Will The Hobbit do damage to the books?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

The Hobbit movies are already giving a bad representation of the book, and although people are buying the book, a lot of potential customers have been put of by the money-grab-ness of the movies. If the movies were better, and concise, the books would sell a lot more. I guess it just comes down to how the media is treating literature, and they aren't treating it respectfully.

To me, one of the main problems with books today is that it seems potential for movie development instantly supersedes any consideration of the books themselves as stand-alone works. And that isn't good enough, either: it's required to mine well-loved books from the past that are well-written and moving, and subject them to the same treatment.

What really saps my hope for the future status of Tolkien's books in the mainstream is uselessness like this:



But hey, if it sells, go for it!

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

You do see fandoms around book series like Twilight.

There are still Twilight fans around..?

Originally Posted by Inziladun

What really saps my hope for the future status of Tolkien's books in the mainstream

The mainstream is an icky place to be anyway. All the sewage ends up there.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

But it does answer the question "What do they eat when they can't get hobbits?"

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

But it does answer the question "What do they eat when they can't get hobbits?"

Could be that was Galadriels' secret lembas ingredient. Frodo and Sam were running on a sugar high.

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Yes, we are adrift in a sea of idiots, but in many respects we always have been.

Optimism!

Faces fell, forlorn
Words of doom, green and eerie
Y'all should google cats

*pops a few tabs of Pez of Westernesse*

*tosses a dwarf*

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

*tosses a dwarf*

Hey!

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Hey!

Only in the name of profit! You can't argue the mass appeal of Dwarf-tossing. Also belching.

*belches*

[Zigûr]

Frustrated to see a post from the "J.R.R. Tolkien" official Facebook page come up today on my Facebook news feed. I don't follow the page myself because it's essentially just a promotional/marketing page for the publishers. A Facebook friend had liked this post so it came up.

It was Gandalf's quote to Pippin from the films, "The Return of the King" specifically, about death; the one that repurposes Frodo's arrival in Valinor, with "all is turned to silver glass" and so forth, and misleadingly uses it to describe some kind of pleasant "afterlife" (as opposed to quiet contemplation in the halls of Mandos).

This was posted with "-J.R.R. Tolkien" below it, as if this film quotation, which repurposes some language from the books, was an exact quote from the man himself.

Absolutely pathetic on the part of the publishers and another piece of evidence for how the films actually do distort the public perception of the author, even if they don't "damage" it.

Some comments pointed this out, fortunately, but it turned into the usual useless "book vs film" argument of the calibre typical of Facebook comments sections.

The palimpsest is in full effect, it would seem.