The Battle of the 5+ Armies

[Michael Murry]

Why would anyone take part in a discussion of anything if they did not expect to find others with differing points of view? And why would anyone find the expression of a different point of view intimidating?

Personally, I consider another person's point of view interesting, or not, based not just on the intellectual elucidation of their ideas, but on the wit and style of their own writing. I agree with the British pragmatist philosopher F. C. S. Schller who said that "the word 'sacred' generally means that anything so denominated cannot withstand investigation." I also subscribe to the Buddha's admonition that "You cannot give offense to anyone unwilling to take it." Accordingly, I consider nothing "sacred" -- certainly not the works of movie studios and film directors -- and I refuse to take offense at anything someone else says or does because I have the choice not to do so. And I expect the same latitude from others.

As for movie adaptations of literary works, I have seen just about every James Bond movie ever made, even though I have probably read only one or two of Ian Fleming's novels. In any event, the Bond movies have long since become a formula genre, or type. Everyone knows in advance what sort of thing the films will contain and one either enjoys those sorts of things or one doesn't. Criticism of a Bond movie generally runs to arguments about how faithfully or not a particular film adheres to the expected forumula, not to whether or not the film breaks new ground as a film innovation. These "Hobbit" movies, in my opinion, seem like a fumbling attempt by Peter Jackson to establish a sort of "Middle Earth" Bond-movie genre: namely, "to the mountain and back with diversionary battles along the way." And instead of the alluring Bond girls with smutty names like ***** Galore and Octopussy, we get a thousand-year-old Elf-chick security guard named Itaril (scratch that, I mean "Tauriel") who can't decide whether to "love" either "a young Elf lord" or a dwarf with something or "nothing" in his trousers. The Bond movies do this sort of thing better.

(And as for the "sacred" and the "profane" -- otherwise known as "voodoo taboo" -- check out what this website's petty language-police software did with the two Bond girl names I referenced above. Ridiculous.)