"The news today about ‘Atomic bombs’ is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world!"

Tolkien wrote these lines to his son Christopher in 1945 (Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 102, page 168 in the expanded edition), and they form the basis for Cindy Gates' upcoming Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation." Cindy, who has long been familiar to SWG members under her pen name pandemonium_213, has been exploring—and challenging—Tolkien's depiction of science and scientists on the SWG since 2007. This week, as we continue our series of interviews of presenters and creators whose work will be featured at Mereth Aderthad, we turn over the stage to the scientists. Cindy is retired scientist in the "bad industry" (in her words!) of pharmaceutical research and development, and the creators for her presentation—Azh, Admirable Monster and Grundy—are both scientists as well, as is their interviewer, Shadow.

In 2006, Cindy read American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin and reread Tolkien not long after. "[T]he theme of well-intentioned science that is turned into something that damages, sometimes profoundly, hit me like a ton of bricks," she told Grundy, her interviewer, pointing out that Tolkien's approach to this issue—highly relevant to modern life—is often to make an object lesson out of the legendarium's scientists.

You can read Grundy's interview with Cindy here.

Azh, Admirable Monster is a physicist whose found fiction "Lightborn" will accompany Cindy's presentation. "Now I'm in the middle of doing research into the use of artificial intelligence techniques," Azh told Shadow, their interviewer, "and quite frankly the question of at what point do you need to abnegate, step away from a piece of research, is haunting me in a professional capacity." Azh's professional background also touches upon the development of the atomic bomb, and their story draws on the same questions as Cindy's work, around the moral obligations of scientists doing work that can be turned to destructive ends.

You can read Shadow's interview with Azh, Admirable Monster here.

Shadow also interviewed Grundy, who is the featured artist for Cindy's presentation. Grundy is best known to us as one of the SWG's moderators (the bestower of hundreds of tiny, colorful challenge stamps each year among many other unsung behind-the-scenes roles!) and author of over one hundred stories posted to our archive. However, she is also a skilled glass artist, and her work for Mereth Aderthad will be done in glass. Grundy is also interested in the development of the atomic bomb and the questions it raises. "I've been reading about the Manhattan Project almost as long as I've been reading Tolkien," she told Shadow.

You can read Shadow's interview with Grundy here.

Remember that these incredible presentations, stories, poems, performances, and artworks will be shared on July 19 at Mereth Aderthad 2025. Both in-person and online attendance options are available, and registration is free. If you'd like to join us, you can register for Mereth Aderthad here.

(Note that the title for this edition of the newsletter comes from Tolkien's letter to Milton Waldman [Letter 131, page 204 in the expanded edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien].)