Quote:
Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark
Barrow-Wight Saucepanman, Heren Isatarian, Encantaire, bombadil, Firefoot, where have you all gone(there are more just mind block at the moment.)
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Encai is still enthusiastically active in other parts of life (and is currently experimenting with - of all things - shampoo). Heren and Saucie, if nobody else, have little ones to keep them on their toes (and Heren's got occasionally discomforting geography). Firefoot, I think, is just busy.
Me? I miss... well... the cast of Reunification of the Entish Bow. I started to merely list names until I realized most of them had REB as a common denominator: folk who could blow me away with fiction and could make academic writing laugh-out-loud funny.
I wonder if they realize that the lessons they accidentally taught me in writing about literature did more for me graduating with a lit degree (with honors) than most of my professors ever did...
There's something to be said for learning how to write (and think) critically on a literary discussion forum instead of in a classroom.
That being said, a fair portion of the migration - or hibernation - of past members may well be that very few new things are said in Books: if, perchance, a new thread is posted, many people will harken back (with links) to what they had to say about the topic three years ago.
It's been done. Nothing new to say. Move on. It is discouraging to new minds and talents to learn that few people wish to actively rehash old questions - and why not? With time, thoughts and opinions often mature, evolve. With time, thoughts and opinions conversely often stagnate. Without new voices, even ones which call out the old questions, the 'Downs becomes the quiet grave for which it is name, with little left but the echo of old voices stirring from the darkness.
Its history may be overpowering its presence.
On a practical level, many members' lives have changed. Students growing up, adults marrying and starting families: the internet no longer takes the precidence it may once have.
On an academic level, does anybody really want to argue again that balrogs do or do not have wings? (My answer? Yes: wings of shadow; is the shadow that follows you on a sunny day any less real just because it is intrinsically attached to your own corporeal form and would not exist if separated from you? What is real in a moment does not lose its significance and truthfulness just because it is illusory or temporal. The shadow - when it is there - is still there, and is no less 'real' simply because it is fleeting and will disappear with the onslaught of light. Of course the balrog had wings: Tolkien said so.)
Another old topic: does anybody really want to go back into who determines canonicity? I'll certainly discuss it, but would that draw back old faces? Gain new voices? Or would I be composing a brief essay to be read by the world of the 'Downs, briefly considered - more quickly forgotten - and never responded to?
Mirth feels more like a discussion than an anthology in that the brevity of posts allows for a faster volley of ideas; Books often feels solitary: the difference, if you will, between writing an instant message and an e-mail.
Also, it might be as simple as that the old faces who graced us with their wit and insight back in 'the day' mayhap have exhausted their potential.
To keep from waxing poetic (or emo), I'll merely say: online as well as in offline society, people come and go from your spheres. People die, people move on, and those left must grow into their own, taking the places left, and forming new ones.