Ginia Bellafante, in a review of HBO’s “A Game of Thrones,” that makes its television debut this weekend and stars LOTR’s Sean Bean, insinuates that women, or at least women in book clubs, aren’t passionate about “The Hobbit,” the beloved book by J.R.R. Tolkien. With over 10 years of experiences with fans of Middle-earth, and the many women that are passionate about it, Ms. Bellafante might be missing something. She said:
While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.
Readers of the interwebs, especially the females, are a bit miffed at the writer and there are several good female-authored blogs and responses, (read after the break for a list of some of the more notable responses) but most are from the perspective of “Game of Thrones,” readers. So, Tolkienites, do you agree or disagree with the above statement and the full review? Continue reading “Do women love ‘The Hobbit’? NYTimes says no”
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Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in a strange, spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or painting. The letters were from Father Christmas.
They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house, and many more.
No reader, young or old, can fail to be charmed by Tolkien’s inventiveness in this classic holiday treat.
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“Once in a lifetime.” The phrase comes up over and over from the people who worked on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. The film’s seventeen Oscars, record-setting earnings, huge fan base, and hundreds of ancillary products attest to its importance and to the fact that Rings is far more than a film. Its makers seized a crucial moment in Hollywood–the special effects digital revolution plus the rise of “infotainment” and the Internet–to satisfy the trilogy’s fans while fostering a huge new international audience. The resulting franchise of franchises has earned billions of dollars to date with no end in sight. Kristin Thompson interviewed seventy-six people to examine the movie’s scripting and design and the new technologies deployed to produce the films, video games, and DVDs. She demonstrates the impact Rings had on the companies that made it, on the fantasy genre, on New Zealand, and on independent cinema. In fast-paced, compulsively readable prose, she affirms Jackson’s Rings as one the most important films ever made.
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Scholars and fans of the great mythologist will find a rich vein of information in Humphrey Carpenter’s The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien was a prodigious letter writer all his life; the sheer mass of his correspondence would give pause to even the most stalwart archivist (one shudders to think what he would have done with e-mail). But with the able assistance of Tolkien’s son Christopher and a healthy dose of determination, Carpenter manages find the cream of the crop–the letters that shed light on Tolkien’s thoughts about his academic and literary work, as well as those that show his more private side, revealing a loving husband, a playful friend, and a doting father. The most fascinating letters are, of course, those in which he discusses Middle-Earth, and Carpenter offers plenty of those to choose from. Tolkien discussed the minutia of his legend–sometimes at great length–with friends, publishers, and even fans who wrote to him with questions. These letters offer significant insights into how he went about creating the peoples and languages of Middle-Earth.
I have long ceased to invent (though even patronizing or sneering critics on the side praise my ‘inventions’): I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself. Thus, though I knew for years that Frodo would run into a tree-adventure somewhere far down the Great River, I had no recollection of inventing Ents. I came at last to the point, and wrote the ‘Treebeard’ chapter without any recollection of any previous thought: just as it is now. And then I saw that, of course, it had not happened to Frodo at all.
This new edition of letters has an extensive index, and Carpenter has included a brief blurb at the beginning of each letter to explain who the correspondent was and what was being discussed. Still, we strongly recommend buying the companion volume, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, in order to better understand the place these correspondents had in Tolkien’s life and get a better context for the letters. –Perry M. Atterberry
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J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT is an epic tale of magical adventure that has captivated children and adults for more than sixty years. Its success comes from its combination of flawless storytelling and enchanting writing, including these twelve delightful poems. This miniature book, illustrated with thirty of Tolkien’s own paintings and drawings, contains all the poems, plus Gollum’s eight famous riddles, and will be a perfect keepsake for lovers of THE HOBBIT and Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
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A fascinating glimpse into the life of the writer and artist. Over 200 reproductions of Tolkien’s paintings, drawings, and sketches fill this engaging title. Basically arranged chronologically into six sections, the book explores the man’s early work; visions, myths, and legends; art for children; The Hobbit; “The Lord of the Rings”; and patterns and devices. In a readable style, Hammond and Scull weave their subject’s writing career with his love of art. Tolkien’s use of inks, washes, watercolors, and pencil is examined. Many previously unpublished illustrations are included and preliminary sketches show how they developed. Excerpted text shows the art within the context of its completed work.?John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
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