Sabbatical Diary: Week 13

Nothing of note done, work-wise, for the last week or so. Hey, it was the holidays. Which meant a lot of driving around, and I find it difficult to do much other than think and sing along to the tunes while I’m driving.

I did get a chance to watch and listen to a link my mum sent me a while ago though to a film from the BBC series In Their Own Words: British Novelists, linked from https://www.openculture.com/2012/01/jrr_tolkien_in_his_own_words.html. As it was Tolkien’s anniversary yesterday (he was born 3 January 1892), it seemed an appropriate moment to link it here.¹

The following quote from the man particularly resonated:

Well it is meant to be escapist. Because I use escapism in its proper sense, as of a man getting out of prison.

J.R.R. Tolkien

I also enjoyed the distinction drawn between allegory and application, noting that Shakespeare is mostly application rather than allegory. (This may be obvious to those who are students of literature, but that ain’t me!)

Merry New Year!