Reading List & Thoughts

Hello, everybody! 


I took a couple days in between posts but now I'm back. Life is good despite the fact that what we're all going through regarding COVID-19 is undeniably terrible and bleak. I figured I'd take some time to write about some of the books I've been reading. 

I just finished Plutarch's Lives a few days ago. Undeniably, one of the greatest works of literature of the Western canon. One of the greatest literary works I've ever read, without a doubt. Most literary and scholarly types would know Plutarch's Lives, but for those that don't know, Plutarch was an ancient Greek that wrote biographies, histories, of famous Greeks, then compared them to famous Romans, then showed how they were similar and how they were different. It was so good that it eventually became a part of the Western canon.  For nearly 2,000 years the book was widely read. Still, to this day.

Plutarch starts the 1400 page mammoth of historical biographies with Pericles [Greek] and Romulus [Roman], thus by starting with the founders of each nation, giving them a grand introduction, as they appear rather as myths or folklore, or gods rather than men. Giving them a grand legendary story, maybe not sticking to the facts, he gives us a great introduction to the series.  This introduction is perfect as it sets a foundation myth story that is foundational to any culture.

Although a lot of the book is military conquest facts and historical details, events, and dates, what actually makes Plutarch's work more interesting than mere historical biography is the fact that he's interested more so in the personality and virtues of the characters as opposed to the other stuff. Meaning, that, however, some of his historical details, events, and dates are actually wrong, sometimes going on some random tangent, stories that might portray the character in a certain light or different angle. 

Here are some takeaways from completing the work:

1) Everybody should know at least a little bit about Greek and Roman history.
2) Military history is an important element and should be looked at closely.
3) The virtues of world leaders should be taken into consideration when they're elected into office.
4) In order to be an effective leader, one needs to have lots of free time; thus, when he spends his leisure time, he should spend the time reading works of the western canon, and studying philosophy, thus so when he interacts with people in society, he has a kind and gentle nature. 
5) If you read and finished this book, congrats, as its a heavy book, full of the dry, difficult, Victorian-era one-page sentences [by way of the Dryden translation, which has been revised by Arthur Hugh Clough in the 19th century]. Yeah, there are many one page sentences in the Dryden translation I read, and yes, it was all very hard to keep track of, and yes I did have to reread lines, and yes it was painstakingly time-consuming, but in the end, it was worth it, because I enjoyed what I was reading, what I was learning, and although the process was a chore, in the end, it was worth it because I was passionate about Greek and Roman history, history in general, and adding another great Western canon book to my list of reads. 
6) Read this book! Even if you only read Pericles and Romulus, it would give you such a great introduction to the history of the Western world. It appears to be the case, that at least in terms of written history we can recall from, the Western world starts with the Greeks and Romans. Very important. Foundational.

For a while, I was reading Don Quixote too. I love the idea of a satire about chivalry and knights-errant. What is also interesting is that although most of the stories seem to be jokes, some of them appear to be quite serious and realistic, almost as if they actually happened. Some of it is so realistic that it almost had to have happened to actual people. Some of the events might have been real, others satirized, and what have you. I've been reading a 2013 translation by Edith Grossman, the only woman to ever translate it, and she wrote it in a modern way, giving it more appeal than its usual 1800s translations, which have in my opinion, more of the language of their time. With the Grossman translation, it appears that Don Quixote has been modernized in the best way possible. I plan on eventually finishing it sometime in the near future. Another classic on my list. 

Lastly, I have a book I just started reading tonight, a fantasy novel. It's called The Last Ringbearer by a Russian writer named by Krill Yeskov. I heard about this book through friends on Facebook. They were talking about Tolkien and someone mentioned that someone wrote a book from where Tolkien left off and put things more in the orc's perspective. I asked them what the book was called. I started reading it. While the idea seems like a fanfiction sort of thing, Yeskov is a serious guy, a paleontologist of all things, and if you want a good reason for why he wrote a sequel to the Lord of the Rings, look no further than here, https://www.salon.com/test2/2011/02/23/last_ringbearer_explanation/and although I can't say the guy is a great writer or a literary writer, his style fits the bill decently, and it's a quite a fun read, especially considering that Tolkien never really cared much for his orcs, and here, Yeskov gives them a lot of depth and personality. I've been meaning to read more fantasy, this will work.

