Wheee! Mark has started LOTR!
Dec. 19th, 2011 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamflower MARK READS THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING!!!
I have been waiting ever since he finished The Hobbit a few weeks ago, and now he has started! If you want to follow along someone reading it for the first time, with all the fantastic reactions-- he's a guy and not afraid to squee!
Let me whet your appetite with a couple of quotes:
"The first thing I picked up after reading this chapter is that the writing has improved; it’s leagues above The Hobbit, though I’ll miss the weird first-person interjections from Tolkien. (Don’t you dare expect me not to find a way to force one of those father-son reviews in again, though. I’LL DO IT AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME.) But I was completely impressed by the improved pacing, a lot of fantastically-written passes, and the immediate change in the tone.
But what I liked the most was that we start things off with a familiar character.
I swear to you, I had no idea he was going to be in this book! THIS IS SO TERRIBLY EXCITING TO ME. I just expected to be thrust into a brand new situation with new characters. I don’t know why I thought The Lord of the Rings took place hundreds of years after the events in The Hobbit, but I must admit to smiling every time there was a reference to that book. The idea that Bilbo has just been this weird, odd character in the Shire for sixty years straight just fills me with so much joy. It’s easy to think back to his characterization at the beginning of The Hobbit and see all the changes since then, but I mostly latch on to the fact that he’s happy. He is perfectly joyous to be different, to have gone on that adventure with Bilbo and the dwarves, and to have lived a life full of discovery and thrills.
And:
"WHAT THE HOLY HELL IS GOING ON. His joke was to DISAPPEAR. First of all, HOW CAN HE EVEN DO THAT. Where did he go? WHAT THE. Predictably, it sends the hobbits into a furor; most of them are upset and think whatever “joke” Bilbo just pulled is in bad taste. Some believe he’s gone out of his mind, and others believe it’s just Bilbo being weird for the sake of it. Tolkien briefly switches over to the perspective of Frodo Baggins, who’s left behind and faced with an endless stream of questions about his uncle, all of which he either ignores or defers.
Of course, I somehow forgot that Bilbo had a ring that made him invisible. WOOPS."
Don't you just love it? He is so unprepared! *grins*
I have been waiting ever since he finished The Hobbit a few weeks ago, and now he has started! If you want to follow along someone reading it for the first time, with all the fantastic reactions-- he's a guy and not afraid to squee!
Let me whet your appetite with a couple of quotes:
"The first thing I picked up after reading this chapter is that the writing has improved; it’s leagues above The Hobbit, though I’ll miss the weird first-person interjections from Tolkien. (Don’t you dare expect me not to find a way to force one of those father-son reviews in again, though. I’LL DO IT AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME.) But I was completely impressed by the improved pacing, a lot of fantastically-written passes, and the immediate change in the tone.
But what I liked the most was that we start things off with a familiar character.
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.
I swear to you, I had no idea he was going to be in this book! THIS IS SO TERRIBLY EXCITING TO ME. I just expected to be thrust into a brand new situation with new characters. I don’t know why I thought The Lord of the Rings took place hundreds of years after the events in The Hobbit, but I must admit to smiling every time there was a reference to that book. The idea that Bilbo has just been this weird, odd character in the Shire for sixty years straight just fills me with so much joy. It’s easy to think back to his characterization at the beginning of The Hobbit and see all the changes since then, but I mostly latch on to the fact that he’s happy. He is perfectly joyous to be different, to have gone on that adventure with Bilbo and the dwarves, and to have lived a life full of discovery and thrills.
And:
"WHAT THE HOLY HELL IS GOING ON. His joke was to DISAPPEAR. First of all, HOW CAN HE EVEN DO THAT. Where did he go? WHAT THE. Predictably, it sends the hobbits into a furor; most of them are upset and think whatever “joke” Bilbo just pulled is in bad taste. Some believe he’s gone out of his mind, and others believe it’s just Bilbo being weird for the sake of it. Tolkien briefly switches over to the perspective of Frodo Baggins, who’s left behind and faced with an endless stream of questions about his uncle, all of which he either ignores or defers.
Of course, I somehow forgot that Bilbo had a ring that made him invisible. WOOPS."
Don't you just love it? He is so unprepared! *grins*
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Date: 2011-12-20 05:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 02:38 pm (UTC)Very funny. Thanks for the heads up. I'll head over there when I have time.
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Date: 2011-12-20 03:54 pm (UTC)I remember reading the prologue when I read it the first time, but it didn't make a lot of impression on me, as the spoilery stuff lacked context. But it *does* have some spoilers that would give a clue as to how some things turned out (like the stuff about Merry writing books and about Pippin being Thain shows they survived the story). So I guess if he's extra-sensitive to things like that he very well might notice.
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Date: 2011-12-20 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:08 pm (UTC)http://rot13.com/
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Date: 2011-12-20 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:56 pm (UTC)I know! I remember how funny most of the commenters thought that was! I've got several comments sprinkled around in TH threads.
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Date: 2011-12-20 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 07:31 pm (UTC)I loved his list of things he "knew"-- I giggled like crazy when he said "there's twins" and I thought if he doesn't read carefully he's going to completely miss them.
I can't wait to see what he makes of Strider!
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Date: 2011-12-20 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 05:43 pm (UTC)I'm tempted to read along, but I'm not sure I can maintain the schedule.
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Date: 2011-12-20 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 07:34 pm (UTC)Sometimes I joke that I'd like to get temporary amnesia, just so I could read the books again for the first time-- this is the second best thing!
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Date: 2011-12-20 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-21 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 07:50 pm (UTC)He is so unprepared. And it is glorious. :D
Tempted to rec Letters to him, just so he can find out how JRRT actually wrote to Christopher, but he wouldn't be able to read until he's finished the Silm if he's that allergic to spoilers....
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Date: 2011-12-21 06:07 am (UTC)But, really, he can't read Letters till he's read everything else JRRT ever wrote! There are all kinds of spoilers there.
I can't wait until Mark finishes TT, and I can quote Letter #170! Priceless!
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Date: 2011-12-21 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-21 06:09 am (UTC)