Reading List
Reading
On the practice of Reading. Which is an odd one to consider, but it might encompass making your own mythos, ways of understanding make-believe, how to organise your reading and study, and so forth.
✪ On Fairy Stories (1939)
★★★★
Book | A lecture on fairy stories, charming to read and a clever idea or turn of phrase on every page. Relevant for our practice of Reading, understanding the difference between a book which has perhaps successfully evoked a "Secondary World", and one which has not - and a passionate defence of Re-Enchantment, for such books are not just for children (and even those which are must treat their young reader with respect). The essay is around online, and published as Tree and Leaf with a sad, revealing short story called "Leaf by Niggle". LbN is very odd, inessential, but compliments On Fairy Stories well - a story about how the act of artistic creation is a shadowplay for the creation of heaven and earth.
Poem: Mythopoeia
★★
Article | One of a collection of fragments in which Tolkien tries to explain his theory of being a Sub-Creator; not his best explanation, nor his best poem either.