This Week’s Books
I finished reading The Children of Húrin, and I just started reading The Fall of Gondolin, both edited by Christopher Tolkien, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien. These books are linear narratives sewn together from Tolkien’s notes and other published books (The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-Earth). In The Children of Húrin, we are told the tragic story of Túrin Turambar, son of the titular character Húrin, as he lives under the unfolding curse cast by Morgoth, the Devil in Tolkien’s universe. I will write an article about it in the future because it is a captivating story filled with universal themes like free will vs destiny, pride, family relations, and friendships.
This Week’s Articles & Links
1. I like ghost stories and horror stories in general. Not because they “reveal collective anxieties” but because they reveal deep-seated fears in us human beings: the fear of the unknown and the unknowable, the lack of control when facing this fear.
2. I have personal experience with this. When I interned at a public architectural office as a student, I saw firsthand how inflexible “zealots of the old” can be—not only to old buildings but to the entire surroundings of a historic district. I will write an article about my experience one day. I have noticed the same issue here in Japan!
3. I make his words my words. I am not American, but this issue is applicable anywhere socialists/communists try to run for government. It is easier to just create memes about what a politician you have disagreed with than to refute his/her arguments with articulated and convincing ones. That is what we see happening in Brazil now.
