"I think in society we have this idea that we have to quash difference and normalize it. I'm not trying to achieve that kind of space but am trying to open up the everydayness and say that it is like a blooming flower in spring: it's vibrant, it's colour, it adds to the texture of life, it's humanity."
- E-J Scott to Juno Roche, "Trans Power”
“Enchantment produces a Secondary World into which both designer and spectator can enter, to the satisfaction of the senses while they are inside; but in its purity it is artistic in desire and purpose […] to the elvish craft, Enchantment, Fantasy aspires. [...] Uncorrupted it does not seek delusion, nor bewitchment and domination; it seeks shared enrichment, partners in making and delight…”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”
About Me
Welcome to PARTNERS IN MAKING AND DELIGHT, an attempt at coordinating my professional and critical (and sometimes just for fun) blogging endeavours into one place. I’m Mercury Natis (they/them, he/him), a queer theorist and practised pop-culture critic with a focus on Tolkien Studies and the pre-1960s queer historical moment. I have a Master’s degree in museum education, a background in art history, and a voracious desire to contain nerdy multitudes. My interests are as wide as the sea and as vast as the void of space littered with stars. While I continue on my path towards a PhD on queer resonances in Tolkien’s legendarium and their textual-historical contexts, I hope that you will join me on the adventure. In the wise words of the Gaffer Gamgee, “If that’s being queer, then we could do with a bit more queerness in these parts.”
About this newsletter
While I aim to use this substack as a means of herding the many cats of my scholarly insights, the road is long and meandering. To take the journey is to take in the sights along the way. Posts will range widely, from critical reviews of tangentially related media (see: my past review of Some Like it Hot’s Broadway adaptation), to fleshing out popular threads from my Twitter, to perhaps the odd poem or bit of poetic prose. The road goes ever on and on, and if you like the sound of taking the trip with me, through Tolkien scholarship and beyond into the wide and beautiful world, you should subscribe!
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderqueer,
Mercury
