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Re:"Four Seconds to Hot Up the Disintegrator, Google Had Tol... by rectang on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @03:36PM (#41571767)
Compare with the first sentence of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien:

> There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Iluvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made.

Re:"Four Seconds to Hot Up the Disintegrator, Google Had Tol... by setgree on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @03:44PM (#41571846)
except for 'Arda', every new word is defined/clarified.

I'm a huge LOTR fan and a moderate Silmarillion fan, and I can see how maybe Tolkien is guilty of this 'new words for familiar things' problem.. I guess when Tolkien does it, I'm enchanted, e.g. the first non-introduction line in _Fellowship_:

> When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

To me this immediately evokes: we're in a foreign land, but it's going to be vaguely small-town England in its manners and interests.