Author: harmamae
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Un Bon Mot – Language Learning is Hard…
No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself. – Tolkien, English and Welsh I’m thinking this is true, as my Spanish and Portuguese “fluency” languishes… It’s tough to learn languages, and I…
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The Case for Ugly Romantic Interests
Good-looking romantic interests can be fun (and too-good-looking-for-their-own-good romantic interests can be even more fun). But I’d like to suggest an ugly romantic interest for a change of pace. This post was inspired when I recently read a book describing the romantic interest as having “mushroom-coloured skin.” The book didn’t turn out to be…
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Tolkien’s Take On True Love
Since we’ve been talking about romance, here’s Tolkien’s take on the subject. He actually wrote an astoundingly long letter on the marriage to his son, in typical Tolkien style: “But… only the rarest good fortune brings together the man and woman who are really as it were ‘destined’ for one another, and capable of a…
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Quotable Misquotes
3 Ways Misquotes Happen “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” –Mahatma Gandhi Delightful little quote, isn’t it? I’ve seen it plastered all over the net, on T-shirts, on bumper stickers. But it nicely illustrates the problem of using quotes, especially ones you find on the internet. According to Wikipedia (behold the…
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A Thought From Diana Wynne Jones – To Plan Or Not To Plan (Your Novel)
“Another common question which naturally follows on from here is Do you plan your book out before you start it? and my answer is always unequivocally, No that kills it dead. This always shocks teachers, who are accustomed to have told their pupils that you can’t write that way. But I am afraid I do,…
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Do You Need to be Younger than 40 to Write Great Novels?
The other day, Little Brown Mushroom Blog linked to an article in the New York Times – an article which claims that most great novels are written by authors under the age of forty. The Little Brown Mushroom Blog was interested in this because they wanted to know if the same was true for photographers.…
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Why Scathing Critiques are More Fun To Read
Some of you may be of the opinion by now that I hate Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet and other assorted romances that don’t fit into my standards of “healthy romances.” I assure you I do not. As some of the comments pointed out, classics become known as classics because they relate to something in…
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The Top Literary Couples as Bad Examples
Healthy Romance Makes Bad Novels, Part II Last week, I argued that healthy, functioning romances (which we’d probably all enjoy in real life) have trouble generating the kind of conflict that drives romance novels. Logically, the next step would be for me to look at some famous literary romances and see if they were healthy…
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Two Questions for Those Who Wish to “Occupy Wall Street”
Occupy Wall Street is scheduled to “sweep” through my city today. Yes, my blog is wading into the seas of current events for a moment. If you’re here to find out about writing and literature, ignore this post. First of all, some questions for the protesters of Occupy Wall Street: 1.) Do you expect the…
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