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May. 16th, 2006 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Random observations:
-- Elk look amazingly like kangaroos when they lie down. It's a bit eerie.
-- If you start a journey with exactly enough luggage to fit into your backpack, within one week it will have expanded by 50% EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T BOUGHT ANYTHING. I don't understand how this works, and I suspect it blatantly defies the laws of physics.
-- I'm reading The Lord of the Rings, finally. (I'll likely end up teaching it next semester, and in any case the omnibus edition is a good book to bring on a cross-country train trip.) It's not a bad story, really, and it's fun catching all the allusions to Anglo-Saxon lit, but is it just me or do none of the characters except Sam and maybe Boromir have actual personalities? (I realize he was writing an epic, and most people don't read epics for the characterization, but still...)
-- Elk look amazingly like kangaroos when they lie down. It's a bit eerie.
-- If you start a journey with exactly enough luggage to fit into your backpack, within one week it will have expanded by 50% EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T BOUGHT ANYTHING. I don't understand how this works, and I suspect it blatantly defies the laws of physics.
-- I'm reading The Lord of the Rings, finally. (I'll likely end up teaching it next semester, and in any case the omnibus edition is a good book to bring on a cross-country train trip.) It's not a bad story, really, and it's fun catching all the allusions to Anglo-Saxon lit, but is it just me or do none of the characters except Sam and maybe Boromir have actual personalities? (I realize he was writing an epic, and most people don't read epics for the characterization, but still...)
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Date: 2006-05-16 04:49 pm (UTC)In my experience, its a natural law all to itself. Like the one where you always end up loosing one sock while on holiday, and find it six months later just when you've got rid of the other one...
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Date: 2006-05-16 05:04 pm (UTC)I feel like we are all supposed to worship Tolkien. That he's meant to be beyond criticism. But his writing just doesn't do it for me.
Apparently, Tolkien originally put forth the idea that the characters in fantasy stories don't need complex characters or personalities, because the complexity of the imagined world gives the story depth. I can't find a link to this idea, but I used to argue about it with a friend of mine in college who was a Tolkien fiend.
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Date: 2006-05-16 07:20 pm (UTC)Odd that I've never had that impression. You're from London, I think? If you listen much to Radio 4, then you'll hear the sneer that enters the presenters' voices whenever Tolkien's name comes up.
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Date: 2006-05-16 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 05:08 pm (UTC)No, that one's fine, actually, sorry. Second Law of Thermodynamics: the amount of disorder in a closed system (such as a backpack) may not decrease, and will probably increase, with time.
The classic example is the Eisberg lettuce. Can you put one back together again? Thought not!
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Date: 2006-05-16 05:37 pm (UTC)Perfect image :). That reminds me of a childhood favourite horror penny dreadful (are they still called that, and do they even exist in the English-speaking world any longer), where the Prince of Hell (they were all called Asmodis, don't ask) gets trapped in a hostile dimension bubble with the stunning demon huntress, trying to protect the world from destruction by the ultimate evil (called 'Moron', and no, I never said I read the intellectually challenging stuff while growing up).
Anyway, *she* insists that if they got in, there's got to be a way out again, and he (*hot* evil critter, I remember well), says,
"Did you ever jump from a diving platform into a swimming pool?"
She: "Sure."
He: "Back up again too?"
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Date: 2006-05-16 05:20 pm (UTC)Hm, I really like Merry and Pippin in "The Two Towers",and Gimli has a good moment or two in...the last book I think. And (assuming you are reading "The Fellowship" at the moment) there might show up one ore two characters that you will find less lacking in the personality-field.
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Date: 2006-05-16 05:35 pm (UTC)I think Faramir does, and Eomer moreso than they show in the movie.
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Date: 2006-05-16 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 06:05 pm (UTC)-dark
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Date: 2006-05-16 06:06 pm (UTC)Just a recommendation: if you have a chance, then listen to the BBC radio adaptation of LotR. It was my introduction to the book. Pretty music, pretty voices. Nice. :)
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Date: 2006-05-17 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 06:55 pm (UTC)Have you read the Hobbit yet? You really should start with the Hobbit!!!!
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Date: 2006-05-16 07:30 pm (UTC)Actually, I fell in love with the characters when I was about ten years old and not a particularly critical reader. The awe still hasn't really worn off, even after more readings than I can count.
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Date: 2006-05-16 07:40 pm (UTC)It sounds like an absolutely wonderful vacation. Have fun!
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Date: 2006-05-16 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 01:42 am (UTC)True, and it works in reverse for food in my house now that my brother's home from college. (I mean, I know my mother BOUGHT the Teddy Grahams so where the hell are they?)
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Date: 2006-05-17 09:42 am (UTC)Only - now that I've grown up, I can't bear to read LotR again, I roll my eyes at the heroic!Lancelot stories I used to like, and I still dip into The Once and Future King from time to time. It's become one of my absolute favourites :).
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Date: 2006-05-18 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 11:24 am (UTC)Hope you are enjoying the elks, anyway.
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Date: 2006-05-17 06:02 pm (UTC)My brother read LotR many more times than I, and he says the characters do have personalities, but the problem with them is that they're static, rather than growing and changing. Personally, I think Tolkien thought too much in terms of stereotypes/archtypes: the dwarves, elves, Dunadain etc. are distinct from each other, but not among themselves.
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Date: 2006-05-22 12:16 pm (UTC)But yeah, most characters don't have personalities.