This always ends up happening...

So I think I must have some sort of commitment issue when it comes to blogging. I'll go through a phase of putting up loads of posts and then go months and months without writing anything. Then I'll feel suddenly inspired again and come back to it, only probably to be distracted by life and forget about blogging all over again.

To tell you the truth, though, that's really what's happened to me since I last posted; I've been distracted by life. I'm about to start my final year of my undergraduate degree in September. That means I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do after I graduate and, consequently, trying to work towards gaining experience (and making money so I can, you know, live my life) to give myself a better chance of doing what I want to do after I leave university. I'm not going to lie and say I've been too busy ever since January to post, because I haven't, but up until mid-May, that wouldn't have been a lie. Because one of my courses, Drama, which is now my only course, since it's the one I'm majoring in, is so hands-on and practical when it comes to course work, it takes up probably about 70% of my time during term. This year, I didn't have any exams for Drama, which meant that we were assessed purely on our assignments during the year, which in turn meant that I couldn't rely on average work to get by this year, with a focus on exams at the end. And to be honest, I preferred it so much more that way. For courses like costume design, of which I will be an advanced student come September, this is really the only way you can do it. All that meant that, during term, I used the 30% of my time that I wasn't doing Drama work doing work for French and also trying to retain what little of my sanity I have left. I've also had to do pretty scary things like submit a dissertation proposal (Celtic Mythology in the Plays of Shakespeare, in case any of you are curious) and choose courses for my final year. So, honestly, since May, I've just been trying to relax a little after what has been a pretty intense year, mentally and physically.

Here's a photo of some work I did for my costume design ideas book to make this post a little more interesting

Also, if I'm honest, I think I've been in a bit of a year-long reading slump. I still love reading and I always will. I still have the urge to buy ridiculous amounts of books. I don't know what it is. I just don't prioritise reading like I used to any more and that makes me sad. I'm still always reading something and I can't leave the house without a book, but I have so many other things going on in my life that I'm finding it difficult to make time just to read (which is why I relish my 40 minute train journey into university, because it means I can read uninterrupted).

So I'll still be posting about books, don't worry. I haven't lost interest in books, I just need to make more time for them. I have a few reviews that I want to do, so expect one on some Shirley Jackson, Hemingway and more George R.R. Martin. But I also want to try other things, like movie reviews, possibly some DIYs, if you're good, talking about issues that I feel are important (for example, issues that affect us fabulous ladies and the equally fabulous members of the LGBTQ+ community) and I want to explore blogging about fashion, too, since I've been reading fashion blogs since I was, like, 15 and always wanted to be a super cool fashion blogger like Tavi Gevinson or Arabelle Sicardi or something. Let's add it to the list of other things I want to be when I grow up.

Here's another photo of my ideas book. Is this boring? I hope it's not boring. Look at it, it's Pride and Prejudice, it could never be boring.

So this ended up being an information dump about my life. Many other things have happened, which I'm sure will come up in later posts, but I feel like I've talked too much here anyway.
I'm going to London next Saturday for three weeks to do an acting course, so expect some fab pictures of that when I come home. I can't promise I'll post when I'm there, but I'll try.

I'll try harder with this blog, I really will.

Women in Tolkien Part 2

Continued. I just have a lot of feelings about Tauriel...
 
OK, now on to part one million of this post, The Great Tauriel Debate. When I started writing this post, I hadn't seen The Desolation of Smaug. I was still undecided as to whether I wanted Tauriel in the movies or not. When I first heard about her, I was really, REALLY not into the idea of her at all. I didn't want a completely non-canon main character anywhere near those movies and I even felt a little bit betrayed by PJ, who'd done such an incredible job at staying faithful to The Lord of the Rings, that he would write in a completely new character. It didn't bother me at all that Galadriel, Saruman and Radagast made appearances in An Unexpected Journey, and even if I wasn't all that into the idea of Azog, who in canon wasn't even alive during the events of The Hobbit, I could get past it. But I hated the idea of a new character.
BUT (yep, another "but"), after having seen the new movie no less than three times and reading interviews with Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens, I have completely changed my opinion of her and the reasons she was written into the story. Something I never thought about was that there are no female characters in The Hobbit. I know this is contrary to everything I've said in Part 1, but I'm not going to deny it or not acknowledge it. That fact in itself doesn't bother me hugely. It's a great story and just because there are no women in it doesn't necessarily mean that Tolkien is sexist. But it's still true and Peter Jackson took the opportunity to change that. I think what people need to remember is that these movies are adaptations. They don't pretend to stick 100% to the books and quite frankly, they'd be pretty boring if they did. The Hobbit works brilliantly as a book, but as a movie on its own it just wouldn't work. So, we can't really attack PJ for adding stuff in (within reason, of course), making it a bit more exciting and fleshing it out a bit. So, in terms of Tauriel as a new character, I got over it. Now let's talk about why she is so fucking badass (ooh swearing, that's a new one!) and why she is so good for this movie franchise.
Let's start simply with her as an Éowyn-type figure. She's a woman and she's head of the guard, and she can use a bow almost as well as our old friend Legolas can. That in itself is pretty damn impressive. But she's also way ahead of Legolas and Thranduil in terms of her moral stance on the whole spiders and orcs and general rumblings of war going on all over Middle Earth thing. Thranduil doesn't give a damn as long as he manages to keep it out of his kingdom and, being his son and presumably having a similar character and probably being heavily influenced by his father, Legolas starts out thinking the same way. She's the one, though, who doesn't see it like that, and who convinces Legolas that they have to care, that they have to help. So, she's intelligent as well as good with weapons and high-ranking in the Mirkwood army. So far, so great.
The one thing I've seen people complain about since the movie's release, however, is the whole Tauriel/Kíli/sort of Legolas thing. I get why this annoys people. Here's a great female character with loads of potential, but she's also part of a sort of love triangle (not sure whether it is or isn't, I can't decide whether Legolas actually has feelings for her or whether he just doesn't like dwarves and is pissed off she likes one). I understand all this, but it doesn't bother me. Again, why shouldn't she have a thing with a guy? It's not as if her thing with Kíli is an Aragorn and Arwen scale romance. I mean, we're not even sure she's got real feelings for him or if it's just a sort of crush-type thing. You have to bear in mind as well that she's meant to be a very young elf, so is probably less bothered about doing what is proper or respectable than Legolas and most certainly Thranduil. I don't think the whole thing takes away from her character at all, either. It even made me able to connect with her a little bit more, showed us some of her emotions instead of her simply being an action hero-type figure. Watch any superhero movie and there is always a love interest. People never complain about that. My point is that I don't think it's as big of a deal as some people make it out to be. She's allowed to be interested in men, it shouldn't be viewed as a crime. And as for the whole "She walks in starlight" thing, yes it's cheesy, but have you listened to most of what Aragorn and Arwen say to each other in The Lord of the Rings? These are the kinds of movies, I think, where there isn't really room to be cynical, because you'll end up hating every second if you are. In short, Tauriel is great and if she's looking for the dwarven D, I say good for her, go get some.

I just realised that I forgot to talk about Lúthien and how she pretty much fucked Melkor up in The Silmarillion, but maybe that's a post for another day. This one is getting way too long already. So basically what I'm trying to argue here is that yes, the women in Tolkien's work may be few and far between, but the ones that are there (including newly invented ones) are pretty great and should be treasured. You can say what you like about Tolkien's inclusion of women in his stories, but there is absolutely no denying that when he wrote the ones he did, he wrote them right.