View Single Post
Old 07-13-2007, 03:44 PM   #38
davem
Illustrious Ulair
 
davem's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sauron the White View Post
That is one viewpoint. The other is that JRRT simply tired of it and went on to something else .... probably something else which was not finished either. His not completing the rewrite of THE HOBBIT may speak more to his work habits and changing interest in the world of ME than it does that such a HOBBIT rewrite simply cannot be done.
You have to read the section to see why he gave up, & why it couldn't be done. The attempted re-write simply doesn't work.

Quote:
Regardless, all of this certainly will give a sheen of credibility to any efforts by Jackson or other film makers to make a more adult HOBBIT which fits in better to the style and approach of LOTR films.
Possibly. To me it will show they haven't learned the lesson Tolkien learned. I wonder how many of those who want a 'Hobbit' movie actually want a movie in the style of the book, & how many want a 'grown-up' version. It strikes me that those who want such a 'grown-up' version don't actually want a Hobbit movie at all & perhaps dislike the fact that TH is a children's book. TH is a fairy tale, full of fairy tale characters & situations. It can't be re-written in another style. I repeat - the friend who Tolkien lent the manuscript to told him 'Its good, but its not The Hobbit'. And it is 'good' in its own way - not great (& TH is a 'great' book) - but good, or at least interesting. But a movie in that style would not be The Hobbit at all.

To my mind attempting to do what a far more creative person than you attempted & failed to do doesn't lend credibility to the attempts of lesser minds -& I don't want to argue that point: read 'Return to Bag End' & you'll see he did fail to re-write TH in the style of LotR because it couldn't be done - & if the inventor of M-e couldn't achieve that I don't see how anyone else could.
davem is offline   Reply With Quote