Molly Ringle's Blog, page 18

Lord of the Rings: my 2014 re-read

Review as posted on Goodreads:

The long-expected re-read is done! I am not honestly sure if that was my third full time through, or fourth, or what. But it definitely had been over ten years since the last one, so a lot of the details were practically new to me again, and it was a delight to rediscover them.

I feel like I can't give it less than 5 stars, given the huge importance this trilogy had for a section of my life. But this time through, in honesty I'd go for 4 or 4.5 stars. My attention...

"Frodo, me dear, me dear": revisiting Sam/Frodo (and still finding them slashy)

In my re-read of LOTR, I lately began book 6 - the final leg! Here be more musings, this time all about Frodo/Sam as the One True Pairing. Be warned.

I do honestly believe Tolkien didn't intend to make Sam and Frodo's relationship romantic. But I also know from experience that characters start doing their own thing after you've been writing them a while, and I'm sorry, Professor, but those two hobbits REALLY seem like a couple. And they seem like they have been for YEARS before this quest. Or,...

An open letter to Target, who needs to stock rain boots in March in Seattle.

An open letter to those in charge of stocking items at Target:

Dear madams and sirs,

You have lost a goodly handful of cash, and much of my business, due to being so astoundingly, colossally stupid as to fail to stock kids' rain boots this time of year in Seattle. You currently have flip-flop sandals and swimsuits all over the clothing department, but nary a rain boot to be found. Sirs and madams, this is the Pacific Northwest. Puddle Land. Drizzle Country. We *might* be planning our summer wa...

Over-using character names within dialogue: don't do it

Dialogue-writing tip: don't overuse characters' names within their speech. For example:

"Would you like some eggs, Dolores?"
"Melvin, you know I'm allergic to them."
"Are you? I'm sorry, Dolores, I'd forgotten."
"It's all right, Melvin. But please pass me the toast."

In real life it's basically only annoying people in sales who keep using your name that frequently in conversation. Or your parents or significant other when they're annoyed with you. So if that's not the point you're trying to make,...

And then also there was this.

So I read: "Aragorn and Legolas went now with Eomer in the van." And of course automatically I think, "Hehe. Wonder if anyone's photoshopped the image in my head."



Yeah. Of course they have.

Saruman would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

(Though in my head I was more picturing one of those white or dark blue generic vans they share at college science departments. Aragorn driving, Legolas looking out the window with iPod earbuds in, Eomer asleep in the backs...

Éowyn gets all the love. Deservedly of course.

Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings. Thus Aragorn for the first time in the full light of day beheld Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, and thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood. And she now was suddenly aware of him: tall heir of kings, wise with many winters, greycloaked, hiding a power that y...

Movie/book differences in the breaking of the Fellowship

I finished re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring last night, and will turn the page and keep straight on into The Two Towers, since this is the big heavy single-volume edition I'm reading. I was inspired to get out the Extended Edition DVD this morning and re-watch the ending scenes of FOTR to note the various subtle changes.

One thing I like about the movie version is the parting between Frodo and Aragorn at the breaking of the Fellowship. After having been rushed at by Boromir, it makes sen...

Harry/Hermione: Rowling is now all, "Yeah, that should've been canon."

It's not The Onion, nor even Fanfiction.net:

"Rowling says that she should have put Hermione and Harry together in the Harry Potter series instead of Hermione and Ron.

“I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” she says. “That’s how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” she continued, “I can hear the rage...

Shortcut to the Council of Elrond

A mini condensed parody happened during my re-read of The Lord of the Rings. Here's the page I whipped up to bring the long and dense Council of Elrond chapter into a shorter form. Perhaps we can call it "A Shortcut to the Council of Elrond."

Elrond: Hi everyone. Welcome to the secret meeting about secret dark things. Glóin, start us off?
Glóin: So a guy from "Lord Sauron" came by the Dwarf towns and was all, "Nice civilization you got here. Real shame if anything happened to it." And he wanted...

"Unlikable" characters and how they're rather too often female

I greatly admired this post in defense of the "unlikable" female character.

"We forgive our heroes even when they’re drunken, aimless brutes or flawed noir figures who smoke too much and can’t hold down a steady relationship. In truth, we both sympathize with and celebrate these heroes... But what we love about many male heroes – their complexity, their confidence, their occasional bouts of selfish whim –become, in female heroes, marks of the dreaded 'unlikeable character.'"

Fits with my exper...