Annoying Amateurs

[Olorin_TLA]

I know someone who, when I pointed out that Uruk-hai weren't gronw like potatoes as PJ shows them, actually said that I and Tolkien must be wrong, and got uber-aggresive. Riiiight...

[Olorin_TLA]

Also, though non-book readers can't be blamed, it's annoying when a book-lover wuotes a line that was changedin the film, from the film. It's like the book was erased from their memories...

[Laitoste]

My personal opinion on this is that we are all, technically, amateurs. Unless someone else is getting paid to be here. Then I want to know why THEY are and I'M not. Because that's not fair.

Anyway, I've been here since November (2003), and I still consider myself to be an amateur. I've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings countless times. I still consider myself an amateur. I've read The Silmarillion a couple of times (and didn't understand a word of it until I heard the book-on-tape ). I still consider myself an amateur. Why? Because I don't know HALF as much as I could. I can "show off" my knowledge to random people, but I don't know that much. I can correct people (nicely) when they make a mistake.

I, fortunatly, have not had much of an experience with "annoying" amateurs. The only ones I know are my brother and my cousin, and they just say stupid stuff to make me angry. And when people do try to show off with false facts, I don't think that it's our place to criticize them. Yes, they are being stupid, and I know that it must be fun to make them look bad, but it doesn't make us look any better to insult them. I firmly believe that this creates a bad image for all of us. Eventually, these people will move on to something else, and will annoy other people. The people who really care will be around in a few years, not those. They will be selling their DVD's at garage sales. Ignore them. But do keep posting their antics here. It's really quite fascinating. Just be polite.

[Iaurhirwen]

The other day I got into this conversation with a good friend of mine about the pronunciation of Sméagol. The're quite intelligent and having studied French for 2 years was in the process of saying to someone else that it is 3 sylablles and not 2.

Having heard that (I have this ability to detect anything LOTR related in an instant, anyone else have this uncanny ability? ) I promptly proceeded to tell them that they were mistaken and that it was only 2. They kept insisting that because there was an accent mark, there were 3 syllables.

After a few minutes of my trying to explane the basis of his name in terms of its Old English roots and her still insisting there were 3 syllables she finally said, "I shouldn't be arguing with you, you know more about LOTR than I do."

Not quite an A-A gripe, but it is quite funny when someone thinks they have the right answer when they don't. I think it's our job to correct those common things that we know people get wrong, like the whole Arwen/Glorfindel thing and the "love triangle" between Arwen/Aragorn/Eowyn.

I am always glad to meet people who are new to LOTR and help them when they are stuck. I don't profess to know everything about LOTR, it's quite impossible really, but for those of us who have read the books and understand them, we have the ability to help and should do so, without sounding and being snobbish, of course.

Sorry for my rant. I do that sometimes when I'm hyper.

[Gil-Galad]

One thing that is "newbish" is peeps saying that what they say about lotr is right, like this one kid says that a book called "peoples of middle earth", it says that Gil-Galad is Orodreths son, when Tolkien clearly wrote that he was Fingons, that kid said it was corrected in PoME, which wasn't written by tolkien, so how could they so-called correct it, if tolkien didn't even write it anywhere saying "oh yah, gil-galad is actually orodreths son, ignore about a couple of chapters saying its fingons....that really bugged me....sorry folks no dancing elf this time, but i do have BADGERS!!!(sorry badgers no work...gotta fix it...)



bye peeps, remember to keep on rocking in the free world!

[bilbo_baggins]

I liked your dancing Elf that other time, Gil-Galad! Too bad we can't have more of them!

And I do believe that Fingon was your daddy! (He is your daddy, isn't he?)

People, quote me on this: "Annoying Amatuers are, well, just that; Annoying!"

[Orominuialwen]

The other day I got into this conversation with a good friend of mine about the pronunciation of Sméagol. The're quite intelligent and having studied French for 2 years was in the process of saying to someone else that it is 3 sylablles and not 2.

Having heard that (I have this ability to detect anything LOTR related in an instant, anyone else have this uncanny ability? ) I promptly proceeded to tell them that they were mistaken and that it was only 2. They kept insisting that because there was an accent mark, there were 3 syllables.

After a few minutes of my trying to explane the basis of his name in terms of its Old English roots and her still insisting there were 3 syllables she finally said, "I shouldn't be arguing with you, you know more about LOTR than I do."

I pronounce it with 3 syllables, like smay-uh-goll, but whatever.

I once had an obnoxious girl who didn't even like LotR tell me that she couldn't remember Legolas' name, but she though he was hot, so she just called him "Arrow-Man."

I still consider myself an amateur, although hopefully not an annoying one. I hadn't read any of the books before I saw FotR, but I started reading them shortly after that, so I've only been a fan of LotR for a little more than two years. I've only been on the 'Downs for a bit less than a year, and I've only read some scattered bits of HoME. I think that it's perfectly fine to be an amateur, so long as you don't think you know everything.