Rabbit in the headlights

[altariel]

Ah. Well, since I foolishly entered into this meme by posing some questions to edrys, here is the last bit of it.

"I want everyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more, no less.

Ask me anything you want.

Then I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this, allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything."

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Phew, it's taken me a while to answer these, sorry! :-D

1. I'm going to give honourable mentions to Tove Jansson's Moomin books, Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books, and Elizabeth Enright's Melendy books. But I'm going to pick The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl, which is about an observer from an advanced society on a planet about to destroy itself with the Bomb. Several reasons why. Firstly, because it blew me away when I first read it (when I was about ten or eleven). Secondly, because it is about all my most favourite themes (the individual in society, the workings of totalitarianism and authoritarianism). Thirdly, because it might be responsible for turning me into a sociologist (which is not a cause for blame!). And, finally, because it was out-of-print for years and, when I first got active on the Internet, I found the author's website. I wrote to her gushing about the book, and she wrote back, and arranged to send me a signed copy. (And, while I have the chance, I'll plug one of her other book too, Enchantress from the Stars, which is a brilliantly constructed narrative about different cultural perceptions of magic and science, switching between three POVs.)

2. I gave some answers to this up-thread, but the short answer is that we get history written by the victors (Elendil and the Faithful) and that if we (as fictional historians) were able to look at more Númenorean sources, we might find a very different picture of what happened during the Downfall. Basically, I just like being contrary! ;-D

3. I don't think I would do anything differently. Éowyn's actions always seemed perfectly explicable to me. I might move in a bit more quickly once Faramir started showing interest.