Years ago I encountered a young woman who had a bumpersticker "Not All Who Wander Are Lost." I expressed my admiration for it. She cheerfully said that she'd heard it was from a book, but she just liked it because she wasn't very good at directions and her friends made fun of her, but she liked seeing different places. I am seeing the phrase on t-shirts more, and in striking up conversations, find that almost none of the wearers know the reference. Given the designs, including the one that I own*, I suspect that many of the shirtmakers have no idea where it comes from either. It's just a fun saying. Cute, like the Father's Day card I got about a dad driving and being lost.
This is hard for me, because the meaning is quite serious in the book.
On the plus side, I have the opportunity to read LOTR out loud again after a hiatus of almost three decades. As it used to take nine months, even at 30 minutes/night most evenings of the week, I have no hope of finishing this for my oldest granddaughter. Yet it is a great thing to have even started, so that she can share in what was an important part of family culture for the first two sons, including her father. I have changed a few of the voices. It doesn't really matter where it breaks down, as this is a new experience in the world, not a mere echo of an older one.
*I dislike shirts with sayings, or even writing at this point, but certain relatives like them a lot and try very hard to find ones I might like. I wear them around the house, sometimes even when there are visitors.
4 comments:
When I did the Hobbit, I was feckless enough to use chapter boundaries to end a night's reading. I felt very hoarse after Mirkwood.
I admit that I invested in the audiobooks. We wore them out.
I also bought audiobooks of the Fitzgerald Iliad and Odyssey, to play for my son when he was in the cradle. I hoped it might make a poet of him; but it did not. I also did Malory, and Chaucer; but it was Tolkien that took.
Since the Higg's Boson was confirmed we have been able to write an equation that describes our universe rather completely. This Eguation I had put on a T Shirt and wear it regularly. ;)
Or, if you remember Feynman's Lectures on Physics, U=0
There are details in the expression for U, of course...
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