The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
I have had the chance to read the novel The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien for my Modern fantasy seminar midterm exam. It’s pretty exciting to learn modern and popular literature. It was exciting to learn classical popular and love literature, and now I can read and study the modern exciting ones, the ones normal people (not me) would read for pleasure. It’s a good example for a quest romance and modern too. Even though the plot takes us to another reality of another time (the middle ages of some sort) it is still modern, for I encountered a modern language and a modern characterization.
I can’t believe I am actually saying that I haven’t read the book before and just read it before the exam, but well, I never had the time for it, and now I have finally read and I’m glad I did, and I would force everyone to read it before Lord of the Rings. It’s a good story and may I say simple. There are not too many characters and the plot is quite what it is, a quest, one quest and then the journey home. There is a wonderful narrator that cannot be avoided. There are great lines and there is a great mind behind them. I wouldn’t say it’s simple as in too simple to be academically researched and studied. It’s simple as an easy read, straight to the point and short. Unlike Lord of the Rings, which have billions of characters and then a plot that goes to different directions and there are thousands of pages to read without an end. Lord of The Rings is enjoyable, but when one is in a need of an easy read for a good quest romance book, The Hobbit is the one and only. It’s a good story to be read again and again, it doesn’t a lot of time and it is as enjoyable as any good novel is.
There are a lot of things to see in this book and yet it’s short (around 350 pages) and beautiful, it has this simple beauty that can be attractive to everyone. I have truly enjoyed reading it and have also enjoyed studying it, and I suppose I might have learned a lot about it. I have asked my self the questions of who am I and what have I become on my internal journey? I have gone through a journey similar to Bilbo the hobbit, it wasn’t a journey in space, but an internal journey within my self. And I suppose I may assume that we all have gone through similar journeys. How did we cope with the fantasy world and our familiar world?
I have seen the trailer of the upcoming movie and I have to say it’s quite nice and fun, even though I’m more than sure they have added so many things that I don’t think they were necessary, specially some characters. And I don’t get it, why the title is named differently and why is there a sequel of the actual name of the novel? why there are characters of women – Galadriel? while there isn’t. And what’s with Frodo? I see they have added some characters or have added a lot of importance to characters that weren’t as important in the novel. But, oh well, this happens to every adaptation to every book. I don’t have to agree with that and they still can make a good movie, or at least admired by many. We’ll wait and see.
Here’s the trailer:
Don’t you like the dwarves song?
