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A review by circlepines
The Ring Sets Out by J.R.R. Tolkien
I'm impressed by folks who can review The Lord of the Rings. I have no idea how I'd start to give this a five-star rating. It would be like trying to review protons, or infrared radiation. It's a foundational element of the universe that I live in, and my "rating" of it doesn't matter. It just... is.
But I've only actually read the series once. (Cut to me hiding LotR underneath my textbook in middle school English class, racing to finish it all before the next Peter Jackson movie came out.) Twenty years later I'm doing a read-through with my husband, who is a bona fide Tolkien fanatic with academic credentials to back it up, and has made a "Tolkien School" syllabus with weekly discussion prompts that we explore over tea and cookies. Strongly recommend reading LotR with someone who is thoroughly versed in the construction of Tolkien's universe within the context of Old and Middle English literary traditions! Also, with tea and cookies.
In lieu of an actual review, here are some of the things that struck me this time through The Ring Steps Out:
- The hobbit protagonists have much more distinctive character, and much more character development, than I really remembered. There's also much more humor than I remembered. (And Tolkien gets delightfully sassy toward his critics in the foreword.)
- The first time around, the Shire seemed peaceful and utopian. The second time around, it seems stiflingly conservative and so hostile to any kind of change or external influence. Also interesting to read with an awareness of class that I didn't have before -- seeing how much of the humor in the first part of the book comes from poking fun at the habits and interests of working-class hobbits; how much of Frodo's early character development involves differentiating him from the hobbit hoi polloi; how Sam is set apart from Frodo's other companions because of his working-class background, and gradually integrates into the group as they get farther from the Shire; etc.
- Tom Bombadil is not actually the Jar-Jar Binks of LotR. He is an enigmatic god, and it is a great injustice that he was left out of the movie. We can only hope that Peter Jackson's next project will be an entire Tom Bombadil trilogy.
- An assortment of random droppings from my notebook: "oh god they're starting to walk"; "Sam is a dog?"; "Frodo's self-perpetuating sense of alienation"; "Merry would be better at this than Frodo"; "hobbits need constant deus ex machina"; "the Men of Bree all have Radical Faerie names"; "Middle Earth refugee crisis -- NIMBYism"; "how come no one has a map??"
But I've only actually read the series once. (Cut to me hiding LotR underneath my textbook in middle school English class, racing to finish it all before the next Peter Jackson movie came out.) Twenty years later I'm doing a read-through with my husband, who is a bona fide Tolkien fanatic with academic credentials to back it up, and has made a "Tolkien School" syllabus with weekly discussion prompts that we explore over tea and cookies. Strongly recommend reading LotR with someone who is thoroughly versed in the construction of Tolkien's universe within the context of Old and Middle English literary traditions! Also, with tea and cookies.
In lieu of an actual review, here are some of the things that struck me this time through The Ring Steps Out:
- The hobbit protagonists have much more distinctive character, and much more character development, than I really remembered. There's also much more humor than I remembered. (And Tolkien gets delightfully sassy toward his critics in the foreword.)
- The first time around, the Shire seemed peaceful and utopian. The second time around, it seems stiflingly conservative and so hostile to any kind of change or external influence. Also interesting to read with an awareness of class that I didn't have before -- seeing how much of the humor in the first part of the book comes from poking fun at the habits and interests of working-class hobbits; how much of Frodo's early character development involves differentiating him from the hobbit hoi polloi; how Sam is set apart from Frodo's other companions because of his working-class background, and gradually integrates into the group as they get farther from the Shire; etc.
- Tom Bombadil is not actually the Jar-Jar Binks of LotR. He is an enigmatic god, and it is a great injustice that he was left out of the movie. We can only hope that Peter Jackson's next project will be an entire Tom Bombadil trilogy.
- An assortment of random droppings from my notebook: "oh god they're starting to walk"; "Sam is a dog?"; "Frodo's self-perpetuating sense of alienation"; "Merry would be better at this than Frodo"; "hobbits need constant deus ex machina"; "the Men of Bree all have Radical Faerie names"; "Middle Earth refugee crisis -- NIMBYism"; "how come no one has a map??"