[JenB]

Agree with everything you say, as a fellow "not very good" writer.

Smeagol shimmers...like a shiny pool of oil, colorful but poisonous, fascinating in its vileness?

[carton253]

Yes... if Tolkien had left him just vile... But, when we first meet him in The Hobbit, he is creepy. In fact, Gollum is the character I remember all these years after my forced read of the book. And my impression of him is he is creepy.

But, Tolkien didn't leave him vile. He made him funny. And to me, he is funny. Down to his syntax. But, then, Tolkien showed us... like lightening in a dark room... you can see, then you can't... just who Gollum was. He was a murderer yes... but, right before Sam called him a sneak, Tolkien writes, that if you had looked closely you would have seen an old hobbit, too many years removed from his friends and his family and all that was familiar.

So, here is this bad guy. He has murdered and technically, he will murder again (Frodo by Shelob and Sam by his own hands). But, in the oil, is this complex character (just as complex as any other character in literature) that I can't help feel sorry for. I love him! He is, without a doubt, my second favorite character in literature. Sydney Carton from Tale of Two Cities being the first.