#i am Prolife

[elodieunderglass]

Having dug out the Unfinished Tales to reference a conversation Tolkien wrote between Gandalf and Pippin (but didn’t publish) I thought I’d share it. Gandalf is talking to Pippin about the history of Thorin’s company, hobbits and why he chose Bilbo.

This is evidence for the grand statement I just made about how Bilbo was intended to be a catalyst that changed his society, and that hobbit society was indeed significantly different after his journey, with large social changes occurring between The Hobbit and Fellowship. But it’s also a very funny passage to me so here it is:

‘And then there was the Shire-folk. I began to have a warm place in my heart for them in the Long Winter, which none of you can remember.

They were very hard put to it then: one of the worst pinches they have been in, dying of cold, and starving in the dreadful dearth that followed. But that was the time to see their courage, and their pity one for another. It was by their pity as much as by their tough uncomplaining courage that they survived. I wanted them still to survive.

(😭😭😭😭. Also the theme of having pity for each other is what redeems both Bilbo and Frodo re: Gollum.)

But I saw that the Westlands were in for another very bad time again, sooner or later, though of quite a different sort: pitiless war.

(This is possibly one reason why this passage didn’t make it to publication - Gandalf shouldn’t have had this much foreknowledge of the upcoming war of the ring.)

To come through that I thought they would need something more than they now had. It is not easy to say what. Well, they would want to know a bit more, understand a bit clearer what it was all about, and where they stood.

(It’s also explaining that Bilbo’s role in Thorin’s company was predetermined both by a more omnipotent Gandalf and by Fate; that Gandalf selected Bilbo to be a social catalyst, to return and provoke hobbit society into a more adaptable, resilient state; therefore increasing their chances of surviving.)

They had begun to forget: forget their own beginnings and legends, forget what little they had known about the greatness of the world. It was not yet gone, but it was getting buried: the memory of the high and the perilous. But you cannot teach that sort of thing to a whole people quickly. There was not time.

(Thus Bilbo was supposed to be changed, and return changed by his journey, to teach his people.)

And anyway you must begin at some point, with some one person. I dare say he was “chosen” and I was only chosen to choose him; but I picked out Bilbo.’

‘Now that is just what I want to know,’ said Peregrin. ‘Why did you do that?’

‘How would you select any one Hobbit for such a purpose?’ said Gandalf. ‘I had not time to sort them all out;

(He is SO funny)

but I knew the Shire very well by that time, although when I met Thorin I had been away for more than twenty years on less pleasant business. So naturally thinking over the Hobbits that I knew, I said to myself: “I want a dash of the Took” (but not too much, Master Peregrin)

(This is brilliant we are always BODYING pippin constantly. NOT TOO MUCH TOOK 👀. We were ROBBED not having this in canon )

“and I want a good foundation of the stolider sort, a Baggins perhaps.” That pointed at once to Bilbo.

(Eugenics! Observing them like laboratory mouse lines! Call him a Charles River BILB/o the way you’re genotyping these poor little bastards for your purposes)

And I had known him once very well, almost up to his coming of age, better than he knew me.

(??? Hiding in the bushes spying or…?)

I liked him then. And now I found that he was “unattached” – to jump on again, for of course I did not know all this until I went back to the Shire. I learned that he had never married. I thought that odd, though I guessed why it was; and the reason that I guessed was not the one that most of the Hobbits gave me: that he had early been left very well off and his own master.

(Was it cos he’s gay as fuck, Gandalf)

No, I guessed that he wanted to remain “unattached” for some reason deep down which he did not understand himself – or would not acknowledge, for it alarmed him.

(I 100% now and for always love a narrator in a constant state of Just Fucking Lies To Everyone All The Time, Giving Us Nothing, Acknowledging Nothing Including Himself. NOPE NOT PROCESSING ANYTHING TODAY THANKS. WE’RE CLOSED. COME BACK TOMORROW. just A Massive Liar about everything and for what!!! Bilbo Baggins my beloved you were born wrong.)

He wanted, all the same, to be free to go when the chance came, or he had made up his courage. I remembered how he used to pester me with questions when he was a youngster about the Hobbits that had occasionally “gone off ”, as they said in the Shire. There were at least two of his uncles on the Took side that had done so.’

You can see why I love this! And I can see why Tolkien didn’t include it, too. Still very fun passage and near enough to canon to be used if you ever want to.

[they-are-a-prolife-autist]

Who the fuck are you to end someone’s life “for their own good,” before they’ve even had a chance to live it? You can really see into their future and get to decide with your God-like wisdom that they’re better off dead before they’re even born? Who died and made you judge, jury, and executioner? You really look around at people in poverty, or with disabilities, and think to yourself, “damn someone should have ended them a long time ago.” What in the ever-loving arrogant audacity.

[ichijokaoru]

Is that the?

the kamen rider kuuga themed glasses case?

yeah

[angeltreasure]

Defending the unborn, one post and prayer at a time. 😎

[paletimetravelphantom]

At a children's museum for a field trip today and I saw this

Teaching children that life begins in the womb, what a wonderful message and lesson

[markscherz]

Oh you like frogs? Name every frog then

Current tally: 90 (1.18% of all described frogs)

[art-from-within]

Everytime I come across Mohg/Morgott or Godrick content in my timeline, I need to remind myself that pregnancy is actually a very painful process, motherhood is a responsibility and that I am not mentally sane enough to even CONSIDER a relationship with them. Think girl think

[endwersed]

actually, I should break my ankle every time I need to power through writing a long fic - being housebound does wonders for productivity

[armands-cuck-chair]

I keep having a bunch of ideas for a fic based around Armand's cuck chair. I need to at least do an outline or a prompt for it to inspire someone else to write it if they want.

