Once again Neil Gaiman's blog points to a couple of interesting bits -- an essay about Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings by someone who read it when it first came out (Gene Wolfe, who I'm not familiar with but who is apparently also an author, whom I may now have to look up), and an interview with Stephen Fry in the Onion. Both of those pieces mention the difference of modern ways of thinking from earlier ways, which always interests me. So much of how we look at the world and evaluate it is shaped by near-unconscious learned assumptions.

I can't help but wonder whether there might have been a few more freethinking peasants than Wolfe seems to think there were, though. Anyone invents a time machine so I can go do some sociological research, please ring me up. On second thought, I'd probably be burned as a witch, if I didn't catch cholera or some other lovely thing first, so never mind.