Terrible!

[Noxomanus]

Today, a classmate of mine had a book presentation in English class about "The Hobbit" (understandably I had "The Lord of the Rings",wich was a great succes )Well it was disastrous and terribly wrong in my view. She said the Goblin-accident in the mountains was the first adventure of Thorin & Company. She didn't mention Gollum or the Battle of Five Armies at all! What's worse,she apparently forgot Thorin died and called Smaug Smang. Also,she said that the Dwarves went on an adventure with Bilbo,instead of vice versa.Then she had the map of Erebor and actually told us the Shire was AT the edge of the map,though the map didn't even extend into Mirkwood. Then suddenly,she was to read her poem. Two things about that:
1. It was 'The one Ring',wich she had barely mentioned and wich has in context nothing to do with the Hobbit.
2. I had read the exact same poem for my presentation (wich was of course far superior as I mentioned the Christian symboly, the 'angelic' nature of Gandalf and Sauron,as well as the themes and the like.

All in all,this was a shocking experience.

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

It's always irritating, annoying and sometimes funny to hear people talking about M-E with huge self confidence while messing up with places and characters' names

[Noxomanus]

Indeed. The agony! The agony! The fact I greatly dislike said girl isn't a help either....

[Finwe]

Look at it this way... people are going to remember your presentation more because yours was more accurate and better developed. The people who actually care will remember you. The ones who don't, might not, but then again, they aren't the ones that matter.

[Leyrana Silumiel]

I saw the subject line of your post ("Terrible!") and I couldn't help but to click and read.

It must have been horrible to be sitting there listening to that girl butcher The Hobbit and not say anything. I know if I had been in said position, I would have probably jumped up and started correcting her. She obviously didn't read the book too well. ^_^

[ElenCala Isil]

You know, a similar thing happened at my school. We had this 'author's fair' and naturally, Lëo and myself darted off to the Tolkien exhibit. But, it was an absolutely horrid presentation. Heck, the kid doing the project didn't even know who Gandalf was, and he still claimed to have read all three books (not to mention the Silmarillion)

Anywho, the next day, Lëowen and I were [indirectly] mentioned in the newspaper for being "self-proclaimed Tolkien nuts" and knowing more about LotR and Tolkien's other works than the kid who was supposed to be portraying the Good Professor.

[Alkanoonion]

Noxomanus

Could we read your presentation on the hobbit; I think that it would make for interesting reading.

[Knight of Gondor]

Noxomanus -

Aw, don't take it so hard. It's tough to be a group that is so into Lord of the Rings, and yet present in the company of people who are ignorant of the grandeur and wonder of Tolkien's books, and movie adaptations. Much worse, when the pretend to know/like it, or are content to remain ignorant and indifferent about it. Hang in there...most of us have been there.

[Kransha]

I feel for you, really. That must have been torture.

I've experienced things mildly like this, but not entirely. My friend had to do a book report (similiar enough to your story), and he picked the Two Towers. He had to write an essay on character and plot. I was, of course, ecstatic, since this was one of my only friends who hadn't actually read the book.

But, he was apparently too lazy to read it anyway. He did his report on the movie. Now, the movie's fine, but the was an Essay on CHARACTER AND PLOT: two things which the movie TTT mangled at least a bit. He gave a great report on the movie, but not on the book, which means; He got Faramir all wrong, he left out Shelob, added the whole Osgiliath bit, and more. It was, as I said, a very well-written report, but his teacher at the time had read the book and seen the movie, so he had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

[Noxomanus]

Originally posted by Alkanoonion
Noxomanus

Could we read your presentation on the hobbit; I think that it would make for interesting reading.

Well,that was one positive thing about my presentation (wich was about LorR by the way)it was completely out of the dome. So I was just talking without looking on my paper.

The way I handled it was:
A bit of biography of Tolkien.

The influence of Christianity on his works; the presence of God and the minor ways in wich he influenced certain situations. For sake of simplicity to a un-educated (if i may say) public,I referred to Sauron and Saruman as fallen angels and to Gandalf as a good angel,the equal and opponent of Sauron.

