Posted on 03/14/2002 5:07:26 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
This is a continuation of the infamous thread New Zealander Builds Hobbit Hole originally posted on January 26, 2001 by John Farson, who at the time undoubtedly thought he had found a rather obscure article that would elicit a few replies and die out. Without knowing it, he became the founder of the Hobbit Hole. For reasons incomprehensible to some, the thread grew to over 4100 replies. It became the place for hobbits and friends of hobbits to chit chat and share LoTR news and views, hang out, and talk amongst ourselves in the comfort of familiar surroundings.
In keeping with the new posting guidelines, the thread idea is continuing here, as will the Green Dragon Inn, our more structured spin-off thread, as soon as we figure out how to move all the good discussion that has been had there. As for the Hobbit Hole, we will just start fresh, bringing only a few mathoms such as the picture above with us to make it feel like home, and perhaps a walk down memory lane:
Our discussion has been light:
It very well may be that a thread named "New Zealander builds Hobbit hole" will end up being the longest Tolkien thread of them all, with some of the best heartfelt content... Sorry John, but I would have rather it had been one with a more distinguished title!… post 252 - HairOfTheDog
However, I can still celebrate, with quiet dignity, the fact that what started as a laugh about some wacko in New Zealand has mutated and grown into a multifaceted discussion of the art, literature, and philosophy that is Tolkien. And now that I've managed to write the most pompous sentence of my entire life, I agree, Rosie… post 506 - JenB
Hah! I was number 1000!! (Elvish victory dance... wait, no; that would be too flitty) … post 1001 - BibChr
Real men don't have to be afraid of being flitty! Go for it. – post 1011 – HairOfTheDog
Seventeen years to research one mystical object seems a bit excessive… post 1007 - JenB
Okay...who's the wise guy who didn't renew Gandalf's research grant?… post 1024 – Overtaxed
To the very philosophical:
…Judas Iscariot obviously was a good man, or he wouldn't have been chosen to be one of the Apostles. He loved Jesus, like all of the Apostles, but he betrayed him. Yet without his betrayal, the Passion and Crucifixion would never have occurred, and mankind would not have been redeemed. So without his self-destruction infinite good would not have been accomplished. I certainly do not mean this to be irreverant but it seems to me that this describes the character of Gollum, in the scenes so movingly portrayed above… Lucius Cornelius Sulla
To fun but heartfelt debates about the integrity and worth of some of the characters…
…Anyone else notice how Boromir treats the hobbits? He's very fond of them but he seems to think of them as children - ruffling Frodo's hair, calls them all 'little ones'. He likes them, but I don't think he really respects them… post 1536 - JenB
Yes... Tolkien told us not to trust Boromir right off the bat when he began to laugh at Bilbo, until he realized that the Council obviously held this hobbit in high esteem. What a pompous dolt… post 1538 - HairOfTheDog
…I think almost every fault of his can be traced directly back to his blindness to anything spiritual or unseen. He considers the halflings as children, because that is what they look like. He considers the only hope of the ring to be in taking it and using it for a victory in the physical realm. He cannot see what the hobbits are truly made of, he cannot see the unseen hope of what the destruction of the ring might mean--the destruction of Sauron himself, and he cannot see the unseen danger that lies in the use of the ring itself… I just feel sorry for Boromir--he is like a blind but honorable man, trying to take the right path on the road but missing the right path entirely because he simply cannot see it… post 1548 - Penny1
Boromir isn't a jerk, he's a jock… post 2401 – Overtaxed
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Oh, I think by the time Frodo reaches the Cracks, he's not even himself anymore! I think he's not only on the brink of a dangerous place physically, he's on the brink of losing himself completely during the exchange with Gollum. But for some reason, the take-over isn't complete till he actually has to throw the Ring in. The person speaking to Gollum is not Frodo, but the "Wheel of Fire" that Sam sees. After the Ring is destroyed, Frodo not only comes back to himself, but comes back with the unbearable (to him) knowledge of what it's like to be completely without compassion. I think that's why it's so important to him to be compassionate in the Shire… post 2506 - 2Jedismom
…Regarding Frodo's compassion... it's a little too much at the end. Even Merry tells him that he's going to have to quit being so darn nice. But you're right. He's learned a lesson about evil that very few ever learn since it wasn't an external lesson but an internal one. (Those kinds of lessons have the greatest impact) Not only did he totally succumb to it, but he was rather ruthless to my little Smeagol… post 2516 - carton253
Well that Frodo was a big mean bully! (to Smeagol)… post 2519 – Overtaxed
So as you can see, everything JRR Tolkien (and Peter Jackson) is welcome here in our New Row, our soon-to-be familiar New Hobbit Hole…; philosophy, opinion, good talk and frequent silliness.
