Journal 2

 

1/4/2001

Strata  by Terry Pratchett

               He just can’t get away from the four elephants and the giant turtles.  Deals with interesting concepts of how life on earth was created.  What happens when you try to go looking for God.  The Spindle kings were that seen as why the Earth was created.  When it turns out that the world was cuilt built by a computer.  Perhaps it is better not to know the answer.

 

1/4/2001

A Reader’s Companion to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings ed. Quality Paperback Book Club

“The Hobbit Habbit” by Joseph Mattheurson

               LIke the story about the student.  Think it is an interesting idea, indefitify with Tolkien as a crusader.  But what about my generation  and those after?  Do we see it the same way as those from the rebellious sixities?  Maybe.  Lord of the Rings is a wonderful adventure story.  It is fascination in parts is it’s completeness and because on a level it is very simple.  You do not have to debate whether or not to like a character, black and white, evil vs good, hero and villain are clearly defined .  On some level that is refreshing.

 

“The Ring of Evil” by Isaac Asimov

               Like the idea of a nature fable.  But isn’t the fable/symbolism of the story asl what the reader brings to it?  The ring can represent anything that can do great good as well as great evil (i.e. drugs). 

               “No, the One Ring is not wholly evil.  It is what we make it and we must rescues and extend those parts of it that are Good” (30).

               Like Gollum perhaps?

 

“The Gods Return to Earth” by C S Lewis

               Rather a biased source considering the friendship between the two men.  He does have a point about the difference between Middle Earth and the World of the Orlando Furioso

“The Dethronement of Power” by C S Lewis

               “Because, I take it, one of the main things that the author wants to say is that the real life of men is of that mythical and heroic quality” (41).

               How come the author can never be simply telling a story?  Perhaps Tolkien just wanted to tell a story.

“The Hero is a Hobbit”  by W. H. Auden

               I finally feel a connection to Auden.  Must redefine my opinion of him [Note: the dude made his own definitions of colors]  And he’s right, it is a modern day quest.

 

“At the End of the Quest, Victory” by W H Auden

               He must have really love it.

“O Those Awful Orcs” by Edmund Wilson

               Wilson ignores the fact that he Ring changes Fordo.  That is why Fordo is able to go on the ships.  Wilson seems to dislike the books because he can’t understand them.   Boromir is a complex character with degrees of good and evil combined.  The change in Eowyn from the warrior who rides to warrior to commit something of suicide, to die with everyone.  And Sauron is a real evil.  He is scary because of his seemingly non-existence  More terrifying because he doesn’t appear as a dragon, an orc or what have you.

               [Note: and Frodo fails!]

 

“Does Frodo Live” by Janet Adam Smith

               Like the idea of the strength of language. 

               “ . . . but those who, like Coleridge, believe that such tale can nourish imagination and extend human sympathies” (65).  Makes me want to go back and reread for the name puzzles.

“Hobbit Redux: J R R Tolkien’s Elf Consciousness” by Julie Phillips

               Answers the question of the first essay.

“The Prevalence of Hobbits” by Phillip Norman

               Tolkien was kidnapped! [Note: I did not know that until this essay].  Always thought Tolkien loved his elves more than his hobbits.

“The Saga of Middle-Earth” by The Times Literary Supplement

[Note: OMG, this was the first times I read the TLS.  I subscribe now.  I totally forgot about this].

               Reading these essay it seems that Tolkien was as widely popular when the books first came out as Harry Potter is now.  Except Tolkien was popular even among an older group of people.  It’s popularity has increased.  Does this mean that Harry Potter will endure.  That the Harry Potter pHenome can grow faster (how quickly it transferred from books to movies) only because we have technically?

 

“The Staring Eye” by Ursula K Le Guinn

               Okay, so as long as I am not the only one who books guilt trip into reading them.  But she’s right, you have to read when you’re called.

               Perhaps the book’s charm is there if you do not look too deeply?  When you look too deeply you starting running into problems, such as the lack of female characters, two dimension characters and so on.