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I have all three LOTR books on audio, and since Mari is rereading atm I was like 'well, as I’m done with my last book I’ll just re listen now.' (I've been listening to books while doing the data entry part of my job.) But the dark secret is, I think I stopped my initial paper reading at some point in Two Towers or Return, so never actually finished this series. I can't be sure which--it all blurs in the adaptation haze. I’ll remember when I come to that bit, probably. Like Sam knowing this is the furthest he's ever been from the Shire--
Chapter 1
- didn't make any notes here apparently
Chapter 2
- This bit in fellowship ch 2 about strength and well-meaning not being enough to prevent the ring’s corruption feels almost like a comment on mental health shit, like ‘that’s not how the ring works’, but it’s interesting bc while you can’t fight it off FOREVER, the narrative does sort of hold that the length of time you can stave off the ring is important as a show of character
- Frodo like this guy was a proto-hobbit? Grossest shit I ever heard.
Gandalf: I’ve done a LOT of research here, somehow I have access to whole POVs on the murder question—
Frodo: mmmmm but have you considered that Gollum is gross, whereas hobbits are lovely
- There’s a weird interest in evolution in this text in a way, like this is the second sort of ‘degraded branch’ question after orcs (and probably more in the lore I don’t fuck with)
- Tolkien is so ‘ew gross’ about the idea he’s firmly rooted in English tradition but the whole scope of this early bit is high key serial novel, pastoral, comic treatments
Well, and picaresque. Like it’s a road novel in a kind of essential way
- And we don’t talk about it much bc it’s become such a standard trope, but really it IS a huge innovation in the Romance not to focus on someone IMPORTANT as an MC
Like not to go straight for one of these Elevated races
Or Aragorn
-‘It slipped through windows to find cradles’ Gollum straight up ate babies
Gandalf with SCALDING tea here today
Mari: Gandalf is like this guy eats babies but can we really say he deserves death
Me: Yeah he’s like ITS A SAD STORY THO RIGHT??
Frodo: uuuuuh.
- ‘Licking his fingers as if they pained him’ uh I don’t do that myself but.
Like is that the response, Gandalf??
I guess Gandalf is not human but some freaky independent wizard species (Maiar, per Mari) so who tf knows what they’re like. I guess you might suck a burn, but licking is different.
- Man the class stuff with Sam is sometimes intense ‘like a dog invited for a walk’
- (end ch 2, why are these chapters so long, each a bloody hour)
Chapter 3
- Gandalf: so basically this is the worst threat imaginable
Frodo: right
Gandalf: you need to get the fuck out of here IMMEDIATELY, bc the dark Lord has your deets
Frodo: right so like, 4 months or so from now?
Gandalf: sure lol I mean don’t rush
- so a black rider, a possessed king of men, ancient and terrible, had a whole conversation here with Sam Gamgee's dad like 'do you want me to forward mail for Mr Frodo, or--'
like imagine being a black rider and having to fucking talk to Gaffer Gamgee about your Dark Purposes
- Elves are so annoying about 'it's none of my business, but'.
- Interesting this elf-chief is so casual about saying people lived in the Shire before Hobbits and will live there after. It's more of a historicised, anthropological approach than a lot of fantasy offers, especially from a character within its own world.
Chapter 1
- didn't make any notes here apparently
Chapter 2
- This bit in fellowship ch 2 about strength and well-meaning not being enough to prevent the ring’s corruption feels almost like a comment on mental health shit, like ‘that’s not how the ring works’, but it’s interesting bc while you can’t fight it off FOREVER, the narrative does sort of hold that the length of time you can stave off the ring is important as a show of character
- Frodo like this guy was a proto-hobbit? Grossest shit I ever heard.
Gandalf: I’ve done a LOT of research here, somehow I have access to whole POVs on the murder question—
Frodo: mmmmm but have you considered that Gollum is gross, whereas hobbits are lovely
- There’s a weird interest in evolution in this text in a way, like this is the second sort of ‘degraded branch’ question after orcs (and probably more in the lore I don’t fuck with)
- Tolkien is so ‘ew gross’ about the idea he’s firmly rooted in English tradition but the whole scope of this early bit is high key serial novel, pastoral, comic treatments
Well, and picaresque. Like it’s a road novel in a kind of essential way
- And we don’t talk about it much bc it’s become such a standard trope, but really it IS a huge innovation in the Romance not to focus on someone IMPORTANT as an MC
Like not to go straight for one of these Elevated races
Or Aragorn
-‘It slipped through windows to find cradles’ Gollum straight up ate babies
Gandalf with SCALDING tea here today
Mari: Gandalf is like this guy eats babies but can we really say he deserves death
Me: Yeah he’s like ITS A SAD STORY THO RIGHT??
Frodo: uuuuuh.
- ‘Licking his fingers as if they pained him’ uh I don’t do that myself but.
Like is that the response, Gandalf??
I guess Gandalf is not human but some freaky independent wizard species (Maiar, per Mari) so who tf knows what they’re like. I guess you might suck a burn, but licking is different.
- Man the class stuff with Sam is sometimes intense ‘like a dog invited for a walk’
- (end ch 2, why are these chapters so long, each a bloody hour)
Chapter 3
- Gandalf: so basically this is the worst threat imaginable
Frodo: right
Gandalf: you need to get the fuck out of here IMMEDIATELY, bc the dark Lord has your deets
Frodo: right so like, 4 months or so from now?
Gandalf: sure lol I mean don’t rush
- so a black rider, a possessed king of men, ancient and terrible, had a whole conversation here with Sam Gamgee's dad like 'do you want me to forward mail for Mr Frodo, or--'
like imagine being a black rider and having to fucking talk to Gaffer Gamgee about your Dark Purposes
- Elves are so annoying about 'it's none of my business, but'.
- Interesting this elf-chief is so casual about saying people lived in the Shire before Hobbits and will live there after. It's more of a historicised, anthropological approach than a lot of fantasy offers, especially from a character within its own world.