Reading has been my one solace during the pandemic. I hope all of you have been reading good books or at the very least recent news articles. It's hard to find time in the day to read but if you make time, the reading will be well worth your time and effort. 

Stay safe.

The Silmarillon

The Silmarillion is JRR Tolkien's epic history of the elves of Middle Earth. It was published and edited posthumously by Christopher Tolkien [his son] and an editor in 1977. I somehow don't believe Tolkien would've published this book on his own accord. However, I'm grateful that his son published it because it is a fascinating work of fantasy fiction. 

Where do I start with this? In the beginning, the Illuvatar [the gods of Middle Earth] created the elves, men, and dwarves. The beginning of the story is what kept me reading all 365 pages. I started reading the book on Tuesday and I finished the book on Sunday.

The Ultimate Supreme Badass of Middle Earth is detailed in the first ten pages. His name is Melkor, later called Morgoth Bauglir, aka the Supreme Mother Fucker of Middle Earth. Why is he so angry? Why is he a monster? Well, you see it turns out that Morgoth was a musician, like all the other children of Illuvatar, he was apart of the Valar. Most of the children played the harmonious music of the Ainur, singing sweet songs. However, Morgoth played his own original music. Being a drama queen band leader, he created music of discord, aka death metal complete with blast beats and shrieking vocals. Basically, I see the arrogant evil side of Morgoth in musicians. Even myself but mostly in others. Musicians are real arrogant assholes sometimes. And I thought that was so interesting psychologically that I would say Morgoth is one of my favorite villains I've come across in fiction. He was a disturbance in the music before it is explained that he wised to be called Lord by others. Morgoth is really cool and the way that Tolkien starts his epic history of the elves is described thus: In the beginning there was music and eventually the music turned to discord, eventually leading to the battles that would go on for hundreds of years in Middle Earth. 

The truth about the Silmarillion is that its very thorny. I found it difficult to actually finish reading this book. In fact, I listened to all twelve hours of the audiobook version but it was so difficult to follow that I decided that I should go ahead and read the actual book if I wanted to truly understand the narrative, thus actually 'completing' the book. I had a biased attitude towards fantasy despite reading Harry Potter, The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings in middle school. In recent years I've been such a science fiction afionado that I sort of look down upon fantasy as a children's genre. Although this is a heavy book that you could knock someone out with it is still a children's novel after all. Young adult if you will.

The book reads like a manuscript history of everything that could, would, and ever happen in Middle Earth. But mostly the Silmarillion is about the Silmarils, these jewels that the elves created that had infinite power. They're very similar to the Rings of Power that Sauron creates later but more beautiful and the elves will die for them. They proceed to fight over them for hundreds of years. This happened here, this happened there, and these are the people who did it, up to the 39th line [Aragon, called Strider later, Lord of men] of this family name and that family name. There is so much going on and it's so hard to follow that most people who attempt to read this book either stop reading it at some point and give up or take a very long time to finish it. Luckily I finished the book in a few days through some very intense reading sessions. Dedication I guess.

There are certain aspects of fantasy writing that I learned are very important to the genre. Here are a few. First, you have to create your own language for your original fantasy universe. If you have interesting names of characters, places, things, and events that in itself will keep people reading. Tolkien was a master philologist, a master of language and it really shows. Even the most boring parts of the Silmarillion contain a mastery of language. Not only did I learn a lot of new words but I was able to pronounce his own made-up words in my own mind in my own accent but because I listened to the audiobook I already knew how the words were supposed to sound, at least according to the British voice actor. However, I found that my own phonetics in my mind were even better and easier to prounouce. Remember that this book starts with a clash of sound and music. Language is apart of that. In addition, I would say that in a great fantasy novel the dialogue between characters shouldn't be overbearing, but rather that they only say what they need to say, the meat and potatoes of dialogue if you will. That is on display here as well. 

