What do you assign to Orthanc?

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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

And speaking of the bittersweet, I assign giving up smoking (which lends the thread a certain symmetry, as cigarettes were one of the things I mentioned in my original post). It's good for me, it's saving me money and it means that I am no longer an outcast in public places, but I really really miss my cigarettes, even after 9 months, and especially when sitting at the computer and wandering the Downs.

That's good man, giving up smoking really belongs to the Shire but it takes a long time before you realise it. 9 month isn't quite enough I'm afraid, but you'll get there eventually. The witch-hunt for smokers is worthy of Mordor.

Originally Posted by Laurinquë

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

I'm staring to think I'm the only man alive who's yet to read a Stieg Larsson book - and I'm Swedish too. That dead man's success is unbelievable, but I just can't shake the instinctive feeling that if everyone loves him so much he can't be any good. It's silly I know, and eventually I'll probably read him, but the whole thing reminds me too much of the mass hysteria another book I haven't read brought on, namely The DaVinci Code.

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I also assign Silvio Berlusconi.

I suppose he really belongs in Mordor but as a resident of the holy land of Political Correctness I can't hold back a certain admiration for the man.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by skip spence

I also assign Silvio Berlusconi.
I suppose he really belongs in Mordor but as a resident of the holy land of Political Correctness I can't hold back a certain admiration for the man.

Well, if LotR was set in our times, I could quite easily picture Saruman as a media mogul turned politician - so I suppose S.B. is OK in Orthanc.

[Andsigil]

I assign Hugo Chavez to Orthanc.

He's an excellently sordid example of what Bill Ferney or Uglúk running a country would be like.

[Airaloske]

Raistlin Majere.

After reading Dragonlance Legends I know I should hate him more than anyone has hated a fictional character before, but something about him makes it impossible for me to hate. In fact, I could safely say that I was hoping he'd succeed the whole time, even though I knew it would be the doom of the world. Something about him screams "Anti-hero" and I can't help but to place him neatly into my "if he was real we'd be best friends forever" category.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by skip spence

I'm staring to think I'm the only man alive who's yet to read a Stieg Larsson book - and I'm Swedish too. That dead man's success is unbelievable, but I just can't shake the instinctive feeling that if everyone loves him so much he can't be any good. It's silly I know, and eventually I'll probably read him, but the whole thing reminds me too much of the mass hysteria another book I haven't read brought on, namely The DaVinci Code.

I know that instinctive feeling only too well (it kept me off Harry Potter for years, until a friend had mercy and forced The Philosophers' Stone on me as a birthday present), and more often than not the feeling is right. As for The DaVinci Code, all you missed is an entertaining read playing with ideas that have been around for decades. Larsson is in another league altogether. He writes characters I couldn't help but care deeply about, makes them face and swallow every kind of tough **** and has them emerging victorious and changed by the experience. Give him a try, I don't think you'll regret it.

[Lindale]

Originally Posted by skip spence

but the whole thing reminds me too much of the mass hysteria another book I haven't read brought on, namely The DaVinci Code.

Oh, I remember that hype! I was fourteen at the time, and my mother and aunts did everything to forbid me to read it. Naturally it only increased my curiosity about it, and three days after a terrible sermon from my mother I had a copy I read during lunch.

[skip spence]

Originally Posted by Lindale

Oh, I remember that hype! I was fourteen at the time, and my mother and aunts did everything to forbid me to read it. Naturally it only increased my curiosity about it, and three days after a terrible sermon from my mother I had a copy I read during lunch.

Yeah, there's nothing that tickles your interest like people telling you not to do something, especially for a teenager. Shocking book that. The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, WAS NOT A VIRGIN!!

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Larsson is in another league altogether. He writes characters I couldn't help but care deeply about, makes them face and swallow every kind of tough **** and has them emerging victorious and changed by the experience. Give him a try, I don't think you'll regret it.

We'll see, we'll see... I won't buy the books though, there I draw the line.

[Airaloske]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Shocking book that. The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, WAS NOT A VIRGIN!!

people do realize that Dan Brown's novels are works of fiction, right?

just checking.

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I should hope so. Most books are.

[Airaloske]

its just that they are just novels written to make money and entertain people, and people have gone off the deep end because they love conspiracies. it gets irritating.

[Loslote]

Originally Posted by Airaloske

its just that they are just novels written to make money and entertain people, and people have gone off the deep end because they love conspiracies. it gets irritating.

People have always loved conspiracies. There's something to assign - theories that are as stupid as anything you've ever heard, but the people who believe in it want to kill you because you've expressed reasonable doubts and issues with it.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Airaloske

its just that they are just novels written to make money and entertain people, and people have gone off the deep end because they love conspiracies. it gets irritating.

It is more irritating still when they are as terribly and predictably written as the Brown novels...