In Which the Author Discovers That Her Center Is Within Herself, Not Her Phone. Also, The Hobbit Movie
If it's so easy for Gandalf to call on the aid of the eagles at any moment and in any location, why doesn't he just do so right smack at the beginning of each of these difficult commutes and save everybody a lot of time, discomfort, injury and strife?The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was too long and, worst of all, with the exception of a few moments involving Gandalf, young Bilbo, or Gollum, I didn't believe in any of it. Sadness.
So. I've been observing a relevant difference between mornings when I wake up to my alarm (which is on my phone) and mornings when I have the freedom to wake up naturally. When I wake up to my alarm, this means that my phone is the first thing my hand touches. This further means that unthinkingly, in that blurry moment before I'm even truly conscious of being awake, the first thing I do is check my e-mail, and all those various other forms of input my wonderful, but dangerous, phone provides.
Since when is checking one's e-mail (or text messages, or the news, or whatever else is coming in from outside) a worthy first act of the day? I would much prefer if my very first act of the day were to center myself around myself. Then, once I remember who I am, open myself to whatever the world has for me today. But instead, rather than waking up and looking into myself, I tend to wake up and look into my phone.
I don't think I'm in there.
I wish all of you luck finding your centers today :)
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Amy
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Jan 05, 2013 03:12PM
This was exactly what I was thinking while watching The Hobbit. Everyone I was with loved it! I was the dissenting voice. :(
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Gandalf can't use the eagles at the start of 'Lord of the Rings' because the eye of Sauron is in power, would see them and kill them, and whoever was riding them. Which is why they are functional beforehand in 'The Hobbit', and at the end of the films, when everything is destroyed.
I reread The Hobbit after seeing the movie, and can understand many of the gripes. Lucky for me, I'm easily amused by films, so I loved it. :) One point, though: the eagles will only fly certain places, since they fear being hunted by anyone on the ground (mostly Men). So... that might help explain why Gandalf doesn't bug them all the time. Plus they're badasses and in control of their own lives, they just do the occasional favor for grey wizards!
In the book, the Eagles are rather aloof and have their own agenda, being rather lone wolves with no clear-cut allies. Plus, in the book version, Gandalf didn't call on the Eagles -- the Eagles saw the commotion and flew close to see what was going on. They hate Orcs, so were happy to kill some Orcs as well as aid whoever the Orcs were mad at.My biggest peeve with the movie was that ridiculous white orc sub-plot they invented! My second peeve was how much they dragged everything out. The book was a wonderfully tightly-woven and well-paced story. But the movie was even more slowly-paced than the extended versions of the LOTR movies. >.o I'm a bit worried with how they're going to find enough material for the next two 3hr-long movies.
Otherwise though I enjoyed it a lot. Loved the costumes, sets, music, etc.
I thought the movie was well laid out and I had no problem with the pacing...I also enjoyed the fact that they tied it into the Lord of the Rings by finding some background story to add to The Hobbit from Tolkien's other works. I think Jackson did a stellar job with this and if Tolkien had written the Eagles to help them earlier than it would have made for an even shorter film, not to mention book. I do agree about about centering one's self before tying one's self today's technology/news, one's peace of mind is so much more valuable, not to mention healthier for one's self.
I would rather watch a movie that was overmade than just merely butchered. It was fun to see characters we love come to life again. The Hobbit through Peter Jackson which did LOTR is good enough for me as it should be 50/50 if other producers/director tried to recreate Tolkien's masterpiece. Gollum's expressions were so adorable especially the time he was guessing riddles, i didn't see that one coming! I thought this first part of trilogy would end at Gandalf leaving them at the skirts of the mountain but i guess that one is reserved for the second part.
Gandalf doesn't call on his eagles every time he's it trouble because Tolkien wrote the book for his son who was fighting in the war. The eagles represent the U. S. A, who did enter the war until the very end. I believe that Tolkien was asking his readers the same question as you- if the U. S could have ended the war before so much death and devastation way did we?
His books were written not only to be a modern mythology for England but a reflection on the corse of history as he saw it.
Can I say, I really love the title of your blog post, it reminds me of the names of the chapters in "howls moving castle" ....I don't know if you did that on purpose, I just thought it was endearing, to me..the nerd...and I also agree entirely with your phone alarm...my digital vessel gets too much attention as well :)
I just kept thinking: "I'll read the book, it'll be faster."
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