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but you can just tell if something is going to be long lived or not

You know, a lot of classical music was just written so that the composer would get a check at the end of the day. He wasn't necessarily trying to write music that would last forever, but he did know that the better music he wrote, the more likely it was he'd keep his job.

of course

What's sad is that books like Harry Potter will likely go down in history as "classics" along with true masterpieces like Middle-Earth, as if the two are comparable

Depends. I rather fancy that when the Great Catholic Monarch comes around, people will realize that Harry Potter just can't measure up to LOTR.

Tolkien set the bar for fantasy, and I have seen very, very few come anywhere near. Rowlings didn't even try.

I think Lewis' Space Trilogy is really good, though very different in nature

Funny story about that.

Tolkien and Lewis noticed that sci-fi and time travel stories were becoming more and more popular. So they did a little challenge between themselves: they'd draw straws, one would write sci-fi, and the other would write time travel. Lewis got sci-fi, and wrote the Space Trilogy. Tolkien got time travel, and wrote a little story about an English sailor who finds an island in the Atlantic where elves still live, and learns the history of the Ainur, the angels of Middle-Earth.

Is that work recounted in the "History of Middle Earth" collection?

I think it's the beginning of the first volume.

getting to the end of LoTR right now

I've read it... eight times? At least.

I don't understand half of the deep descriptions of geography

But other than that, sublime

Specially the dialog, which is noble and human, and not straight from some cringe worthy fanfic

Do you have a copy with a map?

Yes, but I follow a bigger online map. Rather than the ovverall geography (mountains or hills to this and that direction) I mean the more detailed descriptions of the landscapes, paths, etc

Oh, I see.

I can't give examples, since I'm reading it in spanish and I don't know the translation of the words

No, I know what you're talking about.

Cool

wip

Noice.

Noice.

You do this stuff for a living?

nope. You have to be much faster and more fluent for tgat

In my boredom (and possibly a touch of vanity), as well as my mediocre knowledge in heraldry, I decided to put together a coat of arms for myself.

Ah, it did not send.

Perhaps it will this time.

not bad

I've been meaning to produce one for myself and my future progeny but have not yet

The bottom should be pointy

Not necessarily.

At least not to my knowledge.

A friend made this for me when we were running a half-imaginary country together.