Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week One

[sigridhr]

 *smashes a bottle of champagne over the post* And we're off!

Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week One (The Hobbit)
Chapter I: An Unexpected Party
Chapter II: Roast Mutton

Rules

I very much doubt we'll require much in the way of formal rules, but just for the sake of formality and clarity:

• Discussion is welcome and encouraged, as is disagreement. Name-calling and personal attacks will be punished by a barefoot gauntlet walk across a set of lego pieces. 
  
• There is no spoiler policy in place. Although we're reading the Hobbit, please feel free to bring in things from other Tolkien works, any of the films, the History of Middle Earth, the Letters of JRR Tolkien, and, if you should like, other literary sources. 
• There is no such thing as too nerdy. Or too excited. 
• If you have any concerns at any point, I'm the closest thing this gong show has to a mod, so feel free to get in touch. I can be reached either by PM through this site, or directly by email at sigridhr.lokidottir@gmail.com. 

Discussion on this post will officially run from Friday 11th January 2013 to Friday 18th January 2013. However, the post will remain open after that point, so you're more than welcome to continue discussions on. 

(I'm cheating a bit, as it's not quite the 11th here yet, but I want to get this up before I go to work tomorrow, and 6am posting is just asking for disaster). Have at it, guys! :) 

Comments

[sigridhr]

Well, my dad read the books to me when I was about 6 or 7, so I started early. :P Plus, I'm pretty much a crotchety old 70 year-old on the inside, so...

Plus, Arwen's marriage to Aragorn was dependent on Aragorn becoming king – that was Elrond's condition, so, her fate was already dependent, to a certain extent, on the outcome of the quest.

Glorfindel and Erestor would've just been more characters they needed to cast in an already full film, though. Elladan and Elrohir were personal favourites of mine in the book, who never made it on to the screen for probably similar reasons. :P

Precisely – it's hard to get the audience to invest in the love story, if you never see it. Plus this let them play up the love-triangle angle with Eowyn – like it or not.

There'll always be people complaining about ever film adaptation of a book that it wasn't precisely right. And people always complain about female characters, too. So Arwen's kinda a double whammy in that regard. I'd ignore them. :P

[j_quadrifrons]

I think your last point is the biggest reason - of all the things to complain about in the movies, I do think Arwen was one of the better changes that they made. She gets to do something, you get to see their relationship instead of being told about it after the fact (the first time I read the books I was astounded when Aragorn got married at the end, who the hell was that?), and she didn't end up outrageously out of character. (They did take her out of Helm's Deep, thank goodness.) But there's a pretty strong misogynistic streak in fantasy fandom, and it tends to come out a lot in relation to Arwen.

[sigridhr]

I get so frustrated with the belief that fantasy is somehow a male playground... And with the fact that it's hard for female characters in almost any fandom to do anything 'right', it seems. Same with people who get pissy about Eowyn being too much of a 'warrior chick'.

It all just makes me want to write an epic genderbent!Fellowship fic. Just to spite everyone.

[anki_koda]

Whoa, wait...wait...Images of Boromir dying...if this genderbent!Fellowship works I just want to see a real BAMF Female!Boromir giving it everything to the fight, besides it would make her faster than the Uruk-hai. And, I just have to see what Eomer would say of a female Aragorn.

[j_quadrifrons]

I may or may not be in the early stages of planning a sci-fi genderswap AU of the whole Denethor/Boromir/Faramir clan.