That's not my point (or my wife's). And actually it may be the school that is in for the shock. It's one thing to not want your kids to read certain things. And like I said, the reading list was a suggested list. They are free to read anything they choose. She was given some guidelines by the school administrator, and she has stayed within those guidelines.
I have trouble with labeling things "Christian" just because. And especially have trouble with accepting the mediocre just because it's "for the Lord."
She IS teaching things from a Biblical world view. But it's simply fantasy to deny that sex, drugs and rock and roll are happening. And, by the time these kids are in the 10th grade, they should be making some of those value judgements on their own.
IMHO, anyone who asks if a suggested list of reading materials is approved for "Christian" families has a very small world view.
"Sounds slightly hobbo-erotic to us."-Rebecca Ascher-Walsh,Entertainment Weekly, #662, July 12, 2002"
Am I reading it wrong or is that an irritating comment?
Don't mind me, I am just an innocent bystander!
"But it's simply fantasy to deny that sex, drugs and rock and roll are happening. "
Not to mention a good many other current events, past history, literature, etc.
I should've read through all the posts before responding the first time. That's exactly how she has approached it. She told the parent that, if there's a problem with a particular work, they should be the one to say to the child "I don't want you to read that." But she also was pretty strong in saying that they should have a reason.
Here's the list:
Fiction
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Testament by John Grisham
The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy
Enemies: A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Tar Baby or The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Chosen by Chiam Potok
White Fang by Jack London
My Antonia by Willa Cather A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Night by Elie Wiesel
Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Mysteries
The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lillian Jackson Braun
The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
“A” Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
Vertical Run by Joseph Garber
I’ll Be Seeing You by Mary Higgins Clark
Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner
Science Fiction / Fantasy
The Martian Chronicles or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Jurassic Park or The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
2001: A Space Odyssey or Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Non-Fiction
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Shakespeare of London by Marchette Chute
Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey
Champions: Stories of Ten Remarkable Athletes by Bill Littlefield
Autobiography of Mark Twain by Samuel Clemens
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landin
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth Delany
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the World Series in 1919 by Eliot Asinof
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais
She Said Yes: the Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall by Misty Bernall
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I think that's a pretty balanced list. She did get one complaint about Angela's Ashes because there is a (teenage?) sexual encounter. But again, if we say it's not happening, we're just avoiding reality. I think it far better to say it's happening and deal with why it's wrong.
I always think that sort of talk results from leftist (liberal) thinking and mindset. Anything that treats good and evil as absolute, they want to trash it somehow. It helps them trash our traditions.
The school is set up so that parents who home school can send their kids to classes with other home schoolers. The idea is that if a parent (particularly in the upper grades) is weak in a subject, they can band with other home schoolers. Some parents choose to only send their parents to the academy when they're older.
Well, what she wanted to say was similar to that...I told her last night to hang onto her bosses' number at Wal-Mart. We may be needing it around December. (I figure someone will spot her going to see the 2nd Harry Potter movie, then it'll all be over with...)
That is a funny typo... Can't trust the acadamy with my children, but maybe I will send my parents - when they are older!
Sounds like a school from pioneer days. Sounds good, potentially.
Anyway, it's kind of a leap to think that the state could bring up your children better than you could.
She'll also be teaching a unit on Shakespeare every year.
But her main point with the reading list is just that they are reading. She also offered them the opportunity to suggest books.
Oops. Now you see why she's the teacher...
WELL THEN If she is making exceptions, can you explain why Tolkien is not on this list? tap tap...
[harumph!]
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