Triangle Tolkienists

Starting this month, our book clubs will be moving to Monday evenings. We came to this decision after polling attendees to find the day that currently works the best for the most people. This now means we have events planned most Mondays each month: Tolkien Society Big Read meetings, craft nights, and book clubs!

For our October 12 book club, we’ll be discussing a few selections from the book Queer Approaches to Tolkien, edited by Robin Anne Reid, Christopher Vaccaro, and Stephen Yandell.

Specifically, we’ll be discussing these essays:

• I Dream of Gandalf: or, How I Was Raised by Wizards – Jes Battis
• Mother or Other: ­Tolkien’s Shelob and the “­Monstrous-Feminine” – Sara Brown
• Éowyn and/or Dernhelm: Reading Éowyn’s (Trans)Masculine Disguise – Gavin Foster
• Something Mighty Queer: Destabilizing Gender, Intimacy and Family in ­Tolkien’s Legendarium – Danna Petersen-Deeprose

This is a fairly short reading load, but it should give us plenty to discuss! The book is available from Bookshop.org or directly from the NC-based publisher.

Reminder: While we do not discuss political issues except where they relate to Tolkien, this group is a welcoming space for people of marginalized identities. Please be prepared to discuss Queer Approaches to Tolkien in an inclusive and respectful way.

Click here to add this meeting to your Google Calendar (you must be signed in).

Quick rundown of how our virtual book club meetings work:

We meet on Discord – click here to join.

Before or during the meeting, submit your questions or topics for discussion in the designated Discord thread (which is separate from the discussion channel). Throughout the meeting, the moderator will pull from the submitted questions and invite attendees to ask their own questions.

You don’t need a camera or a microphone to participate – most of us prefer to type. If you want to hop into voice chat during the meeting, you are welcome to do so, but the voice channel will not be moderated.