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more Hobbit thoughts
Mar. 26th, 2020 07:50 pmFinished The Hobbit today, which mostly left me feeling sad. Much of the story is light-hearted and comical, certainly. But the Battle of Five Armies leaves me miserable. No, actually, even before that--Thorin's descent is what does it to me. The idea of dragon sickness--the greed and aggression and obsession with hoarding wealth--is it meant to be magical? A sort of mystical taint on the treasure, leached out of Smaug over the years, that can be transmitted? Or is it a fancy way of speaking about the greed that lurks in some hearts? He speaks of the Master of Laketown being vulnerable to it, which could apply to either way. I suppose it's meant to be both, really. But it leaves me wanting to take Thorin by the shoulders and shake him. You are meant for more than this.
On the subject of comedy, though, let me say--I cannot, CANNOT, stop giggling at the disparity between the movies and the books when it comes to tone. It's not even down to individual characters, but whole races, ESPECIALLY the elves. Book elves? Yeah, they are fucking goofballs. In the movies, the elves are all floaty fabrics and soaring arias, while in the book they're getting drunk while on watch and taunting visitors with obnoxious rhymes. It's just wild. Dwarves? Haughty dipshits. Hobbits? Squeaky toys full of situationally inappropriate responses. I know part of it is that Hobbit was the children's story part of Middle-earth; apparently, Tolkien saved all the dignity for other works.
My favorite bit, though, is when Bilbo is describing himself to Smaug in terms of his deeds to avoid revealing his true name. Is this an example of kenning? Is it related? When he calls himself Barrel-Rider, that counts at least, right? But the riddling ones are good too, where he talks about drowning his friends and bringing them back, and other such seemingly impossible feats. What I want to know is: why are we not all constantly talking about ourselves this way? Why is this not a meme? Why do we not have a long list of these on all our bios on social media? This is the greatest thing I've ever heard, come on!
On the subject of comedy, though, let me say--I cannot, CANNOT, stop giggling at the disparity between the movies and the books when it comes to tone. It's not even down to individual characters, but whole races, ESPECIALLY the elves. Book elves? Yeah, they are fucking goofballs. In the movies, the elves are all floaty fabrics and soaring arias, while in the book they're getting drunk while on watch and taunting visitors with obnoxious rhymes. It's just wild. Dwarves? Haughty dipshits. Hobbits? Squeaky toys full of situationally inappropriate responses. I know part of it is that Hobbit was the children's story part of Middle-earth; apparently, Tolkien saved all the dignity for other works.
My favorite bit, though, is when Bilbo is describing himself to Smaug in terms of his deeds to avoid revealing his true name. Is this an example of kenning? Is it related? When he calls himself Barrel-Rider, that counts at least, right? But the riddling ones are good too, where he talks about drowning his friends and bringing them back, and other such seemingly impossible feats. What I want to know is: why are we not all constantly talking about ourselves this way? Why is this not a meme? Why do we not have a long list of these on all our bios on social media? This is the greatest thing I've ever heard, come on!
