Welcome to Elusive Vistas. I’m S.R. Westvik, and this is where I share reflections as I work through the stories, fictional and real, that occupy my thoughts and inform my life.
What’s in a name?
In a 1963 letter to one Colonel Worskett, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote,
“Part of the attraction of [The Lord of the Rings] is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed.”
-The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
With every new story we’re exposed to, we are given glimpses into a world beyond this moment and this space, to things we can’t quite name, to the unspoken possibilities glimpsed on page and screen. The question of what if, the potential of what might be, and the longing for what once was pursue us. Those questions birthed and sustain the writing you’ll find here.
Your call to adventure
Elusive Vistas is a story that started decades ago, and is still going today. It’s an adventure into speculative fiction—for me, that tends to centre around J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, but is also the province of much of my reading and my own creative writing. It’s a journey into the past—I’m a war historian, and through the oral history that inspired my professional ambitions, I glimpsed lives lived, filtered through the haze of memory and human emotion. It’s a road to the future—every reflection adds a new page in my personal book, and it’s from such things that we grow and face each new day.
It’s my adventure, certainly, but not only mine. It’s a record for the curious knowledge-chasers stopping by a wayside tavern to hear an epic or a ghost story or a rumour. It scales great mountains built up from the words of authors, critics, and academics of yesteryear. It wades into forgotten meres that only a handful of people discuss. At the end of the day, it’s about being curious about the world.
Through my thoughts about the books and stories that have captured my thoughts and imagination, I hope to tread the familiar roads with you, and open new gates to hidden paths you may have only thought you’d glimpsed round the corner.
A brief summary of yours truly
I’m currently pursuing an MA in International War Studies and have a background in IR and literature, which are among the fields I currently work in. I also volunteer for non-profits in the peace and security field and in the literary arena. I’m very active in Tolkien studies and fandom, and regularly present at conferences. You can find out more about me and my various scholarly and creative antics here, where you can also support my work via the links at the bottom of the homepage.
