iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I think I would say that the 1977 publication gave people their first detailed look at Tolkien’s Silmarillion. So yes, more or less — though for my money the LR is his magnum opus.

000

My point — and I think we agree on the underlying details — was that the 1977 Silmarillion, a posthumous and in some ways unsatisfactory compilation of materials of different date and stages of composition, is a very odd candidate for JRRT’s ‘magnum opus’.

201

So — sorry, I still don’t see how this is relevant to the claim that the published Silmarillion was JRRT’s magnum opus.

100

Sure, but I’m not sure how those points are relevant. Christopher himself was unsatisfied with the published Silmarillion.

100

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

You could argue that the body of first age legends and linguistic material is his magnum opus, but I don’t think there’s any sense in which the published Silmarillion can take that title.

100

This is a man whose main interests are, say, 800-500 BC; so for his purposes the Middle Republic is functionally Late Antique, and anything later Mediaeval.

150

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I’ve heard Nic Terrenato call Late Republic material ‘mediaeval’ before.

130

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

On the contrary, I fear these are exactly the people with whom vice-chancellors will do their best business.

000

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Even the Odyssean afterlife is very limited, though: cf Achilles’ comments on serfdom in life vs kingship of the dead.

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Yes, the Odyssey (perhaps a generation later) has very different ideas about death. Generally it is considered a more ‘modern’ text, and the Iliad to express older/more conservative views.

220

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I don’t know the world anthropology, but in Greece at least oblivion (or something very much like it) seems to have been the earlier position (especially in the Iliad). A defined afterlife was the later province of Dionysiac/Orphic mystery cults.

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

To be fair, you can substitute an awful lot of things for 'machine translation' in that sentence and it would remain valid.

000

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

In light of the brouhaha over @bretdevereaux.bsky.social's comments about fascism, I am reminded of George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf: 'However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life.'

I should like to put it on record that I have never been able to dislike Hitler. Ever since he came to power—till then, like nearly everyone, I had been deceived into thinking that he did not matter—I have reflected that I would certainly kill him if I could get within reach of him, but that I could feel no personal animosity. The fact is that there is something deeply appealing about him. One feels it again when one sees his photographs—and I recommend especially the photograph at the beginning of Hurst and Blackett's edition, which shows Hitler in his early Brownshirt days. It is a pathetic, dog-like face, the face of a man suffering under intolerable wrongs. In a rather more manly way it reproduces the expression of innumerable pictures of Christ crucified, and there is little doubt that that is how Hitler sees himself. The initial, personal cause of his grievance against the universe can only be guessed at; but at any rate the grievance is here. He is the martyr, the victim, Prometheus chained to the rock, the self-sacrificing hero who fights single-handed against impossible odds. If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon. One feels, as with Napoleon, that he is fighting against destiny, that he can't win, and yet that he somehow deserves to. The attraction of such a pose is of course enormous; half the films that one sees turn upon some such theme.

000

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It is an important issue — maybe the important issue. Always happy to hear your thoughts, here or elsewhere, long and tedious as they may be!

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I fear that, without policing, this just makes us feel better without seriously effecting student behaviour. Students have always sniffed out and ignored toothless policies.

110

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I don’t think that we have to call it sour grapes, even if it was weird that she brought up the premiere thing at all. I think it’s more a combination of being too close to the text and not a very sensitive film viewer.

021

I'm sure it was commissioned, and I'm sure LRB are thrilled with how it turned out. Formally, though, I just don't think it's a very successful review.

I would perhaps counter that trying to write a Housmanian review requires, for success, absolute mastery of the technical details.

140

In the long run, of course, it doesn’t really matter, but for my money snide dismissal of the film, rather than sustained engagement with the decisions it made, is a bad look for Classicists at a time when we should be riding high.

000

I think in this case that’s a pretty fine distinction. There are parts of her essay which discuss the Odyssey, and they are predictably strong — but she repeatedly demonstrates a very weak understanding of both film as a medium and this particular film.

100

I think we do ourselves a misservice if we simply treat her review as an example of ‘robust dialogue’ within our discipline. Formally, as a review, it is too much in the vein of ‘this isn’t the book I wished you’d written’. Nolan’s interpretation is reduced to deviation from the poem.

100

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It’s not that it was harsh so much as it frequently seemed to misunderstand things that were explained quite explicitly in the film.

100

My impression is that she has a fairly standard philologist’s understanding of events (a somewhat garbled version of outdated archaeology).

040

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Yes, it’s a kind of rather dated archaeological euphemism. Decreasingly popular today, thankfully.

030

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

EW referring to the collapse as a 'shift away' from complex society is really something.

2672

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

It does happen in inscriptions: I can hunt down the reference for you later.

110

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

-κγ- is not normally assimilated, but it does happen in inscriptions (ἔκγονος is attested beside ἔγγονος) so it seems at least possible that there's some confusion between ἐν/ἐκ-γελάω.

251

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

The headword in LSJ is ἐκγελάω; there is another word ἐγγελάω which is ἐν-γελάω, in which case -νγ- > -γγ-, which is nasalised (ŋ).

101

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Very good stuff. Should be a useful template for other universities/departments trying to articulate a policy.

031

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Apropos of this, I realise that Great Britain is so named by contrast with 'Little Britain', Ireland.

210

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

When BMCR was started, the whole point was that digital reviews could be published faster and at any length, since they weren’t taking up space in a physical journal. Obviously times change, but 1500 words means that the reviews will be meaningfully less helpful.

020

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Did they accidentally send the April Fool’s post on May 1 instead? This is a terrible change.

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

‘Transition to closure’ is some exceptional bureaucrat-ese.

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

My experience in NZ was similar. Terminal MA was a relatively small commitment (1 year), could be done at the same uni as my BA, and (competitive) funding was available. The last two, at least, are true almost nowhere in America.

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

25 years! What an exception tale of its own that is.

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Bluesky's censorship policies will never not be funny to me.

020

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

I can understand, even if I dislike, arguments about the 'irrelevance' of Classics. Shutting down Middle East Studies when America is once again embroiled in a Middle Eastern war, however...

041

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Has it been established yet whether it was US or Israel that actually took out Khamenei?