Jello has fruit juice now?
One of the times I went to the ER I had with me The Hobbit. The doctor commented that the books help many of Tolkien's opinions of society, and was almost his reaction to it. One holding all the power leads to greed and corruption, no one thinking the little guy can do anything of signifigance. If given the opportunity, many will choose power over common good. If given the chance to get rid of something that can give one power, one has a difficult time getting rid of the power, even if one does not want it.
According to the doctor, England held a major signifigance to Tolkien, aside from it just being where he lived. He felt certain ties to his homeland, as I think many of us do to some extent (btw, in my neck of California, I know of one place that looks exactly like many of the places shown in the films, so much it's earie). (The doctor and I talked quite a while! It was a slow night in the ER and I wasn't dying, so it was enjoyable.)
However, I do feel a certain sacriledge in the movies being filmed in NZ when it was England Tolkien used for inspiration. Of course, it helps that Old England is similar to what most of us imagine in fantasies, helped along by book images and such that taint out subconscious thoughts!
I watched a documentary as well that spoke of how many places were important to Tolkien, and for different reasons. Certain locations of the books reflect those places (it's been a while since I saw the doc). But it did make me wonder how many of the locations of which Tolkien wrote really are real. In Chapter 3, he is so clear about the Hobbits' journey into the wood and the valley and where they were leading up to meeting Tom that I wonder if he was writing about a place he had actually visited. Maybe he was relaxing in a forest and came to something that looked something like what he described. The detail is so incredible that it seems it must be some place real.
I took a paper and pen the last time I read that chapter (two days ago) and drew out what he described, and their path, and the directions. Such as something being left showing they went to far this direction, or the shadows came from that direction. Not a single error could I find, and I'm good at finding errors in such complex narration. This particular forest, and the valley, must be real somewhere.
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