doesn't know the originals, anyway.

I would NOT, however, record myself and share it on a large scale, even if I thought I could sing well enough to pull that off, if my voice just doesn't fit the song. Because even if a gap exists - as in the case of this song - that just doesn't fill the gap. To my mind.

Does this post have a point? I dunno. I guess so. What do you think? Am I just being weird here? Or would you, too, prefer to have a recording of this song sung by a couple of Altos or guys? What do Dwarf-women sound like in your head? Talk to me!

(brought to you by Work Replacement Activity #24601)

ETA: Just to make that clear, I don't mean to bash the good lady. I'm just analysing and discussing my reaction to her video and her musical choices. Completely subjective. Mind you, my subjective reaction to people's music is very often weird. For instance, I still don't get what's supposed to be great about Adele: I listen to her and think "Ok, yeah, I guess she's got a powerful voice, but... what else?". Clearly I'm clueless!

Current Mood: disappointed

a.k.a. important announcement!

Two awesome RL friends and artistic inspirations of mine,

eliathanis and

fuchs, have launched their epic original sci-fi/fantasy webcomic Soraccant. First six pages online, updates every Sunday! Go check it out!

Current Mood: excited

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oloriel

April 2023

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The lyf so short

The crafte so longe to lerne

Entries tagged with fandom

Brain!fail

Polysyllabic barbarities (and other crazy stuff Tolkien did)

And the world keeps moving

In more cheerful news

The Professor!

Whenever you think you can take me seriously, I prove you wrong

AHAHAH

Random observation (of the fannish sort)

Tolkienic hereticism, ignore at will

Fannish squee

Fannish meme

I can be Hobbit-squeeish without even having seen the film, pardon the capslock

I'm easily amused today

Commercial Break!

MEFAs - the end of an era (or some such)

B2MeM Re-cap

On the middle-earthly Middle Ages - a ramble.

Token meme

Kinda meta voice thoughts