Endings and Conclusions

This week I experienced two endings that I wanted to share with you.  The first is an unabridged reading of The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison.  I read this novel of High Fantasy when I was a teenager, along with Eddison's other novels, The Zimiamvian Trilogy. I have always imagined a conversation with Peter Jackson.  "Hey, Peter, yeah Lord of the Rings, do-able movie.  Let's see you film the Worm!"  Even the third leg of my personal fantasy triumvirate, Gormenghast, was made into a passable series.  I just don't see The Worm being made into a film.  For one thing the language is Tudor/Jacobean archaic English.  (Imagine Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe writing The Lord of the Rings and you get the idea.)  Secondly, it is so detailed a vision of a world that beggars the mind.  Here is a typical description from The Worm, the first two paragraphs, actually:

The good news is that there are a couple of good unabridged readings of the book and I just finished listening to one by Maureen O'Brien as part of her Maria Lectrix podcast  You can find all 53 MP3s for download at http://www.archive.org/details/WormOuroboros .

The second ending I experienced last week was the final episode of Babylon Five. I originally caught part of the first season on cable years ago and after it's original debut, I think, in 1994.  However, over the last two years, I have been slowly making my way thru the five years of episodes via Netflix.  The final disk and episode had me in tears for the entire time (OK, maybe the bottle of wine I drank magnified the effect just a little).  Unlike other series that I watched and loved (like the Star Trek series) at least the B5 ending tied things up in a nice satisfying package. To watch all 110 episodes, along with the commentary and related materials, has been a commitment and I am glad I did it.  I know that there are other series that have a similar loyalty (Battlestar Galactica springs to mind) and B5 was not perfect. However, like reading Lord of the Rings, or the Harry Potter series, I think you are changed always by the experience and by the characters you meet and care about.  So here is a little fan created video taste and an invitation to go check it out.  All of Babylon Five is out there on Hulu.com, free for the asking.