Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Corrections and Clarifications

Because I'm still learning how to do live radio, I made a few slip-ups in this story on Here and Now on NPR. None majorly significant, I think, but I just wanted to correct that I knew Unfinished Tales was published in 1980, not 1983. Also, the request to "speak Elvish" threw me for a loop, so the pronunciation probably wasn't perfect.

I also wanted to correct This St. Petersburg Times piece. I must have been unclear to the reporter, because, although I have corresponded with Christopher Tolkien (with regard to Beowulf and the Critics, it is not at all accurate to say that I have "long corresponded with him." Not unless you define "long" and "corresponded" in some very weird way. And I think he is now 83, not 82.

Hopefully I will get the second half of my review finished later.

2 comments:

Rodrigo Jaroszewski said...

Your Elvish is not so bad, but I like your Anglo-Saxon better. :)

But, honestly, it was comprehensible, due to the time pressure. Not that I consider myself a measure for excellence -- far from that --, but I find myself doing most of the mistakes you've made when I'm reading in English and find something in Elvish in the way. When speaking on my native-tongue (Portuguese), the issue is different: rampant nasalization of vowels preceding N and M. There's just not enough Elvish lines stringed one after the other for a decent practice. :(

Fortunately, in what really mattered, you were flawless.

P.S.: Could I kindly suggest that you put the title of the text on the title box when you're writing? Michael Martinez would be a better coach when it comes to internet, but doing this makes your content easier to find by users and search engines. Your blog's too good to be hidden.

Unknown said...

Must say i loved your reading a lot at "Here and Now"-- The passage you picked was brilliant. :D