hibi

It's kind of odd that I got to 30 without ever having read The Hobbit. There's no good explanation, really, why I didn't read it earlier in my life. I SHOULD have read it. I know that now and I repent because I can see WHY Tolkien is regarded so highly amongst readers and writers alike. I was very in love with this story as I read it and that love lingers on still. Bilbo is the unlikely hero and is extremely likable. Tolkien manages to skillfully pull off something that seems impossible to me, that he has Bilbo say so little and yet we know him so well. He is often on the periphery, hovering there, watching the action take place, an observer of events. But he rises and does his part when he's needed. And he typically does it very well. I know so much has been said about this book over the years and so there's not much to add. Simply that I have read it and am glad I did. I would like to read more about Bilbo and his little life, and will read the first of the Lord of the Rings again, but Bilbo's not in there much and I will have to settle for Frodo. I think Lord of the Rings is a big departure from what happens in the Hobbit, or at least I think Tolkien had a different agenda, and therefore the tone of the book is quite different from the Hobbit. To confess, I cried at the end. For that I credit Tolkien's skill with words and how he sets up a scene. I'm thinking about the particular scene right now, and feeling again what I felt when Bilbo is forgiven by Thorin for how he had meddled in the affairs of the dwarves, and what happens next and how simple Tolkien tells it. He makes writing look effortless and he doesn't seem to feel it necessary to garnish his story with overdone prose and impressive words. And that makes me fall in love with him (as a writer), because he was very educated and knew words better than most, and yet he knew how to rein in and only give what was pertinent (the same can be said for Lewis). He never loses sight of his goal: to tell a story and be understood by his readers (some writers don't care about this, it seems). p.s. I cannot forgive Tolkien for what he did to Smaug. I will always feel that Smaug was done wrong. I love Smaug.

2022-11-14 18:06