[CUE SCARY MUSIC]
I Was A Teenage Werewolf Book Snob
"No way," I said to my older brother who recommended The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a great read. "I'm not into that weirdo counterculture stuff like you and the other hippies are."
"No way," I said to my school friend who recommended The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a great read. "I'm not into silly fantasy stuff about elves and dwarves. Fairy tales are for kids. I prefer to read about Real Life."
But in the mid-1970s in university, I finally succumbed. I guess I had nothing better to read, so I thought "Okay, why not? I'll give it a try."
You know what happened, of course. I was hooked instantly and forever on this marvelous epic tale of Good and Evil and everything in between. I devoured all three huge novels in a frenzy of reading. And when I finished, I was left with that bereft feeling you get when a unique and profound book has come to an end. What was I to do now?
So of course, I immediately turned around and read the trilogy again. I read it for a third time about ten years later, when I was out in the workforce battling my own Saurons, Orcs and Gollums.
Those were the days when we had to rely on our own imaginations to picture the beloved Lord of the Rings (LOTR) characters. Merchandising was pretty scarce and no internet existed to connect the fandom. I had this classic 1976 poster by Jimmy Cauty on my wall and bought the occasional Brothers Hildebrandt illustrated calendar, if I could find one.
I went to Ralph Bakshi's terrible 1978 animated movie of the first two novels in the trilogy. It left no lasting impression on me. But Peter Jackson's early 21st century LOTR film trilogy established for me (and everyone else, I suspect) the definitive appearances of all our favourites. I enjoyed his Hobbit trilogy of films as well although, in my opinion, the story was unnecessarily padded out and enhanced with new characters and storylines -- i.e. milked for every last possible penny. One long movie or two shorter ones would have more than sufficed to bring that novel to the screen.
So, how about YOU?
Are you a LOTR fan?
Have you ever been
a reformed book snob
about this or another book?
TELL ALL in the Comments!
45 comments:
I am not really a fan, but I wish I could read the books before the movies.
I have not read those, I did read every word of Harry Potter, stood in line to buy a couple of the books on the first day, and let the sweet bear drive to I could read in the car.
I read the trilogy in the early ’70s when it was trending. I lived in that fantasy. I never did read it a second time but that sounds like a really good idea about now. I resisted Harry Potter briefly, then succumbed and was hooked. I read the entire series 3 times, but given Rowling's unnecessary harmful statements about trans women, I won't read it again. Maybe she'll someday come around to the idea that feminists and trans women are not enemies. Sorry for the tangent. I'll go find LOTR now.
Uh oh. Travel Penguin's going to get cancelled for admitting he read HP.
I have read the LOTR trilogy twice and do not remember it at all, although I do remember enjoying the books at the time. People wax poetically about all of these characters and details that I do not remember at all. Honestly the only thing I have retained are the Ents and Gandalf's Big Naturals. I really ought to try again. I think I have seen bits of the terrible 1978 adaptation (didn't it have live action sequences too for the crowd scenes?) but I have never seen the Jackson movies.
I am a terrible book snob, although depending on Little Free Libraries for reading materials over the pandemic has moderated that a little. Mostly I don't like thrillers or murder mysteries, but I discovered a couple of authors (Tony Kellerman, Kathy Reichs) that I liked.
I also haven't read them probably for the same reasons you used to give. Perhaps I should rethink that.
Also: I think this is the first time I remember you ever mentioning a brother? You write about your hilarious sister regularly, but I did not know you had other siblings.
@ Old Lurker -- Yes, in Bakshi's 1978 film, they did film crowd scenes using real people and then animated over top of them, if that non-technically-accurate description makes sense. I think it saved them time.
Indeed, I have two siblings but my brother has never been a significant part of my life except for when we were young and living with our parents.
I have read all of the LOTR books; seen the movies in the theater and on TV (time to give'em a rest!)!
Watched and read all of the Harry Potter books and movies (time to give these movies a rest, as well!)!
Never got so enmeshed as others have gotten ... have fun with the party!!
I consider Tolkien's books to be well written. What did it for me was the universe building and the linguistics. Yep. Very geeky.
I think the Trilogy is also superior to the atrocious religious allegories of Narnia.
I have also read the Harry Potter saga. I am not a book snob. If I like it the first book from the jump, I usually keep reading. I read everything: from biographies to bodice rippers.
XOXO
Love. love, love LOTR!! I even love "The Simarillion" {?sp?}
I've read them. Over and over. And The Silmarillion. They're brilliant works. And most of the backstories his son Christopher edited and published.
The Bakshi film should be buried in a vault somewhere, never to be seen again.
I have never read Lord of the Rings. I was put off by The Hobbit. Saw the films though - trying to remember what I thought of them. Unmemorable obviously. Not completely true. You can't spend that long in a cinema and not remember anything. I do remember being confused between the Ganddalf and Sauron, and thinking he was called Legless.
Hello Debra, I have never been much for fantasy-type books as I do not like whimsy, so thus far I have evaded the pleasures of LOTR. However, since this is a Tolkien Fest, I have to tell you that a cousin of mine was the reader who rejected the manuscript for publisher William Collins on the grounds that it was too long. Talk about regrets!
