The month of November is nearly at an end and although I have kept up with and finished the reading for The Return of the King I have yet to engage in any of the conversation about the book. And that is a tragedy that simply cannot be born. So over the course of the next few days I will endeavor to get up to speed.
I heartily invite you to participate in the discussion whether you read this along with us this month or simply know the story from the book and/or film.
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. I’m glad that we are ending them together.
It has been a tremendous pleasure to spend the last eight weeks with you fine folk, praising and criticizing, dissecting and devouring the short fiction and poetry of Neil Gaiman.
The first time I read and reviewed the Fragile Things collection I wrote:
“Short story collections are something of an enigma. I have read a fair number of short story collections this year, and while some were fantastic from start to finish others contained stories ranging from the very good to the very average. Fragile Things occupies this latter category.”
My opinion of some of the stories in this collection changed in the positive direction when I later purchased the audio version of Fragile Things, but by and large I still agree with my initial assessment of this book. It has some of the very best examples of Neil Gaiman’s tremendous talent in the short story medium. And it contains examples of the things I just don’t care for in Neil’s writing. And there are some that fall squarely in between. There are more stories and poems that I like than those that I don’t and I do find myself coming back to various stories in the collection every few years come autumn.
I do appreciate everyone’s dedicated participation. This extra wrinkle in the R.I.P. Challenge has been so much fun.
And now, let us come to the end.
Here the air was still, stagnant, heavy, and sound fell dead. They walked as it were in a black vapour wrought of veritable darkness itself that, as it was breathed, brought blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind, so that even the memory of colours and of forms and of any light faded out of thought. Night always had been, and always would be, and night was all.
And so we leave Sam, a reluctant Ring-bearer, wearing Isildur’s Bane as his much loved Mr. Frodo is carried off, not dead, to an uncertain fate. J.R.R. Tolkien really knew how to end things with suspense, and his publishers picked the perfect place to end this volume of The Lord of the Rings. We the readers now go forth to witness the king’s return as Sam and Frodo are left hanging from this cliff for the next 150 pages or so.
Could anything be more fitting than to read about the darkness and terror of a spider-shaped being of pure malice over Halloween weekend? Shelob is the stuff of nightmares for those readers who imbibe peril.
It is with both sadness and excitement that we come to the end of our group read of The Two Towers. Sad because that means we have a little over 300 pages left (including the MUST READ appendices) of our journeys with the Fellowship. Excitement because the best is yet to come.
Andrea came up with this week’s discussion guides. If you are not familiar with the story presented in The Two Towers you may want to skip the rest of this post, as we will be embracing spoiler-laden discussion.
“I suppose I could claim that I had always suspected that the world was a cheap and shoddy sham, a bad cover for something deeper and weirder an infinitely more strange, and that, in some way, I already knew the truth.”
And here we are, the penultimate discussion post for the group read of Neil Gaiman’s short story collection, Fragile Things. After this we have just one poem, two short stories, and a novella left. Hard to believe we are almost done. Thankfully, we have some treats in store for us with what remains.
But before that, we have four stories from this past week’s reading to discuss. I find myself in great anticipation every Sunday to see how you dear readers come out on the week’s selections. So let’s get right down to it.
Look out for spoilers!
(Image created by Ian Windling)
“Out of the shadows of legend I begin a little to understand the marvel of the trees, I think. I have lived to see strange days. Long we have tended our beasts and our fields, built our houses, wrought our tools, or ridden away to help in the wars of Minas Tirith. And that we called the life of Men, the way of the world. We cared little for what lay beyond the borders of our land. Songs we have that tell of these things, but we are forgetting them, teaching them only to children, as a careless custom. And now the songs have come down among us out of strange places, and walk visible under the Sun.” ~King Theoden
We have followed the victors through their battle at Helm’s Deep, have witnessed the fate of Isengard, have been given a glimpse of what happens when the Ents go to war, and have begun a new, arduous leg of a journey with two brave hobbits and their suspicious guide. We have come through the middle section of The Two Towers and await the rest of Frodo, Sam and Gollum’s journey up to Shelob’s lair.
But before then we have the joy of talking about all the adventure we’ve experienced with various members of the Fellowship this past week. I had the privilege of asking the questions to prompt this week’s discussions. I like to talk about The Lord of the Rings…A Lot!!! So the answers are verbose and filled with the kind of information you do not want to know if you happen to be unfamiliar with Tolkien’s tale and want to experience it for yourself one day. As for the rest of you, let’s talk Tolkien!
