No, I didn't have the time to re-read The Hobbit, even the annotated version of it. I read up to the beginning of the musical excursion before I realized how far behind I was in everything else. What I did do, considering that I read this book about nine years ago, was watch the animated Hobbit movie from the seventies {I think}.
It brought a lot to memory in just the span of an hour and a half.
The first thing I found myself thinking was that Gandalf ruined so many lives that he deserves a metal. Not only did he pick on a hobbit who was leading a decent life before the old wizard showed up, but he rallied up a group of dwarves to come along {all of who might as well have been named after Snow White's seven} who all ended up giving their lives at the end of the story because Tolkien didn't think that a super-special-awesome ending should have been resorted to. Don't get me wrong, it's an epic fantasy; it's a lot better than some of the other fantasy stories I read and you can tell Tolkien really takes his time to make Middle Earth seem like a real place that we all probably just forgot about. When I was a kid, I rather liked the story and I didn't question anything that happened.
But now that I'm older, I realize that had Gandalf left Bilbo to his devices, he would have grown up none the wiser, hobbits would have continued to be the merry little folk on the plains, the one ring that caused epic battles to break out would have still been lost underground with the wrinkled old monster-hobbit, the dwares wouldn't have all died, there would have been no war over the gold, and Smaug was still be alive and kicking.
In all honesty, I'm just looking for things to complain about, but The Hobbit is actually a really great story. I mean, I give it a 9.5 out of 10, which is saying something. I would have given it a 10, but my only real qualm about it is that it's not entirely obvious what audience it's geared for. At first you'd call it a children's story, but I first read this book when I was 11 or 12 and I had to stop every ten minutes to ask my dad what this or that meant. I wasn't a remedial child or anything, but without him I would have misunderstood a portion of what was going on. It also doesn't seem like I could fully appreciate the wonder and adventure the older I got, though if I might have read the book while I was 15 I might have actually found it a comfortable read.
So maybe it was just the time and the place. I'm not as upset about all the dwarves being killed off at the end and frankly neither was Tolkien because he made a slew of new characters for Lord of the Rings and oddly enough only one member of the Fellowship died despite the fact that the journey had a LOT MORE GOING ON than Bilbo's. I just have to point out that the timing was off. Bilbo tricks the dragon after a journey that has been thusfar filled with danger but not enough to kill anyone and then suddenly the men are fighting the dwarves over the leftover gold just at the end and everyone practically dies. Gandalf's like "Oops, well I better take Bilbo home and sort out this mess...later." But other than that, I can fully appreciate this story.
-Peace out
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Who You Gonna Call?
This is where the interview for A Wild Sheep Chase will be going. I think it's about a ghost.
-Update-
Half way through.
So...much...filler...
Japanese Hemmingway.
Brain meltingly...dull.
But at least something's finally going on.
-Finished-
This is probably one of the most painful books I have ever read.
I'm pretty sure there's some existential theme going on or something, I'm not sure, I couldn't quite concentrate on the story. This story would have been several times more interesting if massive chunks of this book never made it to print. The writer Murakami must have had some sort of word limit he had to reach in order to publish his story, because there is so much in the way of unnecessary filler that focusing on the actual plot is frustrating.
I guess I will try to point out some of the things I noticed, but it only makes my argument all the more valid. This is a boring book. No one has any names; the cat gets a name, but that's just another bit of unnecessary filler we have to contend with. No one matters then, none of the characters have proper names, the main character is incredibly dull and mediocre, and the interesting bits in the book are immediately followed by detailed descriptions of the man doing this or that {both of which are never interesting undertakings}. If one were to remove all the pointless filler in the story, it would actually be a fun bit to read. It might not have gotten all the recognition for metaphors, symbols, and meanings in the story, but it wouldn't have been so unspeakably boring enough to make you forget what all those metaphors and such were in the first place.
They touch on way too much. It's like Murakami is contemplating the meaning of life, religion, humanity, sheep, and everything else he feels like bringing up when all you want is to move along and find out what's so important about the sheep and what everything else has to do with it. Maybe the book is intentionally written to be dull. There was this one review I read of the story when I got halfway through it {thinking that there MUST have been some negative criticism for this story} that said the way it's written is like waking out of a dream. I agree. Because I fell asleep a few times while reading the story.
While the mystery itself is intriguing, as well as the Rat, the Sheep Man, and the Man in Black Suit fellows {that make up the only dialogue I like in the story}, the narrator has to describe every little detail of his every action and he has to put up with so many unnecessary conversations along the way. And what was the point of that woman with the seductive ears? What was she on about? Was it ever explained? No. Not really. She just enters the story, acts strangely, says strange little things, and disappears. Maybe she's an extension of the Rat/Ghost/Sheep thing? I don't care. It's not explained and her character bothered me anyways.
In the end, the main character lost everything and doesn't care because he didn't think he had anything to lose in the first place. He was used, abused, and even lead on a wild goose chase that makes you as a reader wonder why you spent numerous hours reading. I hate to be a hater, which makes me a hater, but I give this book a 2/10. While the mystery was intriguing, it was written in such an insipid style and manner that I could hardly read through it and process it.
-Peace Out
-Update-
Half way through.
So...much...filler...
Japanese Hemmingway.
Brain meltingly...dull.
But at least something's finally going on.
-Finished-
This is probably one of the most painful books I have ever read.
I'm pretty sure there's some existential theme going on or something, I'm not sure, I couldn't quite concentrate on the story. This story would have been several times more interesting if massive chunks of this book never made it to print. The writer Murakami must have had some sort of word limit he had to reach in order to publish his story, because there is so much in the way of unnecessary filler that focusing on the actual plot is frustrating.
I guess I will try to point out some of the things I noticed, but it only makes my argument all the more valid. This is a boring book. No one has any names; the cat gets a name, but that's just another bit of unnecessary filler we have to contend with. No one matters then, none of the characters have proper names, the main character is incredibly dull and mediocre, and the interesting bits in the book are immediately followed by detailed descriptions of the man doing this or that {both of which are never interesting undertakings}. If one were to remove all the pointless filler in the story, it would actually be a fun bit to read. It might not have gotten all the recognition for metaphors, symbols, and meanings in the story, but it wouldn't have been so unspeakably boring enough to make you forget what all those metaphors and such were in the first place.
They touch on way too much. It's like Murakami is contemplating the meaning of life, religion, humanity, sheep, and everything else he feels like bringing up when all you want is to move along and find out what's so important about the sheep and what everything else has to do with it. Maybe the book is intentionally written to be dull. There was this one review I read of the story when I got halfway through it {thinking that there MUST have been some negative criticism for this story} that said the way it's written is like waking out of a dream. I agree. Because I fell asleep a few times while reading the story.
While the mystery itself is intriguing, as well as the Rat, the Sheep Man, and the Man in Black Suit fellows {that make up the only dialogue I like in the story}, the narrator has to describe every little detail of his every action and he has to put up with so many unnecessary conversations along the way. And what was the point of that woman with the seductive ears? What was she on about? Was it ever explained? No. Not really. She just enters the story, acts strangely, says strange little things, and disappears. Maybe she's an extension of the Rat/Ghost/Sheep thing? I don't care. It's not explained and her character bothered me anyways.
In the end, the main character lost everything and doesn't care because he didn't think he had anything to lose in the first place. He was used, abused, and even lead on a wild goose chase that makes you as a reader wonder why you spent numerous hours reading. I hate to be a hater, which makes me a hater, but I give this book a 2/10. While the mystery was intriguing, it was written in such an insipid style and manner that I could hardly read through it and process it.
-Peace Out
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