LOTR: what did you NOT like in the books?

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

"You're the reader! You imagine them!"

I don't need or want THAT much room for the imagination! In any case, Tolkien seems to be one of those very, very few authors who does not give you an idea as to how his characters look

[Kath]

A leeeeetle more character description would have been nice. Until the films came out the vague idea I had in my head of what a hobbit looked like was some kind of overgrown guinea pig.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Do you mean you feel pity for him and wish he had had someone to hold back his killer, as Gandalf had discussed with Frodo about Gollem? Or . . . mawkish emotion for a dude you thought was cool for challenging the hegemony?

More of the latter. Yes, it's cool to be a fallen wizard, but did you have to fall so low?

Originally Posted by Galadriel

I don't need or want THAT much room for the imagination! In any case, Tolkien seems to be one of those very, very few authors who does not give you an idea as to how his characters look

There's always Stephenie Meyer...

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Kath

A leeeeetle more character description would have been nice. Until the films came out the vague idea I had in my head of what a hobbit looked like was some kind of overgrown guinea pig.

Hobbits were easy for me. They looked like my dad. In fact, in the film they looked like my dad, so it's a win all round.

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

There's always Stephenie Meyer...

Ste-who?

[Aganzir]

Who knows, maybe we like Tolkien's characters so much because they're empty shells onto which we can project ourselves...

[Bêthberry]

The Downs has changed.

I have to bring to your attention this thread, wherein apparently it was a faux pas to suggest that mebbe, just mebbe, Tolkien's prose style at points caused a bit of discomfort for some readers. Namely, me.

Dumbing down the Books

Aside: Please do note that I'm not complaining 'bouts folks who disagreed with me, as that's a legitimate part of discussion, and I've often disagreed with Squatter, Estelyn, Aiwendil, et al , but noting the tenor of some of the disagreements. Thankfully, no one put a fatwā out on me.

It's possible, just possible, that some of the comment here about the extent and range of characterisation actually fits into my discomfort with some of the latter phrases that characters speak.

[Morthoron]

Amiable sort that I am, I would never seek to be disagreeable, Beth. However, since you dredged up a relic which I have not yet to perused, I will say that the sentence

Borne upon the wind they heard the howling of wolves.

is particularly evocative and wonderful in construction. The sentence metre is reminiscent of the alliterative verse found in Beowulf.

Just saying.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Amiable sort that I am, I would never seek to be disagreeable, Beth. However, since you dredged up a relic which I have not yet to perused, I will say that the sentence

is particularly evocative and wonderful in construction. The sentence metre is reminiscent of the alliterative verse found in Beowulf.

Just saying.

Morth, you might be inclined to think that I dredged that up just to make a curmudgeon happy. And you wouldn't be far wrong.

(Since double posting is frowned upon, I've simply deleted the previous post and add here new thoughts . . . .)

You've hit upon the very point which I think is likely to account for the sentence, Morth, as The Professor was known to favour Old English elements of the language over French and Latin imports. This would not be the first time. (His query over his mum's point about 'great green dragons' being only the most obvious.)

Still, it is a useful example to demonstrate just how curmudgeonly an Oxford don could be, eh?

[Glorthelion]

I hate that fact that Boromir died in the skirmish at Parth Galen. Perhaps he should have been wounded but fit enough to travel. He makes it to Gondor. I thought it would make more sense if he died in the battle of the Pelennor fields, like when the Witch KIng of Angmar died.

Glorthelion

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Glorthelion

I hate that fact that Boromir died in the skirmish at Parth Galen. Perhaps he should have been wounded but fit enough to travel. He makes it to Gondor. I thought it would make more sense if he died in the battle of the Pelennor fields, like when the Witch KIng of Angmar died.

Glorthelion

Interesting. Why do you think so?

[Legolas]

I think I've said elsewhere long ago, but I'm not that fond of Book 4, the Frodo/Sam half of The Two Towers. It moves a little slow at times and just generally isn't as interesting to me as the rest of the book. I'm not sure how he could've written in differently though. Might even be more mental than anything, how I feel about it when I'm not actually reading it.

Originally Posted by Galadriel

Interesting. Why do you think so?

Well, we never got an answer from Glorthelion, but perhaps he and others might have felt a later, grander death of Boromir would have served as greater redemption. I find his immediate sacrifice very heroic though, despite ultimately failing to prevent Merry and Pippin's capture.