Or Walking in the Word Forest…
As often as I’m lost for words, I’m even more often lost IN words. Words, while they are often imperfect vehicles to convey our thoughts, are the best we can do. While they may be unwieldy tools to carve our finer thoughts, they are all we have.
I think illustrators use images the way most people use words, but as we are not taught how to read pictures in school, it is often like using a tongue not many people speak.
But there’s so much IN a word, they grow like trees, flourish and fade away, or lose the life they once had, shedding meanings like so many autumn leaves, all the while gaining the richness of narrative.
Take a simple word like curfew. A few weeks ago, at the Companie of Saynt George event in Bern, the potter saw me staring bemusedly at a series of pots with handles and tiny holes on the bottom and said “Curfews.” I could have slapped my forehead in consternation. Of course, Howe-you-idiot-you, from the French “couvre-feu”, a lid you place over the evening’s embers, in order to keep them from going out before morning. A word I have used for ages and never thought about, and here it is before me in the flesh, or to be more exact, in unglazed ceramic.
Okay, so I have gaping holes in my general culture, but EVERY word is like that, a tip of a vast iceberg below the waves, the tree that you must go around to peer into the forest behind, or the first step on a path you have to go down, to see what’s beyond the bend.
That’s why I love words, it’s so easy to wander off into them.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT (AND GOT THE T-SHIRT!)
Speaking of wandering off; just returned from a very pleasant medieval event in northern Italy. How wonderful it is to climb the grim gray autumnal Alps in the mist and rain and to come down the other side into summer. Camping out in olive groves near a fabulous ruin, sleeping in a romanesque chapel, and just swimming in the unbelievable September light, where shadows are filled with the warmth of ochres and siennas. The Italian members of St. George look like they have just stepped out of a painting by Uccello or Massacio – as indeed they pretty much have.
I’ll try to post a few pictures next week, and a picture of the t-shirts (it’s the first time in my life I can be both in and on a t-shirt at the same time)…
Meanwhile, here are a few postcards.
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MYTH & MAGIC
Mea culpa, I was so certain that Myth & Magic was hard to find in the US that I made the mistake of mentioning it in the last news. I have since been swamped with kind but stern e-mails from all points cardinal and even the Mid-West informing me that it is very easy to procure. Ooops. I must pay better attention. I’ve even been told that it can be purchased from amazon.ca, which is even a step closer to home.
http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007107951/qid=1063779892/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_2_4/701-5420373-9670752
Even better, my home and native land being blessed with the obligation to accept itself as a bilingual nation, SUR LES TERRES DE TOLKIEN is available in North America.
http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/2841722309/qid=1063780011/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_2_3/701-5420373-9670752
There’s no picture available for the book cover, but you can find that by going here: http://www.john-howe.com/portfolio/gallery/details.php?image_id=331
TALES BEFORE TOLKIEN
Just got copies of Tales Before Tolkien, for all those who wish to read what Tolkien himself may indeed have drawn his inspiration or aspirations from. It’s a very nice collection of stories, and has come at just the right time… I was wondering what to read this week. While it is not an image of Minas Tirith as I would see it today it is pleasing to see an old illustration as faithfully well printed. This particular painting was damaged very badly during the theft of my pictures from the Médiathèque of Sedan in 1997. I wonder what insurance companies do with damaged artwork that they reimburse? It has probably been destroyed or forever filed away.
Just received a VHS copy of the trailer of the documentary being done by the Swedish production company. For once, I was actually able to put up with seeing myself on a screen and did not feel the usual urge to plug my ears long enough to leave the room. The trailer is 13 minutes long, and hopefully we can arrange in time to have it running at the exhibition in Gruyères. (The crew from Solid Ent. actually organises and runs Scandinavia’s only fantasy film festival, which is going to start the day after tomorrow. So, if you aren’t just going to be in Lund at the right time, you can check out the festival site at http://www.fff.se There is an English version of the site, just in case you don’t have time to brush up on your Swedish beforehand.)
