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.
I usually do shoulders Lexington style.
What? And get kitty's fur wet?
This is the kind of barbecue I make but I do only one at a time.
You may be right! Our little Boston Terrier could see her reflection in a mirror... she just got bored very quickly once she realized there was not another dog behind the mirror!
Sometime after we had to put our dog to sleep, my Mom got a little dog statuette at a rummage sale; it stood about a foot high, and looked just like a Scotch terrier, except for the color (which was blue-gray). It was posed like he was sitting on his haunches, with his head turned to the side; she put him on the floor, against a desk, just inside the front door of the house. As a joke, we put an old leather dog collar around his neck.
Well, you should have seen how confused neighbor dogs would get when they would come to visit. They'd look in the front door, and see what appeared to be a little dog looking back at them; except he wouldn't move! And, because of the collar, he must have smelled enough like a real dog to just make matters worse. There was actually one dog who kept trying to sneak up on the statue, and would sniff at it... when the statue wouldn't move, you could just see how freaked out the visitor dog would get! Poor thing just couldn't figure it out!
superb shots of the miniatures used for the Helms Deep set in the second film and full size sets of parts of Minas Tirith (an essential set for the third film).
Fangoria: An Interview with PJ.
Tehanu @ 12:11 pm ESTEntwife wrote to tell us about an interview with PJ in thelatest Fangoria magazine!
"Wanted to tell you that I was browsing in Barnes and Noble yesterday and came across an apparently exclusive (and recent) interview with PJ in the October '02 "Fangoria" magazine. Now, I am NOT a fan of that magazine, and was not about to buy it (I have 3 small kids), but I read the article in the store and it was a good one. It was fairly substantial-- about 4 pages long--and had some interesting quotes from Jackson, including his sense that TTT will probably not be an Oscar favorite like FOTR (too dark, and doesn't have a clear beginnning and end). Although he insisted that he didn't want to speculate about Oscars, he did say he thinks that ROTK may have a better chance, since he says it's much more triumphant, and moves from one climactic event to another (or words to that effect.) He also said that TTT is down around 3 hours now (from 4 originally) and that he felt that 3 hours is about the limit for a movie to be seen in a theater. (He reiterated that the studio did not put pressure on him to get it (or FOTR) down to 2 or 2 1/2. )
He also said that this year's work on TTT has been more relaxed and fun (in some ways ) compared to last year's work on FOTR, since of course the b.o. was so wonderful. The pressure to "not kill New Line" is off, though he said that since the movie was so well received that they all did feel a keener artistic challenge, to not let people down artistically with the next ones. He 's glad the movies were all shot before FOTR came out, b/c they might have wanted to do "more of the same" after FOTR's success, while instead TTT has a very different feel-- darker, and less fantastical, since it's primarily concerned with the world of men , while FOTR took us to Hobbiton, Rivendell, Moria, and Lothlorien. But he thinks that a different feel is probably a ggod thing.
He talked a little about the psychological mind-games played by Gollum with Frodo and Sam and said that while Tolkien hinted at it, they've taken it further. Some other interesting tidbits: Helm's Deep was the first miniature they made back in '97, and they're finishing work filming it now, so it's been 5 years they've used it. Also, he said that while he might want to do a King Kong remake in a few years, he and Fran want to do 1 or 2 small movies first.
Thanks to Entwife for that report!
FYI!
Oh yeah. That's right. It's all about YOU...
Here I am spending all morning at the hospital with a wounded offspring and you guys are thinking only about FOOD. Gee, even the zealots over on that forum showed a little more compassion.
In case anybody cares, it was just a sprain, no broken bones. But he's out of the game for tomorrow. We'll see about next week.
Must go now and read through the posts to entertain Hair.
Fredericksburg is about an hour north of here. Probably closer to g'nad than me.
We watched the events unfold on CNN while waiting for Jrs x-rays.
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