Welcome to Gaia! ::

Reply General Discussion
This guild needs a Tolkien Thread

Quick Reply

Enter both words below, separated by a space:

Can't read the text? Click here

Submit

Renkon Root

Versatile Receiver

17,575 Points
  • Falling For You 25
  • Somebody Likes You 100
  • Married 100
PostPosted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 7:16 pm


J.R.R. Tolkien
~ And the books there of ~

Some topics to get conversation started:


This pickled vegetable...

So, it seems that whenever you ask someone how they think the books of Lord of the Rings compared to the movie the first thing they always seem to say is "they left out Tom Bombadil!".

I'm curious as to why that is.

Yeah, Bombadil was entertaining and all but he really didn't add anything to the story and I think Peter Jackson was perfectly justified in taking out the three chapters that included him. Really, I think the only reason why Bombadil is so "popular" is because he WASN'T in the movie. Its not so much a preference thing as a status thing.

"I know who Tom Bombadil is, so I must have read the books and the books are hard to read, so if I read them that makes me smart!"

Well, in the books it wasn't Arwen that brought Frodo to Rivendell but Glorfindel. And Haldir and his regiment of elves never showed up to help in the Battle of Helms Deep. Arwen never had that vision of Eldarion (her and Aragorn's son) on her way to the coast. And a really big one, Saruman invaded and burned the Shire in The Two Towers, but that was never shown in the movie and when they return home at the end of Return of the King the Shire looks perfect and untouched. How come you never see anyone mentioning them?

...

I love Tolkien's stories, but I gotta say, his narrative can get really annoying at times. He's the type of author who, when describing a person sitting in a chair, they must fist tell you where the chair was maid and by whom, who had sat in it previously, how it got to its present location, etr...

I will never forget the first time I tried reading the LotR trilogy when I got to the scene on Weather Top where Frodo got stabbed. Right in the middle of the action Tolkien stopped and started giving me the history of the blade that was stabbing him.

And in The Hobbit, he interrupts the dwarfs discussion of their plains to tell us an exploit of Bilbo's grandfather (or great-grandfather, they all kinda blend together).

What's your opinion on the writing?

...

And this is a fun one. What small event would you change and how would it effect the story?

... could kick your a** !!
PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 12:31 pm


I find the level of detail he puts in extremely tedious.
And yeah, Tom Bombadil is kind of useless. I'm glad they took him out of the movie. It would have seriously stalled the action.
I need to reread the books though. It's been a while.

Lydia Blue


The_Manly_Succubus

PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 12:35 pm


I never made it past the first thirty pages of the first book. sweatdrop Don't get me wrong, I love detail, but he writes about it just... too much. It's the same reason that I hate Wuthering Heights--- Far, far too much detail and not enough explaining of the actual storyline.
PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 12:38 pm


Atari-555
I never made it past the first thirty pages of the first book. sweatdrop Don't get me wrong, I love detail, but he writes about it just... too much. It's the same reason that I hate Wuthering Heights--- Far, far too much detail and not enough explaining of the actual storyline.

In Wuthering Heights the actual storyline was sort of... blah. I hated that book.

Lydia Blue


Renkon Root

Versatile Receiver

17,575 Points
  • Falling For You 25
  • Somebody Likes You 100
  • Married 100
PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:34 pm


This pickled vegetable...

I will say that The Children of Hurin was MUCH easier to read than the LotR trilogy. Shorter too.

... could kick your a** !!
PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:11 pm


Lydia The Great
Atari-555
I never made it past the first thirty pages of the first book. sweatdrop Don't get me wrong, I love detail, but he writes about it just... too much. It's the same reason that I hate Wuthering Heights--- Far, far too much detail and not enough explaining of the actual storyline.

In Wuthering Heights the actual storyline was sort of... blah. I hated that book.


Yea, I know. The movie wasn't half bad, but I couldn't even drudge through the book for school. Only time I ever nearly failed English. ^.^;;

The_Manly_Succubus


Renkon Root

Versatile Receiver

17,575 Points
  • Falling For You 25
  • Somebody Likes You 100
  • Married 100
PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 8:32 pm


This pickled vegetable...

Is it odd that I want to quote Tolkien spontaneously in my daily life?

... could kick your a** !!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:31 am


This pickled vegetable...

So, I just came back from a field-trip to the public LotR forum and OMG! Every other thread "OMG! Legolas is SO HAWT!", "Elves are teh Hawtness."

WTF, mate!?

Don't these people have a thought in their heads beyond their libidos? I'm glad Tolkien's dead because it would just kill him to see his epic masterpieces lowered to the level of cheap fan-girl wet-dreams.

... could kick your a** !!

Renkon Root

Versatile Receiver

17,575 Points
  • Falling For You 25
  • Somebody Likes You 100
  • Married 100
Reply
General Discussion

 
Manage Your Items
Other Stuff
Get GCash
Offers
Get Items
More Items
Where Everyone Hangs Out
Other Community Areas
Virtual Spaces
Fun Stuff
Gaia's Games
Mini-Games
Play with GCash
Play with Platinum