[tesghosterone]

we all got that one mutual in law that takes being a hater a little bit too far

[not-poignant]

For t/f: I assume you’re a huge advocate for physical books over ebooks??

False!

~

Ebooks are hugely accessible, and as someone with massive RSI issues in my wrists (partly from writing), holding heavy books and the repetition of turning pages can be literally agonising, and can even lead to me needing surgery one day for tendon release.

I do love physical books, and I have a large collection that I'm very proud of, and weed on a yearly basis. But I absolutely am not an advocate for them over ebooks, let alone a huge one. Ebooks have been such a game-changer for anyone with accessibility issues.

Readers no longer have to rely on publishers being grudgingly generous enough to offer books in large fonts if they have visual processing issues. They can change the font (most of the time) on an e-reader. Readers no longer have to lug around extremely heavy nonfiction books, and can save their backs and wrists. Readers who live in very small or cramped spaces because of poverty or other reasons no longer have to deal with 'where do I keep all these books' because some of them (or all of them) can be ebooks. Also, almost always - with mostly the exception of some university texts - they're cheaper. What a win!

On an accessibility level, ebooks win every time, especially now that we have so many lighting options so that people don't have to put up with backlight etc. anymore. They highlight just how previously ableist the publishing industry has been around visual accessibility and joint strain accessibility.

So I'm mostly a hardcore advocate of people reading how they want to read. A hybrid mix. Only audio. Only ebook. Only paperbacks. Only hardbacks. Some combination of the four.

I love the smell of books, but I don't love the dust. I love having them organised in my library, but I don't love the eternal problem of never really having enough room. I love my ebook collection, but I sometimes forget to check into it. I love that I can get very large nonfiction tomes in ebook form, but sometimes I find them harder to highlight etc. because there's something visceral to me about dragging a highlighter or pencil across a page. Everything has its pros and cons.

But ebooks beat out literally everything else except audio for accessibility (though I can't do audio ironically because of accessibility, lmao, my auditory processing for language isn't great).

[they-are-a-prolife-autist]

[signaturedish]

Hi glad you're feeling much better!! What's you're all time favourite fics from across your fandoms? Any good ones in Lotrs? SVSSS? Untamed? etc etc gimme em you're tastes are sooo goooood

This made me switch to my iPad because all time fave fics is a very serious topic .

Also thank you lol, I hope you’re doing well too!!

LoTR will sadly have to be omitted, I’ve only read a couple in the last seven years. I got really into The Hobbit for a second, but I liked the more light-hearted stuff and ran out pretty quickly T-T

These are all complete except from the TMA ones-

SVSSS: Tarnished Gold, Metagaming, We Should Stick Together, Deluxe System 2.0: Co-op Mode!, High Mountain How I Long, I Wish You Were My Husband, Tongfang

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend I Wish You Were My Husband- it’s an au using another book’s set up, so you get a solid character reintroduction

The Untamed: Rotten Work, Hunters Seeking Solid Ground, By Any Other Name, To You I Am, I Started from the Bottom/And Now I’m Rich, I Will Be Chasing a Starlight, Lynchpin

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend I Will Be Chasing a Starlight- it’s an au with a Star Trek backdrop so you don’t need context

TGCF: Thousand Gold Come-and-Go Stew, No Paths Are Bound, A Mighty Ocean or a Gentle Kiss, No Water is Enough, Nacreous, Even Across a Thousand Miles

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend Thousand Gold Come-and-Go Stew- it’s a post epilogue au with an amnesia element and limited cast, so you should follow along fine

The Magnus Archives: Forgive Us Our Tresspasses, Look No Further, The Least He Could Do, Nature Has Taught Her Creatures to Hate

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend Nature Has Taught Her Children to Hate- it’s a retelling overhaul so you’re reintroduced to these characters

SVSSS in particular has a lot of funny 1-2 ch scenario fics so I fully recommend checking that archive out for yourself and rifling around- those are just the ones I consider the best of the best. The Untamed has a tonnn of long-form dramas which aren’t my favorites, but clearly well done if you like those more.

And TGCF and TMA are kind of the odd children- high highs, low lows.

If you or anyone also has recs, I demand them in repayment!

[fancifulplaguerat]

I would greatly appreciate it if my past self stopped naming WIPs like “we’re going to have fun and we’re going to like it” and “YEE HAW !!!!” or “fr.....” because I have a sketched-out twelve-chapter thingymajabor that I was just possessed to edit but I cannot find it literally anywhere. Me frantically keyword searching anything possible and pulling up my 200k fanfiction about a random background character from then I was 12

[shizunitis]

Why do you talk like what a Gen Z believes a victorian poet to sound like? /j

don’t harrass the bereft jester and thought peddler, measks. mebegs, even. he cries easily and there is no shizun to comfort him.

[kuroimarzipan]

i made profile cards of my two active dnd characters so yall know who im talking about and drawing all the time