Anu Recommends #12
Middle Earth March: desolation and darkness, and judging books by their covers
Hi and welcome to the Storyteller!
How have you all been? I’m still recovering from the stress and euphoria of being a Gooner last weekend (one pulse-challenging comeback in an important fixture is bad enough, but two, one of which was in an actual final and another which felt like one in all but name?) and as much as I’m luxuriating in the kind of continuing present moment that is so rare in football, I’m also in need of so many naps to make up for the emotional journey.
And for the first time in months, I haven’t opened a book in a few weeks. I’ve been reading a lot of articles, newsletters, and such, but there are some creative projects in the works that haven’t left me with much energy or space to get invested in a new read. I expect that to change over the next week, so stay tuned for what will break this, well, break!
Anyway, this week, before I dive into a new Middle Earth March prompt, there is some other bookish stuff I want to share, namely book cover reveals for two of my most highly anticipated releases for 2023.
Uncle Rick talked to Entertainment Weekly for a short interview to accompany the exclusive cover reveal (utterly gorgeous design by Victo Ngai) and I’m so excited to dive back into Percy’s world! The fact that he’s publishing another book in the Percy Jackson Universe this year even before Chalice comes out (see here for blurb), and that the TV show adaptation is in post-production makes for some very fun things to look forward to if you’re a fan (which, if I’ve not been unsubtle enough already, I am).
Next up is a prequel to Legends & Lattes, which, if you remember, I named one of my favourite books of 2022 in the first-ever edition of the new-look Storyteller.
The publisher’s blurb reads:
When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek.
In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, New York Times bestselling author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.
Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.
Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it.
What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.
Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
First a coffee shop, now a bookstore. Travis Baldree sure knows how to reel us in!
MEM Day 9: Desolation and the coming of darkness
Right, the wait is over!
There is no doubt that Tolkien does despair and desolation as well as he does hope; in fact, it is because the former is so potent and complex that the hard-won latter lands as bittersweet as it does. He does this at a wider level of plot, but also, equally, at an individual character level.
For this prompt, I’m thinking about the characters, rather than the darkness of the external forces of plot, though there is plenty of that. How they simultaneously wrestle with the internal and the situation at hand.
Every Middle Earth character has an inner darkness, a potentially fatal hubris to overcome or succumb to, a weakness open to exploitation. A clear example is the One Ring which uses its own malice and unquenchable thirst for power to render especially the most wise and powerful among them all—Gandalf, Galadriel, Elrond—at more risk to fall. Even the most powerful villain of them all (‘ssup Melkor) was one of the greatest of the angelic Ainur before he descended into pure evil.
But, and here is where one of the core themes of his work shines, there is the hope for redemption, if one chooses to take it.
Even in The Hobbit, the fairytale that began as a bedtime story for his children and can appear rather simplistic and two-dimensional at first glance, the professor shows us that even the best and strongest of us have weaknesses that can be overcome with the support of our friends, those who call us out when we need it, even go against us for our own good. There is the understanding that, of course, sometimes we may learn our lesson too late, our realisation may be tinged with regret and sadness; but we've still learnt it and those who care about us will remember and honour us in all our complexity.
So, though we, along with the characters, traverse the path between despair and hope in their duality, it isn't a plain pendulum between the two. Rather, it's a permanent battle for the balance among these elements, and that is what lends these stories such a realistic disposition and makes them compelling and relatable despite fantastical roots.
What, then, of hope?
As Legolas says, “Thus it is spoken; oft hope is born when all else is forlorn.” When desolation and despair threaten to drown, when the hopelessness engulfs, that is when “time flows on to a spring of little hope”.
Here is a favourite Lord of the Rings quote on hope—
“Despair, or folly?’ said Gandalf. “It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.”
Tolkien's legendarium is far from a simplistic dichotomy of good vs evil or light vs dark as it might appear to the casual observer or reader, and the more I read about the man himself, the clearer the roots of the complexity that is evident beneath the surface of all the Middle Earth lore.
“He was by nature a cheerful, almost irrepressible person with a great zest for life [...] But from now onwards there was to be a second side, more private but predominant in his diaries and letters. This side of him was capable of bouts of profound despair. More precisely, and more closely related to his mother's death, when he was in this mood he had a deep sense of impending loss. Nothing was safe. Nothing would last. No battle would be won forever.” (J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter)
Against that comes this antidote, eternally relevant—
“Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”
All we can decide, as Gandalf tells Frodo (and as we discussed last week), is what to do with the time that is given to us, for ourselves and for the world we live in.
I’m going to sign off on this note, having not even scratched the surface. What do you think about it all?
As always, please feel free send in recommendations—books, movie, TV shows, authors to interview, ideas of what you’d like me to write on, rants/ramblings/excited monologues, GIFs and memes (especially them) and more. Just drop me a line and turn this into a conversation, even if just to say hi and let me know what you thought of the latest issue :) Or share this with someone you think might enjoy it.
Take care and see you next week!
Anu
If you really like the newsletter, please feel free to buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/anushreenande
You can find me on Twitter at @AnuNande (follow for all the football chatter) and on Instagram at @booksinboston.
Hi Anu, just thought I’d mention my site Arsenal Wonderland here on Substack because I see you love writing and Arsenal. AW could be right up your street 👍