Annoying Amateurs

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

LOR was meant to be a trilogy only

I'm afraid not. Actually it was published in three volumes because in the 1950s paper was very expensive in Britain. Even as it was, the first edition cost 21 shillings a volume, which made it a very expensive set indeed. The fact that it sold any copies at all is a testament to the popularity of The Hobbit.

I think that Heren Istarion's point should serve to remind us that Middle-earth is more complicated than it may seem. The Silmarillion looks authoritative until you read The History of Middle-earth, and then it's really up to the individual which of Tolkien's versions they choose to accept. Perhaps it should remind us of something else as well: there is always someone who knows more than you do, and to them you may be an annoying amateur. Don't get me wrong: I like to laugh at ignorance posing as authority as much as anyone, but we shouldn't take it to extremes and poke fun at everyone who doesn't know all the names of Tom Bombadil. It just isn't what the Downs is about.

[Snowdog]

Just throw out enough Silm and UT references (or even *gasp* truly basic LotR book references) and they get confused beyond all get out

Yeah. I have to clarify that I refer only to the 'movie-only' amateurs. Anyone who are willing to gain knowledge by reading the LotR are worthy indeed.

on the other note... the whole 'Annoying Expert' thing is worthy of its own thread.

[Lathriel]

Talking about Annoying Ammateurs how about Dummies who need to read LOTR for dummies.

There is a girl who claims she is a Ringwraith incarnate!! She is at my school and my other friend was telling me about her. Of course I almost blew up it is the most ridiculuos thing I ever heard!

There was also another girl who walked up to my gym teacher (who is a drill seargent and an american football coach) and showed him a map of ME and pointed to Mordor and told him it was Mordor, Well everybody knows where Mordor is and you don't go up to a Gym teacher to tell him the obvious!!!

[Sapphire_Flame]

"I hate reading the book-versions of movies. The people they hire to turn the movies into the books never get it right."

Now that's just horrible.

I do confess, I am guilty of falling under the "Annoying Experts" catagory (according to just about everyone I know, anyway...)

Abedithon le,

~*~Aranel~*~

[Gil-Galad]

don't be hasty, not everybody should know everthing about lotr, don't expect that everyone in your school knows where mordor is! heck only like 75% the people in my school (500+ peeps) have seen all the movies! don't judge a book by its cover, even though they act like newbs, don't think that people around them aren't

[Lathriel]

It is true I guess not everyone knows where Mordor is but the last person you go to tell where Mordor is is your Gym teacher.

[Saraphim]

Alright, I have to say this. (Here's a fine example of my being an Annoying Expert)

Why, why, oh, why, would they go and make new books?!?!?

Alright, so we have a book. A fine book. So fine, in fact, that we're going to make it an epic movie.

So now we have a fine movie. Not as good as the book, but fairly good nonetheless.


But WAIT! I've got a wonderful idea! We make books from the movies! We just follow the script that was a corruption of the original (read: real) book, which cut out dozens of characters and plots and scenes.

So now we have a book that was made from a movie that was made from a book.

Will someone explain to me the logic in this?