Tag: writing
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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…
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Free will v. Determinism
I do not believe in fate/destiny. I’ve no background in philosophy (so I’ll happy concede that I have no idea what I’m talking about), but I do not believe in it simply because all things occur within the law of probability. For example, if event X only has a 1% chance of occurring but still…
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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,…
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Your wish becomes somebody’s command
A dull yellow schoolbus rumbles to a halt and out comes a sole student – Mitchell Green. Without looking back, Mitchell begins his short walk home – no more than a mile. He feels the bus rumble away behind him, the vibrations pulsing through the road up through his sneakers and body. A forward swing…
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The magic is in the gaps
Ha! There’s a pile of anxiety-related books on my coffee table waiting to be read. I am currently reading the Selected Stories of Robert Walser and it is very good – in fact, it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a while (it was recommended to me by the clerk of a communist…
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Hope at the End of the World #3
Like the beacon of Amon Dîn Hope is kindled Or the straining of a voice In a concert-exhausted throat Hope lies in the proles, In people coming together, Uniting as a community Their mutual love blossoming Into something far greater Than the sum of their parts As in ‘big things,’ Hope Also lies in the…
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Different
Everything could be done differently. In fact, everything is done differently; that’s the (beauty of the) subjective human experience. But, that’s me ignoring the question. What could I do differently? A lot of things, certainly, but many things are probably so ingrained and unconscious that they’d be extraordinarily difficult for me to do differently. Anyway,…
The AM Intrigue 