![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grayestofghostsI said I was reading 10 novels this year, and this is a book I started last year but I'm counting books I started last year because I make the rules here.
My boyfriend is very into LoTR and we're seeing the movies at Alamo Drafthouse in January, and I said I was going to finish this book before we saw Return of the King this Saturday, and so, I did. Well, I got to the end of the actual story with 3 hours and 33 minutes left of the audiobook for the appendices which my boyfriend said weren't especially worth listening to, and I've been trying to speed-listen to this book so I think I'm done for now.
I feel like I wouldn't have been able to get through this book if it weren't for the audio, especially because of how much of it is human king drama and I can't say that a lot of the human king drama is stuff that I have been especially invested in, despite that being like... the point of a lot of the books, I guess. One of the big issues I have with the books though is where are all the Dwarves? I get they're supposed to be seclusive but I have a hard time believing that Gimli was the only one who would have cared, and it's not like the Shire was unaffected the whole time. Even the Ents got off their asses. Where were they? And then Gimli went off to the West with Legolas. I get that Dwarves apparently helped rebuild the Human kingdom but like, there's something pretty apocalyptic about Gimli being the only Dwarf we see around, seeing Moira as a graveyard, and then going to the west with Legolas, especially given what we know of Tolkein writing the Dwarves by drawing inspiration from the Jews.
I dunno, I just finished today. The Lord of the Rings is a big series, I'm sure there's more to digest.
My boyfriend is very into LoTR and we're seeing the movies at Alamo Drafthouse in January, and I said I was going to finish this book before we saw Return of the King this Saturday, and so, I did. Well, I got to the end of the actual story with 3 hours and 33 minutes left of the audiobook for the appendices which my boyfriend said weren't especially worth listening to, and I've been trying to speed-listen to this book so I think I'm done for now.
I feel like I wouldn't have been able to get through this book if it weren't for the audio, especially because of how much of it is human king drama and I can't say that a lot of the human king drama is stuff that I have been especially invested in, despite that being like... the point of a lot of the books, I guess. One of the big issues I have with the books though is where are all the Dwarves? I get they're supposed to be seclusive but I have a hard time believing that Gimli was the only one who would have cared, and it's not like the Shire was unaffected the whole time. Even the Ents got off their asses. Where were they? And then Gimli went off to the West with Legolas. I get that Dwarves apparently helped rebuild the Human kingdom but like, there's something pretty apocalyptic about Gimli being the only Dwarf we see around, seeing Moira as a graveyard, and then going to the west with Legolas, especially given what we know of Tolkein writing the Dwarves by drawing inspiration from the Jews.
I dunno, I just finished today. The Lord of the Rings is a big series, I'm sure there's more to digest.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-20 02:56 pm (UTC)I struggled for years to finish reading Return of the King. I usually gave up near the last third, but one year having seen the films, and with encouragement of some fans on Dreamwidth did finish it, though I felt like I was slogging through Mordor myself!
I'll read the Hobbit again and maybe the first book but I no have desire to complete the trilogy again or in any of the additional material such as the Silmarillion.
I do somewhat think that Tolkien invented what I call the crappy epilogue ending though; here's everything that happened after so no inventing new stuff, everyone's married off/dead/no more magic except in mystical far off place, Mary Sue name [Goldilocks]. The whole shebang ;P
People continue to write whole books about Tolkien and his worlds so there is always more to digest if you have the interest in it :)
no subject
Date: 2024-01-21 05:57 pm (UTC)I talked to my boyfriend about the ending and he disagreed with the ending being tacked on as "Tolkien was a meticulous planner". And I mean, while 'the magic is going away for some reason' is annoying, it's not like this wasn't foreshadowed in the first book, with the Elf processions going west. I guess I kind of felt like it was a return to the beginning of the first book which was very different in tone to the majority of the books, and while Tolkien would have planned it that way, sure, I'm not sure if he was cognizant of how long it would take a normal person to get through all of the books to the point that yes they would find that shift in tone back jarring.
If I was the editor I would have said to take out some of the 'padding' of the war and getting to Mount Doom which was a slog, and to pack in the back Frodo being unable to cope with it afterwards to make his leaving, taking the offer to go west seem really necessary. Because in the end, that and the padding upfront really show the same thing -- War is Hell, etc.
I haven't read The Hobbit yet so if I really wanted more Tolkien that would probably be where I start.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-22 02:12 pm (UTC)Yes, if your editing had taken place that would have made things smoother/more enjoyable at least for me.
The Hobbit is definitely worth a look, supposedly for children so much easier a read. The famous Gollum scene and the pop culture image of dragons from Smaug atop a pile of gold. To this day if I leave the house in a rush/forgot something I say I feel like Bilbo Baggins leaving with so much as a pocket handkerchief ;)
It was darker than I remembered on my most recent re-read though. More character death than I'd recalled. I guess it's a change in how you perceive a text at different times in your own life.
Lastly, on the subject to editing, there's a story about how Tolkien kept editing the Hobbit until his writer friends had to, in modern parlance, stage an intervention before he ruined it! Sadly I can't find the article/LJ post/tumblr post I read it in, but it stuck with me as a writer. The desire to keep tinkering. "Art is never finished, only abandoned" etc!