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Yoooo lemme bless your dashboard

25 July 1938                                              20 Northmoor Road, Oxford

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter. … I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject - which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearings whatsoever on the merits of my work or its suitability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.

I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully

J.R.R. Tolkien.

(Letter 30)

therapist: can you…. give me an example?

me, someone who has memory problems:

anyway he’s had a bit of a chip on his shoulder since then, and so he basically destroyed Breath of the Wild and left me in he dust. he found more shrines, korok seeds, and armor than i did in like, half the time, and he got very pleased when i told him i didn’t know about certain areas or quests.

i’ll admit i underestimated him because he always seemed to struggle when playing Ocarina of Time back when we lived together when i was like, eight. in hindsight i realize he struggled because he didn’t speak english very well and couldn’t understand most of the on-screen explanations. once he set the language to korean he was blazing through botw so fast he was fighting lynels before i’d even gotten to the point where i felt comfortable with lizalfos.