Hobbit thoughts
Mar. 25th, 2020 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrubjayspeaksI listened to this virus-inspired episode of the Tolkien Road podcast whilst driving home from work. It was something of a coincidence that they put a new episode out just after I had decided I would listen to the audiobook of The Hobbit next while at work. Which is what I'm actually going to talk about.
(I've begun listening to audiobooks books in the last couple weeks, partly as an anxiety management strategy. I've previously only listened to music, as there can be frequent and unexpected interruptions by people as I work. I had thought missing what was being read would annoy me too much; to be sure, I'm still only listening to books I've read before for that very reason.)
I was struck during much of the initial meeting at Bag End by the sadness of the dwarves. The description of their fall from master smiths with even outsider apprentices, to blacksmiths and coal miners living without a home breaks my heart. Particularly poignant were the moments when Bilbo looks off into the distance and sights where The Shire and his home are, and he thinks of how he longs to return to them and to his comfortable routines.
Because of course, the dwarves have no such home, and if they do think of anywhere longingly, it's dragon-held Erebor. It's several generations since its heyday, at least as reckoned by Thorin's line (excessively long lifespans notwithstanding). What memories of comfort and routine are there to soothe or encourage them now? Unsurprising, then, that they risk so much for recovery and revenge.
I shall have to seek out some meta or fic dealing with dwarves-as-diaspora. If I recall--I've not rewatched it in some time--the first Jackson movie hit these notes quite hard. I'm sure there's been plenty of exploration of the topic.
Not being diaspora myself, my personal feeling was more centered on the petty indignity of it. The references to them mining coal--it put me in mind of the chronic underemployment of my generation. "I have a master's degree in communication and the only work I can get is on a telemarketing call bank." That sort of thing. Vastly overqualified and working for people with no understanding or respect for your skills.
(I've begun listening to audiobooks books in the last couple weeks, partly as an anxiety management strategy. I've previously only listened to music, as there can be frequent and unexpected interruptions by people as I work. I had thought missing what was being read would annoy me too much; to be sure, I'm still only listening to books I've read before for that very reason.)
I was struck during much of the initial meeting at Bag End by the sadness of the dwarves. The description of their fall from master smiths with even outsider apprentices, to blacksmiths and coal miners living without a home breaks my heart. Particularly poignant were the moments when Bilbo looks off into the distance and sights where The Shire and his home are, and he thinks of how he longs to return to them and to his comfortable routines.
Because of course, the dwarves have no such home, and if they do think of anywhere longingly, it's dragon-held Erebor. It's several generations since its heyday, at least as reckoned by Thorin's line (excessively long lifespans notwithstanding). What memories of comfort and routine are there to soothe or encourage them now? Unsurprising, then, that they risk so much for recovery and revenge.
I shall have to seek out some meta or fic dealing with dwarves-as-diaspora. If I recall--I've not rewatched it in some time--the first Jackson movie hit these notes quite hard. I'm sure there's been plenty of exploration of the topic.
Not being diaspora myself, my personal feeling was more centered on the petty indignity of it. The references to them mining coal--it put me in mind of the chronic underemployment of my generation. "I have a master's degree in communication and the only work I can get is on a telemarketing call bank." That sort of thing. Vastly overqualified and working for people with no understanding or respect for your skills.
