I had a great time explaining to my mother today what a 'Gollum' was after she saw the commercial for the film on TV. I never read The Hobbit after slogging through The Lord Of The Rings, especially when I learned there were 13 Drawves to track and keep straight. So I ask anyone familiar with the novel - Is this going to be a non-issue when I see the movie or not?
I don't want to feel like I did when I saw Inception and had so much trouble figuring what the hell everyone was doing at any given time - let alone the entire plot of the film. That DVD made me question my own remarkable intelligence. I need to watch the film again with some kind of Cole's Notes booklet beside me.
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10 comments:
You should be okay. "The Hobbit" itself is a very simple children's story. But the film adds on a whole lot of backstory info from other obscure Tolkien writings too, apparently, so reading "The Hobbit" alone would not help anyway. We'll all just have to trust the screenwriters to have produced a comprehensible 3 movie trilogy.
Probably a non-issue, but the book does add a certain amount of familiarity. I read the Hobbit when I was about 10. I was really into it when I was younger. Saw Martin Freeman on Colbert last night. He and Colbert were very funny together. Colbert is doing an all week Hobbbit themed show.
I read the Hobbit as a kid, and I read it first before diving into the longer trilogy. I think that made it easier on me.
I'm usually dissapointed when I see a movie based on a book that I really like. So much of my enjoyment of reading is sinking into the world of the book and "seeing" it in my head. With a couple of exceptions, what I see on the screen is different enough from the movie in my head that it can be distracting.
I'm going to give it to you straight, Cal. Your ignorance of Tolkien is a serious hole in your cred.
Especially if your favorite book is Dune!
The Lord of the Rings has been called the greatest novel of the 20th Century (controversially). I've read it and The Hobbit at least four times since I was 12 (I still have fond memories of huddling by the heat vent halfway up my grandparents' staircase and finishing The Two Towers during the Christmas of 1979).
With all of your erudition and varied interests, it's just insane that you're depriving yourself of one of the greatest works of literary art ever...the one book that nearly all contemporary fantasy can be said to derive from.
Just go get The Hobbit, read it, and then read Rings. You won't be disappointed (You're older and wiser than the last time you tried). No less a literary figure than W. H. Auden said of Rings, "Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron."
I posted you a "Cubee-Craft" ...figure of your favorite Villain ..."Dr. Doom" at the Crypt good Sir... Happy Holidays....
All good advice my friends with Jordan hitting me where I live.
Thanks for thinking of me Dr Theda. I need me any versions of Doom that I can have or fold.
I would just add that I re-read The Hobbit last year (without intending to: I just wanted to skim the first chapter to check something out, but I ended up finishing the whole thing) and I was really astounded by the sheer quality of the writing; its nuance, delicacy and power. I had a similar thought this year when reading V. S. Pritchett: there's just something about English writing that's unique and remarkable. It's difficult to pin down exactly what that is, but, in my experience, whether it's Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell, Graham Greene, or Tolkien, the words sparkle like firecrackers or flow like waterfalls. The paragraph-long descriptions in The Hobbit will make you realize why Jackson & Co. knew they could only match the prose with New Zealand landscapes.
I've read The Hobbit about five times, twice to my children, but to be totally honest the movie looks very confusing to me. I think I might have trouble following what's going on, especially when they stretch the story to fit three movies.
M. D., as we learned ten years ago, if there's one thing that Jackson & Co. absolutely know how to do, it's to make the story crystal clear to even the least attentive viewers. Those three movies are masterpieces of exposition.
My favorite example: Galadriel's opening narration. "When all seemed lost, Isildur, son of the King, took up his father's sword." (Note the double redundancy, to make sure you get it.) "Sauron, the enemy of the free peoples of Middle Earth, was destroyed." (i.e. just in case you lost track of who's who in this quick synopsis and are going, "Wait, who died? The good guy or the bad guy?" the screenplay's got you covered.
I think you have almost convinced me to take another pass at the Hobbit. Maybe now I can get all from the book that I should have way back in the day.
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