--Jim
Hello again, Since you asked about reformed book snobs, I once bought the book "Every Night Josephine", about the pet dog of trashy writer Jacqueline Susann. I dislike books about pets (that whimsy again!), but thought I could sell it as it was pristine 1960's. It turned out to be worth nothing, and I was going to put it away, but decided to take a glance inside first. Well, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. It was full of humor, and insider gossip and information about the acting profession. A fun read!
--Jim
@ Parnassus (Jim) -- Oh man, I bet your cousin never lived that down!
When I was in grade school, we had a summer reading club at our local library. I think you had to read 10 books to get (whatever). The one book I remember was Call of the Wild by Jack London and the follow-up book White Fang.
I was introduced to Tolkein by my 4th grade teacher who realized I was bored out of my skull doing the 4th grade reading assignments and gave me her big hardback copy of 'The Hobbit' to read instead.
It was a revelation, and lead me to devouring the fantasy section of our school library and later our public library. (and Science Fiction thanks to a family friend who passed along his copies of several golden-age magazines like Astounding Science Fiction and Fantasy and SF... )
Then oddly it wasn't until High School that I read the trilogy; but for decades after I've re-read it every few years. I've got the 6-dvd "Extended Directors Cut" version of the movies and spent more than a few weekends binging on it all the way through, and have read (at least once) the Silmarillion, and several other books edited by Christopher Tolkein.
I agree with you...the Hobbit movie was overly long, and more padding than story...bit worth is for Billy Connnoly mounted on his War-Pig going into battle :-)
@Debra She Who Seeks and @OldLurker
The techniquie is called 'rotoscope' and has been a long time technique in animation for the very earliest days, invented by Max Fleischer (of the Fleischer studios, Popeye and Betty Boop fame) in the 1900's, and used in most of their cartoons starting with the amazing series "Out of the Inkwell" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_the_Inkwell
Turner Classic Movies runs them occassionally as shorts between their movies and they
re fascinating to watch.
Bakshi was a big user of rotoscoping, like in his much MUCH better films "Wizards" and "Fritz the Cat"
Nope. I couldn't get into the books and I couldn't get into the movies. And I'm not sure why either, as I love horror, sci-fi or fantasy movies.
I got an error message when I tried to post my comment..hope it went thru
I loved the movies. Couldn’t get through LOTR. Didn’t bother with the others.
The Lord of the Rings! I will confess, no, proclaim (!) that I have read these books nearly every year for the past 50 years. The story is grand, of course, in scope and content, but the writing is sublime. Tolkien's use of language is so evocative. His descriptions of landscape and place are gorgeous and his descriptions of human nature and inner turmoil are sharp and empathetic. Sure, the high-minded ideals can come across as moralistic - but I'm here for them.
I saw a few minutes of the old animated movie and couldn't take it. I went with my daughter to watch the Peter Jackson versions - mostly just to do something with the teenager. I shouldn't have gone. The movies can never live up to the images my imagination created. I'll grant you that some of the casting was good (hello, Gandalf!) but some was terrible. The locations were good - especially Edoras and the golden hall of Meduseld.
I could go on and on about this, but I've just deleted a long paragraph because I realized that I sound like a lunatic. Ha! Maybe the shoe fits after all...
Not a fan of Tolkien's -- I struggled through The Hobbit and didn't read the rest. As a teenager, I preferred the science fiction of Isaac Asimov. Then in university, I fell in love with C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series. Now I read mostly murder mysteries -- I just started "The Apollo Murders" by Chris Hadfield, so the jury's still out on it, LOL!
Not particularly a fan, but I did see all of those dystopian type novels during my middle school years ('77-'79) and they were quite popular back in the day. Never really was into the dystopian fantasy that was the go-to genre during my childhood (that includes books like Dune and The Hobbit).
These types of writing, fiction/fantasy, never appealed to me. I've not even seen the movies. I know---I'm a heathen!
My girls are both obsessed with them though, even now!
Poe tate toes - boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew.
I discovered the hobbit while in the library supposedly looking for books to do a geography assignment
I sat down and read the first chapter hidden in a big atlas.
I took both books home finished the assignment and read the book in three days. Not bad for a ten year old
I watched the first two LOTR movies yesterday
I’ve loved those stories since age ten, I did read the trilogy after the hobbit
Yes I’m a nerd!
@ bruce.desertrat -- Hey, thanks for that info on the "rotoscope" method! You have educated me today!
Tolkien was a cult thing at the uni and I was bullied into trying it. A few pages in and I decided life was too short to spend any of it on this stuff. Many years later, bullied into trying Harry Potter. Alas, same reaction. But I did try them both before hurling them across the room.
I think I'm one of the few people who prefer The Hobbit to the later Lord of the Rings trilogy, mainly because the former is a tad more whimsical, and I'm a sucker for whimsy. As for the movies it's the opposite, as I do agree with you that The Hobbit was padded to make three films, when it easily could have been one. In fact, there was a very well-animated (by television standards) 1977 Rankin-Bass production that ran for only an hour--with commercials!