Next, if you want to write fantasy you have to have things happening all the time. And you have to explain it. Sometimes it could be simple things like explaining family lines and other times it will be epic battles taking place between dark lords, elves, and men. The fact that something is happening all the time in the Silmarillion makes it more enjoyable. Although as I said the prose is very dry I can't deny that there is always something happening even if it is just the explanations of this, that, and the other. It can get tedious but the creative imagination is powerful at work here.

Lastly, you need epic battles of struggle, strife, and discord. This book is 365 pages and the climax hits at the 180-page mark. It is a one-on-one duel to the death between an Elvish Lord and Morgoth, a melee duel. Morgoth ends up killing the Elf Lord but not without getting his ass kicked. He gets slashed in the face with a sword seven times. During the entirety of the fight, I imagined epic heavy metal music in the background. Sometimes I didn't imagine it because there were times when I would read the book with music in the background. Most of the time it was heavy rock and roll bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Now you see why these battles were so much fun. Sometimes the background music was Richard Wagner. Again this is a book about language, music, and sound despite the fact that most of the time reading is a quiet experience except for the turning of pages fast or slow. 

There's a lot of fun facts about Middle Earth here. My favorite is that the orcs are actually bred from elves. There's a love story between two elves who later find out they are brother and sister. You can guess how that ends up. Men were created way after the elves and are called the Followers. Dwarves were created second. The Dwarves played a great role in the battle against Morgoth. Men lived short lives in comparison to the elves and in the end, it was men who helped build Sauron's power through their evil lust for power. Sauron was Morgoth's protege who went on to become the second great dark lord after Morgoth was trapped in the sky [or something] after hundreds of years battling elves, dwarves, and men. Sauron is the main villain in the Lord of the Rings. Learning about his rise to power was fun but he's no Morgoth. He didn't destroy the music of the Ainur. 

Some of the things Sauron is into is very dark. Maybe a little satanic? He builds this temple to serve the dark lord Morgoth and men bring him, people, to burn alive as a tribute. That was quite morbid. He has an epic one-on-one hand-to-hand combat duel but in the end, he loses and flees his body, leaving nothing but a spirit. He is able to take the form of many things. He is able to take the guise of a beautiful person, charming and deceiving his foes. The Eye of Sauron watches over all of Middle Earth, haunting all living things, the Dark Tower presiding over all. Men quake in terror.

In the end, we have a conclusion to the entirety of Middle Earth that is somewhat more satisfying that the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy [at least from what I remember from middle school]. We find out how the three great wizards of men came to be and how they created the White Council [of elves and men] to counter and watch over all that Sauron does. We have Radagast who is pure of heart and loves animals, who controls and watches over nature. We have Gandalf who is a great leader and friend to men and the half-lings, aka the Hobbits. We have Sauraman who is evil but pretends to work with the good guys while he admires Sauron from afar, seeking all his power and destruction. Gandalf didn't trust Saruman for he already suspected that Sauraman sought the power of the One Ring. And silly Radagast was so sweet that he helped Sauraman find the One Ring by sending all the creatures of Middle Earth in search for it, thinking that it was just part of the plan to keep watch over Sauron. Lastly, we have the pen-ultimate conclusion that it wasn't actually the White Council, elves, men, nor dwarves that ended up saving Middle Earth from Sauron's evil. Rather it was a half-ling, a hobbit named Frodo who, with his friend ended up completing the task that no one else could achieve. Knowing that is very satisfying. But of course, it's written that way.

What a read. If you like fantasy you're going to love this book.