Posts by derek@social.coop
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvypqcta4MJOSwca by derek@social.coop
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       20,000 words. ✊
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvyqLT2ujtr2tZh2 by derek@social.coop
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       I've finished part 2 of my book on environmental themes in the Lord of the Rings. Next up... the role of hope and despair.
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvyqg1oTBasoVzk0 by derek@social.coop
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       In addition to being gorgeous, funny, and devastatingly intelligent, my beautiful partner @mara is a talented editor. She's helping me polish my pitch sample, which I'll be sending to publishers (and maybe sharing with you lovely people.)Feels like this is happening.
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvyr5YHZbQ9ySNWa by derek@social.coop
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       What do #Ents have to do with illegal miners in the Amazon rainforest? What do water protectors share with Hobbits traversing the wastes of Mordor? "Where the Roots are long" is an upcoming book (by me!) which explores environmentalist themes in the Lord of the Rings and how they resonate in the modern movement to address the climate crisis.Read an excerpt: https://derek.caelin.cloud/where-the-roots-are-long/#LordOfTheRings #writing #books #bookstodon #ClimateCrisis
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvyscCbfJWtWjy3U by derek@social.coop
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       ‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvytFYFMn0rZ9OO8 by derek@social.coop
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       ☝️  FYI above message: @dynamic @Br3nda @Virginicus @Zumbador @RhinosWorryMe Tagging you because you engaged with me on this topic before.
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvytgqbsckEDvBw0 by derek@social.coop
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       “He turned to the Company. ‘We must do without hope,’ he said. ‘At least we may yet be avenged. Let us gird ourselves and weep no more! Come! We have a long road, and much to do.”
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvyudh55hBAjSBeq by derek@social.coop
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       The third section of my book is going to talk about the role of hope in climate action - how do people keep moving when... /waves hand at the situation.The big takeaway, for me, is that hope is not a prerequisite for action in LoTR. It is a reward. Sam gives up hope on the slopes of Orodruin, but resolves to carry on regardless. Faramir fights even though "it is long since we had any hope". Gandalf gambles everything on a what is admittedly "a fool's hope". They act, even so.
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvyvWdmneDv9A4Iq by derek@social.coop
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       The big difference between Denethor and the Company is actually not whether they have hope. Most of the company agree that it is unlikely that they will succeed.Denethor is different because he loses hope, and decides to give up. Not only does he decide to kill himself - he is willing to bring down others who depend on him. He tries to kill Faramir. He gives up on the defense of Minas Tirith, where he could have been helpful to rally his people against despair. Giving up hurts other people.
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvywG145waBsOJ1s by derek@social.coop
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       Rebecca Solnit has some great things to say here:"So, what do we do when the world is ending? The same things that so many of the giants on whose shoulders we stand did when their worlds were ending. We choose to face our despair—to walk toward it and through it—choose to take action, choose to build movements. We do it because we don't know how it ends, because there are possibilities out there that we simply can't see from here."
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvyx5lxfLOmObdhY by derek@social.coop
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       "We do it because every person organized and campaign won and fraction of a degree of global warming prevented will save lives. Because movements that believe are far more powerful than movements that don't. And, yes, we fight because fighting is one of the ways we get to nurture our courage and generosity and hope and all those other fundamentally human traits that we treasure most—because our lives will be infinitely richer in that struggle than outside of it."
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvyxu6wVbtIW9qAC by derek@social.coop
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       Saying it again in video form: hope and action in #TheLordOfTheRings. If you're not feeling very hopeful right now, that's understandable. We see a lot of the characters in LoTR acting without hope.
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvyypBWJGQ9WrQ7k by derek@social.coop
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       “Come, come!’ said Gandalf. ‘We are all friends here. Or should be; for the laughter of Mordor will be our only reward, if we quarrel.”
       
 (DIR) Post #AqsvyzhmFKvssqP1DU by derek@social.coop
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       “We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees.’ ‘Rightly said!’ cried Beregond, rising and striding to and fro. ‘Nay, though all things must come utterly to an end in time, Gondor shall not perish yet.”
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvz0dYmV9Zm3RAHY by derek@social.coop
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       "I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving-man till the lightning falls."
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvz1LAAO21xHpzFI by derek@social.coop
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       Pleased with my outline themes of Hope and Despair in #TheLordOfTheRings. I'll weave together events from the story with modern climate stories. - Hope and Despair - The Line 3 Protests - Impending Doom of Middle Earth - Despair as a weapon  - The Nazgul  - The Palantir  - The Words of Wormtongue- Responsese to Despair - Embrace Despair (Denethor) - Hope on, Then  - The plan to destroy the ring  - Theoden riding to glory  - Sam in the black lands
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvz2KqT3N72ahFOC by derek@social.coop
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       "To hope is to accept despair as an emotion but not as an analysis. To recognize that what is unlikely is posible, just as what likely is not inevitable. To understand that difficult is not the same as impossible. To plan and to accept that the unexpected often disrupts plans-for the better and for the worse. To know the powerful have their weaknesses, and we who are supposed to be weak have great power together, power to change the world, have done so before and will again." - Rebecca Solnit
       
 (DIR) Post #Aqsvz3JooM925hDwQa by derek@social.coop
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       How often would you guess that the word "hope" shows up in the #LordOfTheRings? Edit: according to my word search, the answer is *399 times*. A small portion of these were social nicities (“Not another letter you’ve forgotten, I hope, Mr. Butterbur?’") but the majority were desires and anticipations. It's a story about hope!
       
 (DIR) Post #AyMf4KOl2dTp4uVoKO by derek@social.coop
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       @Mastodon Smart.
       
 (DIR) Post #Az0gRb6mx2dBqEADdA by derek@social.coop
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       @davidrevoy Something happened between the third and fourth panels that would probably deeply confuse me if I pondered it too much.