Oh, one other thing about the Rankin/Bass production. Orson Bean was the voice of Bilbo Baggins. Orson Bean was the voice of Bilbo Baggins, John Huston played Gandalf, and Hans Conried was Thorin, the dwarf leader.
@ Kirk -- Oh, I didn't know about the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit -- thanks for that info!
I'm late for the party, Debra! I'll have to write it down in my calendar for next year! Am I a LOTR fan? OMG, yes! I'm not sure how many times I've read the trilogy or The Hobbit or the Silmarillion or Tree and Leaf. And I've read other works of Tolkien's and the other Inklings, especially C.S. Lewis. And tons of articles and books on Tolkien and the Inklings. I took a university course on Tolkien. The professor excused me from the final exam because I had just written a lengthy paper on the question that turned out to be the final exam. I've seen the movies multiple times. I think Tolkien's works are among the best ever written. I first heard about Tolkien and his books in 1964 or 1965. CBC (?) had a late Saturday morning radio show for teenagers and one morning the show was about Tolkien. Someone on the radio read aloud part of the passage on the attack on Weathertop where the Lord of the Nazgûl stabbed Frodo with a Mordor-knife. I was hooked. Believe me, it was hard to get the books in rural Nova Scotia at that time, and I had to save my babysitting money to buy them. But I got them and devoured them. I loved all the characters, but I have special soft spots for Sam, Eowyn, and Pippin. I would have been Pippin with the palantír or dropping the stone down the well in Moria. Crap like that happens to me! I have to stop! Terry's taking me out for dinner. Happy weekend to you, Debra!
As a youngster, I read voraciously. My preferences were for fantasy and sci fi, but I also read my mum's uni bookshelf including some very odd books for a child like Portrait of the artist as a young dog. LOTR changed me, as did the works of Richard Adams especially The Plague dogs, and Sheri S Tepper's works, as they gave me a good slice of feminism with my fantasy. I rarely read animal books now as too teary. I avoid "real life" works since I get enough of that unless I can learn about a different culture to mine, and pretty much anything that is a new york times bestseller is a no. Still love fantasy and sci fi, especially Charles de Lint, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Terri Pratchett. Own every Tepper book to this day. Enjoy silly witch cosies to read at bedtime on my kindle. Aside from Austen, I tend to think the classics are crap and if they had had Janet Evanovich they'd be reading her instead. So no not a book snob! Tina,in west oz
Read every word of the Potter books so I could talk about them with the daughter who was reading them. Not the Toikken.
I loved the Lord of The Rings saga when I was a teenager back in the 70s. There was a lot going on, and it was scary at times. I was just a kid.
But I had Middle Earth to sustain me. I can say that the Lord of The Rings was a big help. I don't know if I will read it again, but I liked the Peter Jackson movies.
Honor, Beauty, Truth! It was in those days that we started Earth Day celebration, which we still do every April. I even learned the alphabet, which I can't write in anymore.
Middle-Earth is one of those places that stays with you.
By the time I left Middle Earth, I was exhausted. I had battled with countless orcs. I had wept with Sam and Frodo. And then there was Ghan-Buri-Ghan and the forest natives. And then there were the Ents!-
And dragons and a were-bear, and Tom Bombadil and Goldberry! Not to mention the Barrow-Wights! It all seems perfectly normal when you are living there, but it is a strange place.
I have seen the movies, read the books but I didn't become a big fan. I guess I might have been a fan if someone had recommended me the books when I was a kid but having only read the recently, it didn't reform me. The books are okay and the movies are okay buts not my favorite.
Have a lovely day.
The ironic thing is I actually don't really like his style of writing.
But his stories and mythology are quite good. So I have enjoyed the movies
Rereading TLOTR is on my list to do. I remember doing so in my youth and being bored whenever the poetry came on.
I bet they will be my favorite parts now.
I love Tolkein. Have read most of his work ( fiction) though I do find it so very sad that realy he was a great scholar who translated some anglo saxon manuscripts that had been until then impossible for any other scholars to translate. Even with the translation next to the original I cannot make head or tail of the anglo saxon script. But anyway he is remembered not for that, which was a serious liguistic accomplishment and was really his life's work, but instead for his fiction yet he was also a great scholar.
Oh, this is fun. I do remember reading The Hobbit but never any of the Lord of the Rings. Maybe I should give them a try! I don't remember being a book snob -- more about topic preferences. You get so involved in what you love, sometimes you forget to branch out! But you never know!
I wanted to thank you for coming by Marmelade Gypsy last week. I hope this week is a good one for you!
Ahhhh, I'm so with you about the Bashki films--they were my first impression of the Tolkien universe when I was a kid and I couldn't stand them. It took me until the first Peter Jackson movie to start liking the books.
I loved the Novels, the animated movie series, and the live action movies. Over indulgence is my kink!
Sassybear
https://idleeyesandadormy.com/
I loved them all and loved the Hobbit series for Luke Evans alone.
Post a Comment