Then I read part of "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" from the Silmarillion,about the forging of the Rings of Power.
Then came the War of the Last Alliance and the death of Sauron and the taking of the Ring.
Then came Disaster of Gladden Fields (fleetingly)
Next was Gollum
Following stop was Bilbo and the way he found the Ring by devine interference,as well as the 'reincarnation' (as I called it) of Sauron.
It was then that I got to Frodo and the other Hobbits as well as Gandalf (and his fall and reincarnation) and Aragorn.(who I couldn't say that much about except him being the descendant of Isildur and the King)

Then I came to the themes: the power of small people, the symbolism in the Ring, 'don't mess with nature' (referring to Saruman and the Ents),the way power corrupts and at last that everyone who desires to dominate others gets punished(evidenced by the death of all who desired the Ring)
Then came the poem of 'The One Ring'.
Then I was done. (after 35 minutes!Everyone else lasted for some 15 minutes at most)
My teacher said: "Well....I don't know what I can give to that. It was excellent and you didn't make any mistakes in pronounciation and grammar. I'll have to think deep about the note I'll give you for this." I definately was like , I can tell you!
Sadly I won't know what note I'll have until everyone has done his or her presentation,wich will be some three weeks...
When I have it,I'll tell you people.

[evenstar_0404]

Imagine..she would have a higher score than you due to the gramma i.e. That would be TERIBBLE.
Hope not though.

[Alkanoonion]

Thanks Noxomanus
For extra marks you could make your presentation into an essay and submit it to the downs essay page. From what you typed it looks like you have no worries on achieving a high grade.

[Gorwingel]

I feel your pain Sitting through terribly done projects has to be one of the most terrible parts of school.

I have had to sit through many terribly done projects (not Tolkien related though), where words were butchered, and people acted like they knew the topic but they just did not.

Like for example I had to sit through this one project on Italy, and the person pronounced the name "Milan", "Mi-LAN". They made it sound like the city was in China instead of Italy!

I have had to deal with many people who acted like they knew Tolkien too but didn’t. I would tell them that they were wrong, correct them, and then feel so sorry for them.

[The Mushroom]

Oh! I feel your pain! I know this guy (told me that he knew everything about Middle Earth) who tried to correct me when I told him that Feanor was an elf!!! (sighs deeply) Shocking.... shocking...

[Firefoot]

That must have been really hard for you to sit through that. I hope nothing like that ever happens to me. *shudders* If it did though, after I got over the initial shock I would probably laugh. That's what usually ends up happening to me when someone thinks they know so much and completely screw it up.

[Laitoste]

Oooh...that must've been tough! However, in my freshman year, I did a book report on The Two Towers, and I did pretty badly in covering everything!! I got 100%, but I only discussed the characters and no plot, themes, nothing! I have been patiently waiting to ba able to do another major book report/presentation so that I can fix my errors. I did have fun doing it. That was about the only presentation that I didn't procrastinate on, and I was the only person in my class to choose the option of presenting. I had to make a bunch of posters, so I drew some of the major characters, and butchered the Ents. They looked like stalks of broccoli. Don't even get me started on my frog-Gollum...

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

If you want horrible... my TEACHER was teaching my TRILOGY class (a real live class) that Elves created the Dwarves!

That is one nasty misread, or just bad memory... Usually I let mistakes slip by (Numoranians, as opposed to Numenorians), but Elves? Nah... Aule. So then I had to explain to the class (all of whom refuse to read the Silm) what the Valar are, the difference between them and Elves, etc. That was one horrible experience.

Oh, and I've recently been volunteered to go explain The Hobbit to an 8th grade class that's reading the book. Problem being, I've not read The Hobbit for nearly a year, and my copy is currently buried under guitars at a friend's house. That should be blood-chilling, if I can't get my copy back before it happens.

Fea

[Ellwyn]

Oh, the horror

I have a similiar situation, except it is a 'friend' who copies me in every single way imaginable. So, guess what, she's a huge LOTR fan too

She claims to have read the books EVER so many times, yet she didn't know what Imladris was!

I sympathise, I really do. I hope your presentation rocked! By the sound of it, it did

[Noxomanus]

Originally posted by Ellwyn
I sympathise, I really do. I hope your presentation rocked! By the sound of it, it did

Thank you! All complements are greatly welcomed because a humble mind is most effected by pleasings