2011 Reading #40: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
31. Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge.
32. Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith.
33. The History of the Danes (Gesta Danorum) by Saxo Grammaticus, translation by Peter Fisher, edited by Peter Fisher and Hilda Ellis Davidson.
34. Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin.
35. Edge of Our Lives by Mark Rich.
36. My Mother Gets Married (Mor gifter sig) by Moa Martinson, translated by Margaret S. Lacy.
37. Edinburgh by Alexander Chee.
38. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.
39. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits by Carol K. Mack and Dinah Mack.
40. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. Here's the truth about me and The Two Towers; there's a lot about this book that I never got, even down to the title. This is the problem with encountering things before you're really quite ready for them. At 10 I just knew this was part of the Lord of the Rings and that was all I cared about. Honestly, it wasn't until the films came out that I realized that the title referred to Orthanc and Barad-dûr--or, well, Minas Morgul and Minas Tirith. Just because Tolkien couldn't decide which towers he was referring to doesn't give me a pass for not realizing the title was actually supposed to refer to something. (If I had to pick now, I'd say it was about Orthanc and Minas Morgul, but who knows.)
That's not the only thing I never got before. God, SO MUCH of the larger world-story is here, and I feel like I'm reading it for the first time. Of course, some of that larger world-story is about High Men and Low Men and other such horrifying bullshit. I do believe that some things can be overlooked in Great Works, but I'm also aware that I have the privilege of more resembling the Men of the North than, say, the Haradrim. Frodo does have a moment of compassion towards a fallen Haradrim, wondering if he was joining Sauron's cause of his own free will and so forth, but it's hard to tell whether Tolkien's sympathies were as engaged.
Reading this book after having seen the film so many times, the difference that stands out most strongly is probably the fact that Pete Jackson & Co. sure added in a lot of dithering. Treebeard and the Ents are reluctant to fight, Theoden (in RotK) wavers a bit on whether Rohan should aid Gondor, and Faramir is tempted by the ring in a way that he never is in the book. I understand this--for a modern audience, and a film audience at that, keeping things as they are could make the core characters seem too passive and too swept up in events; PJ wanted them to be the ones that talk these powerful secondary characters into Doing the Right Thing. I have no problem with the way it plays on the page, though, and I especially love the Ents as Tolkien presents them--slow to anger, sure, but wise enough to recognize the danger Saruman poses, and BRSRK TREEZ OMG once they get going. (Another failing of the film: no Quickbeam!) Also, I know that the cast and crew spent several miserable days filming the battle of Helm's Deep for the film and I enjoyed it, but it's honestly still more exciting in the book.
Here's another thing about me and this book. I used to think of it as two halves; the half where Aragorn and Gimli and Treebeard do awesome shit, and the half where Frodo and Sam meet Gollum and walk a lot. I was secretly a very bad Tolkien fan, because I would get SO BORED with Frodo and just wanted to get to Shelob and then to RotK. This time, though . . . I don't think Tolkien gets a lot of credit for his subtlety, but there is a LOT of great character work being done here, with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum--Gollum's is fairly overt, but the stuff with Frodo and Sam is gradual and smart and impressive. The journey is also a lot more interesting to me now than it was twenty years ago; as the three of them journey towards Cirith Ungol, Tolkien is weaving the backstory of the world into the landscape in a way that I'm pretty sure I could never equal. The sad truth is that for all that I have always loved Tolkien, I don't know that I've really admired him as a writer until now.
I'm sure what you all really want to know is whether I bawled this time, but aside from tearing up during the lament that Aragorn and Legolas compose for Boromir, this book wasn't nearly as emotional for me as FotR. It also wasn't just a quick stop on the way to RotK, which is what it used to be for me. I'll be honest, though; I really, really can't wait to get to the Scouring of the Shire.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
31. Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge.
32. Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith.
33. The History of the Danes (Gesta Danorum) by Saxo Grammaticus, translation by Peter Fisher, edited by Peter Fisher and Hilda Ellis Davidson.
34. Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin.
35. Edge of Our Lives by Mark Rich.
36. My Mother Gets Married (Mor gifter sig) by Moa Martinson, translated by Margaret S. Lacy.
37. Edinburgh by Alexander Chee.
38. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.
39. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits by Carol K. Mack and Dinah Mack.
40. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. Here's the truth about me and The Two Towers; there's a lot about this book that I never got, even down to the title. This is the problem with encountering things before you're really quite ready for them. At 10 I just knew this was part of the Lord of the Rings and that was all I cared about. Honestly, it wasn't until the films came out that I realized that the title referred to Orthanc and Barad-dûr--or, well, Minas Morgul and Minas Tirith. Just because Tolkien couldn't decide which towers he was referring to doesn't give me a pass for not realizing the title was actually supposed to refer to something. (If I had to pick now, I'd say it was about Orthanc and Minas Morgul, but who knows.)
That's not the only thing I never got before. God, SO MUCH of the larger world-story is here, and I feel like I'm reading it for the first time. Of course, some of that larger world-story is about High Men and Low Men and other such horrifying bullshit. I do believe that some things can be overlooked in Great Works, but I'm also aware that I have the privilege of more resembling the Men of the North than, say, the Haradrim. Frodo does have a moment of compassion towards a fallen Haradrim, wondering if he was joining Sauron's cause of his own free will and so forth, but it's hard to tell whether Tolkien's sympathies were as engaged.
Reading this book after having seen the film so many times, the difference that stands out most strongly is probably the fact that Pete Jackson & Co. sure added in a lot of dithering. Treebeard and the Ents are reluctant to fight, Theoden (in RotK) wavers a bit on whether Rohan should aid Gondor, and Faramir is tempted by the ring in a way that he never is in the book. I understand this--for a modern audience, and a film audience at that, keeping things as they are could make the core characters seem too passive and too swept up in events; PJ wanted them to be the ones that talk these powerful secondary characters into Doing the Right Thing. I have no problem with the way it plays on the page, though, and I especially love the Ents as Tolkien presents them--slow to anger, sure, but wise enough to recognize the danger Saruman poses, and BRSRK TREEZ OMG once they get going. (Another failing of the film: no Quickbeam!) Also, I know that the cast and crew spent several miserable days filming the battle of Helm's Deep for the film and I enjoyed it, but it's honestly still more exciting in the book.
Here's another thing about me and this book. I used to think of it as two halves; the half where Aragorn and Gimli and Treebeard do awesome shit, and the half where Frodo and Sam meet Gollum and walk a lot. I was secretly a very bad Tolkien fan, because I would get SO BORED with Frodo and just wanted to get to Shelob and then to RotK. This time, though . . . I don't think Tolkien gets a lot of credit for his subtlety, but there is a LOT of great character work being done here, with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum--Gollum's is fairly overt, but the stuff with Frodo and Sam is gradual and smart and impressive. The journey is also a lot more interesting to me now than it was twenty years ago; as the three of them journey towards Cirith Ungol, Tolkien is weaving the backstory of the world into the landscape in a way that I'm pretty sure I could never equal. The sad truth is that for all that I have always loved Tolkien, I don't know that I've really admired him as a writer until now.
I'm sure what you all really want to know is whether I bawled this time, but aside from tearing up during the lament that Aragorn and Legolas compose for Boromir, this book wasn't nearly as emotional for me as FotR. It also wasn't just a quick stop on the way to RotK, which is what it used to be for me. I'll be honest, though; I really, really can't wait to get to the Scouring of the Shire.