It's only a matter of time...

[malsperanza]

Sat in a meeting on Friday in a room with no ventilation; on my left someone with wicked flu (coughing and sneezing), and on my right 2 people with bronchitis. Also, my assistant was out for 2 weeks with pneumonia--yes, real pneumonia--and is now bravely dragging herself around, wheezing and wobbling and fainting in coils. And now half my flist is down with thrombotic pulmonary disorders.

I am doomed.

*coughs*

*breathes deeply; listens for telltale signs of emphysema, sarcoidosis, lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or common cold*

OK, nothing nasty yet, but I'm not optimistic.

Well, having grouched about ROTK, I feel bad. Will pause for 5 min. of



1) Mmm. Aragorn.
1a) Mmm: Aragorn with clean hair (briefly). Why is it that Jack Sparrow looks just fine with messy hair, and Aragorn does not? Note to self: pursue interesting male grooming question for 2004 Popular Culture Association Conference panel discussion.

2) Beacons!
Beacons were hot! (Yes, literally and figuratively.)

3) Grond!!
Why has no one mentioned Grond yet? Grond also was veryveryhot! (Yes, literally and figuratively.) Grond was totally excellent.

4) Shelob!
W00t Shelob! Much though I'd enjoy watching POTC Undead Pirates fight ROTK Undead Dead, what I REALLY wants to see, preciouss, is Shelob taking on Mothra. Or the giant ants in "Them." Or both. Shelob would kick Mothra's ass. (But, dude, the POTC Undead Pirates would totally kick the ass of the ROTK Undead glowing vaporous ghosties. I bet Jackson was spitting nails when he saw the quality of the computer work in POTC--made his GreenEctoplasm!Undead look like the phantoms in Caspar the Friendly Ghost.)

(Only more of them, of course.)

Shelob was perfect. In fact, the whole Cirith Ungol part was perfect, despite being (O horrors!) Not Entirely Canonical.

5) Smeagol and Deagol!
Excellent opening gambit for the movie. Such a relief not to get a whole lot of awkward summary of FOTR and TTT frontloaded, but instead the very backstory that we got part-way through the book, in much the same manner. Elegantly done.

6) Absence of Saruman.
Well, I wasn't crazy about Cher!Saruman in TTT, so I didn't miss him. Her. Whatever.

7) Giant Eagles!
And to those who ask how come the Nine Walkers couldn't have flown by EagleAir to Mordor in the first place, I say: Well obviously because the Eagles dint feel like it that day, okay?

I wouldn't mind seeing a Giant Eagles vs. Shelob smackdown either, come to think of it. Or Shelob vs. Grond. Or the Eye of Sauron Meets the Smog Monster. That would be good.

8) Wizard of Oz quotations.
I have decided I like these, though on Wednesday night they made me laugh inappropriately & I pissed off the veryveryserious folks wearing Spock ears (or possibly Bad Santa's Helper ears) in the row in front of us. I liked the Wizard of Oz quotations in Oh Brother Where Art Thou too.

I think all adventure/fantasy/quest/Odyssey movies should quote from The Wizard of Oz; if Cold Mountain includes a horse of a different color, I will be veryveryhappy. Let's not forget the brilliant but subtle auteur moment in The Last Samurai, after the great massacre, when the hero clicks his sparkly red samurai geta clogs together and in the next scene is seen returning home to the village.

And all romance/noir/spy movies should be required to quote from Casablanca.

9) Misc.
Shadowfax. The Nazgul. The way Minas Tirith looked. The palantir. The fact that Merry and Pippin were distinguishable from one another.

10) The general pacing.

11) Did I mention Aragorn?
Mmm.



OK, that's enough of that. What I really want to post about is The Trickster Figure in Literature. Have many quotes and brilliant auteur insights to share, but must first get LOTR out of system a bit.

FWIW, the main Trickster figure in LOTR is Bombadil.

I still can't find one in HP, which I find both curious and interesting.

Have also not forgotten promise (now one month old) to deal Mighty Cold War Humor Death Blow Challenge to black_dog upthread. Am currently researching Judith Exner/Marilyn Monroe/Luttwak connection. Stay tuned.

Comments

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Grond is the name of the giant wolf-headed firebreathing battering ram.

Oz movie citations all over the place. The most obvious one is where Sam and Frodo peer over the rocks on the stairs of Cirith Ungol and look down on Minas Morgal and see troops marching out to war. Although this is faithfully filmed exactly as described in the book, it also looks identical to Dorothy and her Companions peering over the rocks at the Winkie Guards marching into the Wicked Witch's castle ("O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah!" remember?)

And then there is Frodo waking up in bed and seeing his friends again, just like Dorothy at the end ("And you were there, and you were there, and you were there!")

And of course there is the poignant ending: "I'm going to miss you most of all, Scarecrow."

I can't really say that this is Peter Jackson's fault; it may be embedded in the books, and indeed it may be embedded in all quest stories. Frodo-as-Dorothy never struck me before, and I confess that I feel a lot less reverent toward the movies than toward the books, so this stuff did make me laugh.

What dragonfly? I missed the dragonfly. *wails* I love dragonflies.

Ditto re your posts btw: you are dead-on about Denethor. Also the Lighthouse of Doom. Orcs do have pets, btw: usually they are smaller orcs. Eventually, they eat them.

And whatup with the strawberries and warm bread?? All of a sudden we are in an episode of Little House on the Plain of Gorgoroth.

Whoever told Peter Jackson he was capable of mimicking Tolkien's writing style must have been high.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I loved the Wizard of Oz stuff at the end--we were just missing Aragorn at the window instead of the door. It's very funny but also just t00by sweet, imo.

Today it struck me that if everybody was there it meant everybody was waiting outside his door. Altogether now: AWWWWW!

I prefer Sam's line in the book to inspire Frodo's speech about not remembering things--I think he just says, "Remember when I saw the oliphaunt?" It seems sort of silly for Sam to ask if Frodo remembers the Shire at that point. You almost expect Frodo to say, "Oh, I don't know, Sam...that was two movies ago. Can I get a recap?"

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

It seems sort of silly for Sam to ask if Frodo remembers the Shire at that point. You almost expect Frodo to say, "Oh, I don't know, Sam...that was two movies ago. Can I get a recap?"

*mops coffee off monitor*

[chresimos.livejournal.com]

What dragonfly? I missed the dragonfly. *wails* I love dragonflies.

That's probably because it wasn't a dragonfly and I'm making stuff up again. I mean the little insect that Gandalf talked to on Orthanc, and flitted past him in ROTK to tell him that the eagles were coming.

All of a sudden we are in an episode of Little House on the Plain of Gorgoroth.

Ahahaha. Now there's a crossover you could sink your teeth into.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

*squints*

I'm guessing butterfly. I'd forgotten it turned up at Orthanc too. Butterflies follow giant eagles around? Like pilotfish with sharks, or egrets who stand on the heads of hippos and pick their nits. Well, why not? The natural history of Middle Earth includes trees that get drunk on growth hormone and carnivorous willows, after all.

[chresimos.livejournal.com]

If it's not a dragonfly, I'd say it's a moth. I thought it was the messenger for the giant eagles, and Gandalf talked to it just before the eagles showed up. It's cute. :)