Category: Miscellaneous

  • Fever Dreams & Delusions of Grandeur
  • Art not Power

    Art not Power

    J.R.R. Tolkien was a prolific letter writer, so much so that there is an entire tome compiling his correspondence. In Letter 131, Tolkien writes that “[Elvish] ‘magic’ is Art… and its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination.” Distilling this into a theme of Art versus Power, this magic of Tolkien had already meant…

  • Hope in Decline

    Hope in Decline

    Decline is something I find myself thinking a lot about these days, for obvious reasons as I gesture at the state of the world, at the state of America. A few weeks ago, I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in theaters for its 25th anniversary. Having seen it so many times,…

  • The Magic of the Song of Durin

    The Magic of the Song of Durin

    You, the first-time reader of The Lord of the Rings, experience the events of the story exactly as some of its more unknowing characters do; that is, you have no idea what’s going on: there’s all this talk about destroying the One Ring, which you’ve come to understand is essentially a symbol of pure evil,…

  • Into the Dragon’s Den

    Into the Dragon’s Den

    After many months – oh, how I’ve grown – my contract job comes to an end. Ahead of me are two interviews and either a job or limitless opportunities – oh, how liberating. I do not put all my hope in these interviews; the future is my imagination. My hope is in myself, and I…

  • The Foranfolk

    The Foranfolk

    A cold rain battered the inundanted little village of Foran. Its residents and families lie huddled together in their fauna-based communal homes, nearly resembling penguins, though they knew not of this. Lightning crashed, rooves leaked, and mothers hushed babies’ cries, but still the Foranfolk persisted. Spark shimmered his way into his father’s lap, and the…

  • The Winter Solstice

    The Winter Solstice

    From an instagram post sent to me by a crush: