Peter Jackson's The Hobbit - Page 23

On December 13 2011 04:51 FoxyMayhem wrote:
Insight can come from anywhere, and even the most foolish of idiots can say the sun is hot and be correct. It doesn't matter how many people believe something to be true, popular opinion doesn't define truth.

However, criticisms need to be detailed, not just stated. "tLotR is terrible" is bad. "tLotR (books) often have a dry, description filled, slow writing style that doesn't resonate with modern audiences. While it may have been enjoyable in his day, much of the current writing industry focuses on delivering as much emotional punch in as small a space as we can. When defined by that goal, tLotR doesn't excel. Still, it does so many things well that I can't dismiss it on that fact alone, it just makes it much harder for me to appreciate, considering my immediacy-trained tastes," is a good criticism. Describe by what measure it is bad, and why that measure is important.

On December 13 2011 13:57 Achilles306 wrote:
This is why it is so hard to find good books to read these days.

On December 13 2011 13:57 Achilles306 wrote:
On topic, The Hobbit was my favourite book, so I hope they make the movie. The only reason why they shouldn't make it is if they can't do it really well. No one wants another disaster like Aragorn. I thought the book was good, but the movie was the worst, most retarded take I've ever seen.

On December 13 2011 04:27 MasterBlasterCaster wrote:
Fame does not make someone a good writer, but most good writers are famous. That isn't coincidence, either.

Suffice it to say, when you've written a book as influential and prolific as LotR, you can rest reasonably assure that you've written a very good book.

If someone who could barely build a Lego house was talking to a world renowned architect about how they are "mediocre" you would laugh at them, rightly so. If I went and told MVP that I thought his Starcraft 2 skills are highly overrated when compared to truly (and unnamed) good players, he would rightly ask me for my credentials. If he found out I was barely out of silver league, is he not going to instantly ignore me?

On December 12 2011 21:01 Biff The Understudy wrote:

I understand you like Jackson, but I don't know any real cinephile who liked his LOTR. It may be great entertainment, it has very low artistic value in my opinion. In cinematographic terms it's just a fat ass blockbuster.

The same way, people who are hardcore into literature usually have very low opinion of Tolkien. I think he did great because he has incredible imagination, but you can't say that it's very very good literature simply because stylistically it's basically awful (same would be said of Harry Potter, or any super big fantasy bestseller).

I used to looove LOTR, but last time I read a bit of it, I was super disappointed by how monotone and unimaginative Tolkien's writing is.

On December 13 2011 18:01 FoxyMayhem wrote:

What about that makes it hard to find a good book?


They are making the movie, you can see the production diaries on Youtube. Do you mean Eragon? Aragorn is a the returning king of LotR, Eragon is the hero in a dragon-centric YA novel.

On December 13 2011 19:30 Falling wrote:


One thing on that. Literary fictionists as a rule have dismissed Tolkien specifically and fantasy/ sci-fi generally as being incapable of good literature as it is "genre fiction." Nevermind that that the concept of genre is categorization and so literary fiction has managed to create a category outside all the other categories... the height of vested interest definitions. But far more troublesome is quite often literary fictionists have dismissed these works without actually reading them. Imagine calling Chaucer's work rubbish, but then quite happily saying one has never read it. Whereas many 'serious literature' types in one breath say Tolkien is rubbish and in the next breath take great delight in saying they've never read it.

If you've never come across him, I'd strongly encourage you to check out Professor Corey Olsen aka The Tolkien Professor who has developed several classes studying Tolkien's work. He has created both podcasts and recorded his lectures and discussions. Your best bet to start with is How to Read Tolkien and Why Even if you don't listen to it- believe me he is a pretty good communicator- I would argue that despite prejudice to the contrary there is scholarly work being done by people that are convinced of its literary merits. There are several others like Tom Shippey and the like.

On December 21 2011 12:31 Jeremyy wrote:
Looks like a cool movie but sorta sucks that they're just re-using many of the same characters from the original movies...