The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party
Jan. 7th, 2014 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityThis book, I tell you.
One of the things I enjoy the most about re-reading THE HOBBIT (or LotR, for that matter), is putting together all of my own thoughts and feelings on the book with the thoughts and feelings I have on the MOVIES, and also with how J, W and B interpreted them. People often get all up in arms about that sort of thing, and lord knows sometimes I'm one of them, but the tiniest details are right, and I think that gives some play to be flexible with the story because, let's face it, sometimes this is a really weird story.
AN UNEXPECTED PARTY is basically solid exposition. We meet fifteen people, many of whom have similar names, sing two long songs, spend a lot of time talking about food (this will be a theme), and find out that Gandalf almost certainly knows more than he is telling. Well, at least you find that out if you're looking for it. As a four-year-old, I certainly wasn't.
Anyway, I love that Gloin is the yell-y one. Gandalf has to shut him up TWICE (hilariously, Gandalf will do it again during THE COUNCIL OF ELROND, but I am getting ahead of myself), and it's GLOIN, not Thorin, who is the most verbally doubtful of Bilbo, getting the "grocer" line. (Thorin, of course, does it all in body language. Thorin is a DOUCHE. This will also be a theme.)
I like how detailed Bilbo is already. He has a tone for people who try to borrow money off him! He also has two sides, and a great Uncle who invented Golf, which I always liked as a kid and was DESPERATELY HAPPY made it into the movie.
And Thorin! Who is too important to help with the washing up, and has a style that Tolkien cuts off because he "went on for some time". I am curious, though, as to why the hell no one told Fili and Kili about their freaking birthright? Although I suppose that matches the bit in the movie where no one told them that they had a goddamn nemesis.
It's also our first look at Smaug, care of Thorin, and I love how practical and impractical dwarves are. Like, even though they're coal miners now, and fairly successful ones, they're still going BACK, because they appreciate their treasure in a way that dragons can't, though, and this part cracks me up the most, dragons usually know the fair market value, which: HOW, EXACTLY? Do they interrogate the people they eat before they eat them?
It's that sort of detail, and Tolkien's style of delivering it, that I love the most about the Hobbit.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rj_anderson gave a talk once about how if you put enough "reality" in your "fantasy", people will buy it, and this is kind of what she meant, I think. It's certainly something I tried to incorporate into THE STORY OF OWEN. Furthermore, like CS Lewis, Tolkien's writing is very conversational, like he's reading it to you. I find that this means the "facts" he lays down are even more plausible. It's what they teach in these schools, if you will.
We also get a whiff of the Necromancer, who will not actually, I think, be mentioned again until the last chapter of the book. Because the dwarves were the distraction, and Gandalf always had a Plan A. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
An Unexpected Party is an odd way to get things moving (well "moving" is a relative term, sometimes, with Tolkien!), but it is a beginning all the same. Bilbo thinks he's going to sleep at the end, but in reality he's only starting to wake up. He just, you know, has to cook breakfast for 13 dwarves and a wizard first.
(I may not do this every chapter, but then again, who knows!)
One of the things I enjoy the most about re-reading THE HOBBIT (or LotR, for that matter), is putting together all of my own thoughts and feelings on the book with the thoughts and feelings I have on the MOVIES, and also with how J, W and B interpreted them. People often get all up in arms about that sort of thing, and lord knows sometimes I'm one of them, but the tiniest details are right, and I think that gives some play to be flexible with the story because, let's face it, sometimes this is a really weird story.
AN UNEXPECTED PARTY is basically solid exposition. We meet fifteen people, many of whom have similar names, sing two long songs, spend a lot of time talking about food (this will be a theme), and find out that Gandalf almost certainly knows more than he is telling. Well, at least you find that out if you're looking for it. As a four-year-old, I certainly wasn't.
Anyway, I love that Gloin is the yell-y one. Gandalf has to shut him up TWICE (hilariously, Gandalf will do it again during THE COUNCIL OF ELROND, but I am getting ahead of myself), and it's GLOIN, not Thorin, who is the most verbally doubtful of Bilbo, getting the "grocer" line. (Thorin, of course, does it all in body language. Thorin is a DOUCHE. This will also be a theme.)
I like how detailed Bilbo is already. He has a tone for people who try to borrow money off him! He also has two sides, and a great Uncle who invented Golf, which I always liked as a kid and was DESPERATELY HAPPY made it into the movie.
And Thorin! Who is too important to help with the washing up, and has a style that Tolkien cuts off because he "went on for some time". I am curious, though, as to why the hell no one told Fili and Kili about their freaking birthright? Although I suppose that matches the bit in the movie where no one told them that they had a goddamn nemesis.
It's also our first look at Smaug, care of Thorin, and I love how practical and impractical dwarves are. Like, even though they're coal miners now, and fairly successful ones, they're still going BACK, because they appreciate their treasure in a way that dragons can't, though, and this part cracks me up the most, dragons usually know the fair market value, which: HOW, EXACTLY? Do they interrogate the people they eat before they eat them?
It's that sort of detail, and Tolkien's style of delivering it, that I love the most about the Hobbit.
rj_anderson gave a talk once about how if you put enough "reality" in your "fantasy", people will buy it, and this is kind of what she meant, I think. It's certainly something I tried to incorporate into THE STORY OF OWEN. Furthermore, like CS Lewis, Tolkien's writing is very conversational, like he's reading it to you. I find that this means the "facts" he lays down are even more plausible. It's what they teach in these schools, if you will.We also get a whiff of the Necromancer, who will not actually, I think, be mentioned again until the last chapter of the book. Because the dwarves were the distraction, and Gandalf always had a Plan A. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
An Unexpected Party is an odd way to get things moving (well "moving" is a relative term, sometimes, with Tolkien!), but it is a beginning all the same. Bilbo thinks he's going to sleep at the end, but in reality he's only starting to wake up. He just, you know, has to cook breakfast for 13 dwarves and a wizard first.
(I may not do this every chapter, but then again, who knows!)
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 02:16 am (UTC)LOL, I don't remember that!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 02:34 pm (UTC)And it works, because this is Tolkien, but you can't film it like that, or your audience will both be bored and start asking questions like "it took you 17 years to figure this out, seriously?" Or "and now that you know you have the One Ring and are being pursued by all the forces of darkness, you're really going to hang out in the Shire for several months until you sell your house?"
no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-10 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-11 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-10 04:56 am (UTC)AN UNEXPECTED PARTY is basically solid exposition. We meet fifteen people, many of whom have similar names, sing two long songs, spend a lot of time talking about food (this will be a theme), and find out that Gandalf almost certainly knows more than he is telling.
I think that solid exposition was lacking in DoS but that is matter of perspective. First movies are usually easier to adapt and it shows that Hobbit 1 was meant to follow more consistently with the text. It was good that some exposition was left for Bilbo in the beginning prologue when he was talking about Erebor so to make the Party scene a bit shorter. As long as those details were there, I was happy. Thorin coming in late didn't bother me, at least he showed up.
I look forward to more chapter by chapter analysis by you.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-11 02:53 am (UTC)ANYWAY, yes, I think the exposition was handled wonderfully in An Unexpected Journey Into Dwarf Feelings, and not the least because we got to see Erebor-As-It-Was, along with Ian Holm and Elijah Wood again!
Thorin's alternative arrival also fits movie!Thorin's character a lot more, I think. He's a lot darker in the movie from the get-go than he was in the book.
MOSTLY I AM HAPPY THAT I GOT THE PLATES SONG.