#( hobbit and food get wordy! )

[novinare]

@mymanymerrymuses // kili & hazel

By the time Bilbo Baggins had reached his front door, still marked with the rune Gandalf had banged into it such a long time before, word had already spread over hill and down towards the river.

Not only had he returned to the Shire, but he'd brought someone back with him.

Honestly, Hazel thought as she carefully wrapped a generous parcel of scones and added them to her basket, you'd think he'd brought back a very small dragon, or some kind of goblin, the way people carried on!

A small sachet of tea, some meat pies, a wedge of cheese, a loaf of bread, some clotted cream and a bit of jam for the scones, some generous slices of honey cake... Hazel paused and eyed the basket, it hardly seemed enough for a hobbit that had been away from home for such a long time.

Adding some eggs, cold chicken, a pat of butter, and a jar of her mother's pickles, Hazel lifted the basket and started out towards the Baggins' burrow.

"Don't forget this!" He father called after her, handing her a bottle of cider, "And be careful, who knows what sort of folk has followed Bilbo back from his... adventure." Like any good Hobbit, her father said the word like it had personally offended him (Hazel thought an adventure sounded fascinating, but then, she'd always taken after the Took side of the family!)

Gathering up her things, Hazel started up the hill once again, the late afternoon sun sinking towards the horizon and painting the Shire in gold and warm, burnt orange. Even laden with the heavy basket there was a skip in her step, an excitement to see her cousin, and hear all about his travels.

"Hello! Welcome home!" She called as she made her way to the gate, smiling over to her cousin and his guest, who had his back to her, "I've come with a few little things to tide you over for the evening-- oh--" Hazel reached for the gate, and realized her hands were too full, "Would you mind? I'm a little short of hands!"

[guinned]

I think it's interesting that you focused on the Western Apache practice of leaving as much information out of the story as necessary. First, because Tolkien is notoriously wordy; I have been listening my way through the audiobook of Fellowship of the Ring recently, and I am struck by just how long the hobbits have spent just walking around with lengthy descriptions of food and forest. I'm nearly a third of the way in and they haven't even made it to Bree. Second, I am reminded of the Twain quote "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead". The care that Lola Machuse and the others take in picking out each story to allude to indicates a cultural practice of prioritizing saying the right thing over saying a lot of things, which I believe often gets lost in many avenues of mainstream culture.

Awakened by language: A reaction to Basso's article "Speaking With Names"

Lola Machuse will "depict just enough for you to see what happened, how it happened, and perhaps why it happened" (Basso, 1988). She allows the audience to "Add on to these depictions how you see fit." This notion of efficient and effective language grows from cultural norms of the Cibecue people. Poor storytellers "smother" the audience with too many words or "demand" the audience sees everything "exactly" as they do (Basso, 1988). What is the relationship of the storyteller to the audience? Is the work about the author or about the audience? Does a storyteller build a world in their own mind and merely allow glimpses of it to the audience for them to experience it in the exact detail of the author's imagination? Does the telling of a story transfer the creation to the audience for them to inhabit and imagine as they prefer? Are stories owned or shared?

The Cibecue people "speak with names" of places important to their culture to evoke shared knowledge of stories associated with those places. This practice efficiently relays information and evades difficult dialogues or arguments. Geographic locations are sacred in Cibecue culture and words for these locations allow them to picture these locations and all the cultural heritage associated with them, from events, to ancestors, to allegories. Simply stating the name evokes the intended allegory or message because of the shared culture of the Cibecue people. Their use of language lends evidence to the power of language. Sounds and letters alone do not make language. The transmission of meaning—the sharing of minds—makes language. An infinite invisible system of gateways to different times, different ideas, and different locations makes language. The collective consciousness of entire cultures, living and ancestral, makes language. These feeble attempts at definition restrict language. Names are what something was, is, and can become, but also encompass every interaction of a culture with the name. Each interpretation simultaneously exists in the mind of all with knowledge of the name.

