Friday Sort Of Post

[ithildin]

Since it's Friday, let's play the 'ask me a question' game again. And if you ask me a question, I'll ask you one in return -- if you want :) Any topic, but don't expect answers on anything too TMI or personal.

Comments

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! I ask you a cheesy question and you give me this fantastic one! Thanks for your kind words, by the way. Seeing that I started kindergarten wearing Chewbacca kneesocks and only got geekier from there, "cool" isn't usually a word I associate with myself! ;)

The "big answer" is that I see history (my training) and science fiction/fantasy (my lifelong love) as two sides of the same coin, since they're both trying to get at what it means to be human. One looks backwards, and the other looks forwards, or away altogether, but at heart, they are searching for what is common to humanity across time and space, who we are and what we dream. That appeals to me.

The specific answer, though, is that you cannot consider the Cherokee Nation post-contact, post-Trail of Tears, post-Dawes Act, post-Indian Reorganization Act, (I could keep on going and going here), without a profound sense of displacement. And one of Tolkien's recurring themes, as he wrote in a letter to his son Christopher, is that humanity is "soaked through with a sense of exile." The two are sympathetic to one another, then - they fit. The Cherokee intellectual tradition was one of the first influences for me into thinking, also, that stories need not be factual to be true - in fact, some of the most truthful words are not factual. This freed me to understand the truths that Tolkien and others like him reveal in their work.

I hope that isn't too long-winded or lame. :) It's a beautiful question, and I'm honored that you'd ask!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed your question :) Chewbacca socks, huh? [g] Cool *and* fashionable!

And one of Tolkien's recurring themes, as he wrote in a letter to his son Christopher, is that humanity is "soaked through with a sense of exile."

You've hit one of the things that so draws me into Tolkien's works. There's a reason I get weepy through most of the end of RotK. Frodo's journey, his suffering, and then his exile in his own home, his own land, is heartbreaking. He doesn't get a fairy tale happy ending. He gives up everything to protect what he loves, but doesn't get to enjoy what he saves.

I hope that isn't too long-winded or lame. :) It's a beautiful question, and I'm honored that you'd ask!

No, no! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer! I almost didn't ask, but I'm very glad I did.