Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Bullshit
Jack Law's Lord of the Rings Thread.
- Thread starter luka
- Start date
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Finished TTT last night. The second half of it is really good, culminating in the Shelob chapter. Tolkien was good at writing scary/dark stuff, I can see why Peter Jackson was chosen to direct based on his horror pedigree.
It's interesting when Sam overhears the two orcs talking about the war and wanting to get away after it's over, like two disgruntled workers. They then almost immediately begin rubbing their hands over getting to torture Frodo (or one of them does) so it's not as if they're nice, but they also have hopes and dreams, even if they are of I dunno looting and pillaging.
It's interesting when Sam overhears the two orcs talking about the war and wanting to get away after it's over, like two disgruntled workers. They then almost immediately begin rubbing their hands over getting to torture Frodo (or one of them does) so it's not as if they're nice, but they also have hopes and dreams, even if they are of I dunno looting and pillaging.
subvert47
I don't fight, I run away
You'll of course have noticed that Tolkien does not have Faramir taking them on a stupid detour to Osgiliath. Nor does Frodo fall out with Sam going up the long stairs. Two of Jackson's crassest alterations.
subvert47
I don't fight, I run away
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
I'm just about halfway through ROTK now, and loving it. (They've arrived at the black gate of Mordor.)
Happened to watch "Troy" the other day (quite a bad film with some good elements) and then read a little (a dribble) of The Iliad--and I wondered what influence it's descriptions of battle might have had on Tolkien, with his frequent descriptions of armies pouring like water and so on.
It's interesting that in these battle scenes and in general the "voice" of the book becomes more and more epic/saga-ish, so that the action and the myth/song we assume is inspired by it within the world of middle earth becomes intertwined. You start getting a lot of "lo!"s and "behold!"s from both the narrator and speaking characters.
Subvert predicted I'd hate all this but I actually have been swept up in it.
Happened to watch "Troy" the other day (quite a bad film with some good elements) and then read a little (a dribble) of The Iliad--and I wondered what influence it's descriptions of battle might have had on Tolkien, with his frequent descriptions of armies pouring like water and so on.
It's interesting that in these battle scenes and in general the "voice" of the book becomes more and more epic/saga-ish, so that the action and the myth/song we assume is inspired by it within the world of middle earth becomes intertwined. You start getting a lot of "lo!"s and "behold!"s from both the narrator and speaking characters.
Subvert predicted I'd hate all this but I actually have been swept up in it.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
I did feel emotional about it. It's interesting - obviously there's this sort of religious fantasy element to it which I find very poignant, and the severing of friendship, but there's also this (might be the wrong word) metatextual element where you're sad that the story is ending. Especially as it's such a long story, which the intense detail he gives to all the perambulation makes you feel you've sort of LIVED.
I haven't had this feeling I had since childhood - as I was finishing it I wanted to immediately restart it to make the characters come back to "life" and to keep the world existing.
This is a sort of (so called) naive pleasure of reading which Nabokov (for example) would deride as an inferior pleasure, I suppose.
I was wondering reading his lectures on russian literature the other night how Nabokov would have felt about LOTR. This because in describing Dostoevsky he says one of the conditions of a great novel is that the world of the novel (whether it's "realistic" or fantastic) is credible. And I think Tolkien DOES make his world credible.
The issues I have with it are primarily stylistic. And the interesting thing about LOTR is it frames itself as a sort of found text, where reality and myth interleave, which is kind of an "out" for Tolkien.
I haven't had this feeling I had since childhood - as I was finishing it I wanted to immediately restart it to make the characters come back to "life" and to keep the world existing.
This is a sort of (so called) naive pleasure of reading which Nabokov (for example) would deride as an inferior pleasure, I suppose.
I was wondering reading his lectures on russian literature the other night how Nabokov would have felt about LOTR. This because in describing Dostoevsky he says one of the conditions of a great novel is that the world of the novel (whether it's "realistic" or fantastic) is credible. And I think Tolkien DOES make his world credible.
The issues I have with it are primarily stylistic. And the interesting thing about LOTR is it frames itself as a sort of found text, where reality and myth interleave, which is kind of an "out" for Tolkien.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Oh yeah Peter Jackson's early films were a masterclass in tastefully suspended atmosphere, I mean just check out this scene for a perfect example of how less can be more
Or this which is surely one of the most powerful scenes of all time in which someone drinks from a bowl of multiple people's vomit
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
subvert47
I don't fight, I run away
Amazing scene. Thought the food processor couldn't be topped but the bit where he reaches for the arm to pull the cord.