Language connects communities across time and space. Storytellers craft language. This language should evoke and transfer a mental picture or world to the audience. The power to elicit understanding in another or to empower another to engage with a new psychological environment or reconnecting someone with communal knowledge and wisdom radiates from the infinity of language. Authorial oppression of the audience rises from words crafted to do more than evoke. Endless links of details form shackles binding the audience’s mind. The storyteller should tell "just enough" (Basso, 1988). I've probably said too much.

Basso, K. H. (1988). “Speaking with names”: Language and landscape among the Western Apache. Cultural Anthropology, 3(2), 99-130.

[singtheskyandfightlikehell]

tagged by @endless-nygmobblepot (you’re one of the coolest people in this goddamn fandom omg)

Rules: tag 10 of your followers you want to get to know better.

Name: I’m too paranoid to actually put my name on the internet, especially since I’ve already put my (small) university on here Nicknames: Q. {let’s be real, I don’t have nicknames irl & I just make up crap online. But I’m sticking with Q from here on out bc it’s relevant to my real name & it’s an awesome letter. Also puns. I have usernames in games from The Qniverse to Qneiform & I love them all. also John de Lancie :) } Gender: ??? Probably genderfluid or something idk I’m too busy for the kind of self-reflection I’d need to figure it out. All pronouns are acceptable but most people go with female. I aim for androgyny in appearance, though, if that matters Star sign: Libra Height: 5′3″ Sexuality: Ace/Pan (although I often use the Ace/Bi flag bc I like purple more than yellow tbh & I know some people don’t really distinguish between the two) Hogwarts house: Slytherin-just-kidding-Ravenclaw (for HPMOR fans). Seriously though, I’m cunning & manipulative but I manipulate with the end goal of knowledge, so... Ravenclaw Favorite animal: Tie between all corvids & otters Average hours of sleep: I aim for 8 hours a night, but I can range from 3 - 13 Current time: 12:44 PM (bc UP is EST I guess?) Dog or cat person: Definitely cats. Blankets you sleep with: Really soft/heavy blue one, red one with a tan scroll pattern that I got at a christmas party, black comforter, and a really soft & fluffy Hobbit themed one Dream trip: Everywhere. But if I had to pick & it had to be a real, modern location... Norway. I want to live there tbh. I’d go see the fjords, tour historical Viking sites, & stock up on good European foods like ligonberries, butter cookies, hazelnut ice cream, and mulberry juice Dream job: Viking Archaeologist When I made my blog: I don’t remember actually. I had a different blog about 4-5 years ago, but then I made this one about half a year after that bc I was embarrassed about shipping as a 15 year old kid but now I’m just like this. I ran a cringey spn blog for a year+, then it became a cringey aph blog, and now it’s mostly a gotham blog (since March, when I found the show via HMB & youtube) Followers: 227 (what I get for being multifandom and political lol) Why I made a tumblr: Initially because it looked fun (I knew somebody on here who did cosplay tutorials) and then this specific tumblr bc I wanted to ship without having to admit to my friends that I can be fucking sappy. But I don’t care anymore they all know Reason for my URL: I love this question bc I literally don’t have a reason. It seems poetic or something but I literally just sat down & was like ‘I need a url’ and this popped into my head. I think the beginning may have been inspired by the Ballad of Serenity, but since it’s not fandom-specific I don’t have to change if/when I change fandoms

(Holy fuck am I a wordy person)

Alright, so I don’t have a ton of followers & I don’t even know who is active, so... I’m just gonna tag people I’ve talked with on here before (and some I know irl but whatever). Don’t feel like you have to do it if you don’t want to/don’t have the time!

I tag @balestrazzi @papinygma @freckledandspectacled @riverance @elisethewritingbeast @rose-miilk @anoasisinawasteland @mizuroseking @nerdierthannecessary (I say, pretending the two of us aren’t telepathically communicating across the country as I type), and literally anyone else who wants to - just because we haven’t talked doesn’t mean I don’t care, I’m just always nervous about irritating people. And if we haven’t spoken before, you should always feel free to message me, just please be polite!