The Hobbit and Les Misérables: this month's classic re-reads

[mollyringle]

I hadn't read The Hobbit since I was a kid, so, given the upcoming movies (evidently there are going to be two, not one), I felt it was time to revisit Bilbo and Smaug. Having finished it, my review

Comments

[wildecate]

I did watch the Les Mis trailer and sobbed like a baby all the way through. I assume it's the hormones.....

[mollyringle]

The hormones certainly can do that, but that can't be the whole explanation, because it makes me all misty-eyed as well. And did for my mom too, who is well beyond childbearing age. :)

[lilagrubb]

I skipped large sections of Les Mis. I didn't need all that detail about the sewers! Looking forward to the film, have seen the stage show several times.

[mollyringle]

I think I'm going to have to see the movie on DVD, as I don't like finding myself sobbing in cinemas. :)

[naill_renfro]

1. "Legolas...*if* he had a frat-boy phase"? Has he ever had anything else

[mollyringle]

I totally say it "Smog." Which, really, is a good name for a smoky, stinking dragon who destroys cities. Also, my edition of The Hobbit doesn't come with a pronunciation guide at the back, the way some Tolkien does.

Tolkien manages to evoke a much larger world and a much longer span of time, of which the story you're reading at the moment is just one tiny part.This is really well put. That feeling of "giant detailed world first, this episode second" is what makes Tolkien legendary. If he'd followed the genre-fiction rules and made each novel stand alone tidily, with the hero killing the big baddie at precisely 90% into the novel, he'd be less memorable. We genre fiction writers who are not allowed to break said rules get annoyed sometimes about it (because we aren't allowed to), but still, it works in its unique way

[mollyringle]

Also, I should have mentioned in the original post: this might be the most female-less volume of any of Tolkien. Does any female of any species have any lines in it whatsoever? I can't think of one off the top of my head. We all know it was lopsided in LotR, though at least there we got a couple of interesting women like Eowyn and Galadriel. And the Silmarillion had quite a few (though, as with most people in the Sil, their stories usually ended deep in "freaking depressing" territory, so I'm unlikely to reread it in its entirety). But we're sorely lacking the womenfolk in The Hobbit, even when I'm sure there are interesting stories involving some of them. Toward the end he casually mentions Beorn becoming a chief with a long line of successors who could turn into bears too. Hang ON. Some woman married giant shape-shifting bear dude and could safely give birth to his children? Who is she??

[mongo]

Of course, now I'm trying to put them together. It might be a sign to go to sleep.

[mollyringle]

Hee. Don't give me ideas--I'll end up trying to apply the Les Mis musical songs to Tolkien moments or something equally time-wasting.

[mongo]

you might have to go back to the Silmarilion to get the right characters. I don't think LotR or the Hobbit has the right characters unless you cast Gollum as Jean Valjean.

[mollyringle]

Haha! Hm, yeah. That doesn't feel right.