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.
Have you heard any follow up at all about the summer teaser-trailers for TTT? - Surprised that there has not been a nice HighRes version of the sneak preview trailer put up on the Official Site yet... And that leads me to wonder if/when they will release some new stuff for our perusal.
When are they going to give us something?
Nothing yet. I try to check with TORN fairly regularly, but have not heard a peep about it yet.
Would those be different than what I saw at the end of the movie last week?
If you take Einstein's representation of time as the fourth dimension, you can imagine the 4-D cube as a series of cubes, each replacing the former, as time progresses. I think, though, that the term "tesseract" actually refers to the representation of a 4-D object in 3-D space. IIRC, Carl Sagan did a bit about tesseracts and higher-dimensional geometries in the "Cosmos" series.
"--And He Built A Crooked House" was originally published in 1940. It appears in the collection The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein which was published in 1999. That's a good collection to look for, by the way, because it includes the classic stories "Magic, Inc.", "Waldo" (yes, Heinlein coined the word) and "--All You Zombies--" as well as four other good stories.
Maybe it's referring to it as "work" this is causing all of the Hobbits to be elsewhere. Perhaps you should try the same tactic that Tom Sawyer used to get his fence whitewashed...
Nothing yet. The one that I really wanted (graphics at the local newspaper) was already filled. It'll probably be easier once I get there and can hit the streets with my resume in hand. I have a lot of contacts there too, and have started "shaking the tree", so to speak. Something will turn up. It does feel good to be out of a dead-end job that I hated, but will miss my friends though. We had our own little "tech support support group" that got together occasionally to watch movies (Office Space is a particular favorite) and commiserate about the job.
I load the moving truck on either Thurs or Fri, and take off on Saturday. My dad is flying up to drive back with me - the boys on a road trip! I'm looking forward to it.
I think that movie is a favorite of a lot of people who work at large companies, particularly if they're in a high-tech field. A friend I worked with on my last contract and I would quote snippets of dialogue from that movie back and forth to each other in lieu of actual conversation...
LOL! We do the same thing!
Peter Gibbons: I don't like my job and I don't think I'll go anymore.
Joanna: You're just not gonna go?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Joanna: Won't you get fired?
Peter Gibbons: I don't know. But I really don't like it and, uh, I'm not gonna go.
Joanna: So you're gonna quit?
Peter Gibbons: Uh-uh. Not really. I'm just gonna stop going.
Joanna: When did you decide all that?
Peter Gibbons: About an hour ago.
Joanna: So you're going to get another job?
Peter Gibbons: I don't think I'll like another job.
Joanna: Well what are you going to do about money? Bills?
Peter Gibbons: You know I never really liked paying bills, I don't think I'm going to do that either.
Agreed. I don't read a lot of modern SF&F because so much of it seems to include sexual situations, not to advance the plot or help define characters, but just because the author wants to titillate (or prove they're "adult").
Those old SF guys invented a lot of things.
It's a long list, all right!
Bob: So, Peter, it seems you've been missing a lot of work lately...
Peter: Oh, I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob...
I can't recall the author's name right now. But a few weeks back I picked up a new SF&F work at the library. On page 4 the main character's girlfriend told him to f-off. I went no further.
I mean, I'm certainly no prude, but it that was character development, I didn't want to get to know them.
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