I've always resisted reading Tolkien critically much (I am sentimental about certain books), but your take on the ending, the responses to your piece, made me really think (darn you). I could hold forth on this one (probably saying several silly things in the process) but I won't clutter your blog too much. I'll make just one point:
Did Frodo really EVER have real relationships to connect him to the Shire? His love of the Shire seems to me to be rather detached and condescending from the get-go, at most a love of the familiar . . a rather Asperger's-Syndrome-like abstract fondness. Much is made of the friendship between Frodo and Sam. Were they really friends? There is no equality in their relationship . . Sam SERVES Frodo. Again there is fondess, but not what I would describe as a real friendship. In fact, Frodo is not close to ANY of his fellows, really. Throughout the books he is a little apart and alone. That's why his sailing into the West made sense to me. Why not? Once the Shire changed enough so that Frodo didn't have the familiarity to cling to, what was left to keep him "home"? Did EVIL damage Frodo so that he couldn't live normally at the end of the story? Or did the changes to the Shire (which were wrought by evil, but would have come anyway, albeit more gently) simply kill what little Frodo had to connect him to others?
I like YOUR Ringbearer better than the original, Truepenny. There is loyalty, honesty, and a courage in your character that I don't think exists at all in the original. Your ringbearer is NOT detached.
Alas, I suppose you'd get your socks sued off if you rewrote the whole tale, lol. Plus you probably have other stories clamouring to be written. :-)
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momijizukamori
Fascinating
Date: 2007-02-13 04:42 pm (UTC)Did Frodo really EVER have real relationships to connect him to the Shire? His love of the Shire seems to me to be rather detached and condescending from the get-go, at most a love of the familiar . . a rather Asperger's-Syndrome-like abstract fondness. Much is made of the friendship between Frodo and Sam. Were they really friends? There is no equality in their relationship . . Sam SERVES Frodo. Again there is fondess, but not what I would describe as a real friendship. In fact, Frodo is not close to ANY of his fellows, really. Throughout the books he is a little apart and alone. That's why his sailing into the West made sense to me. Why not? Once the Shire changed enough so that Frodo didn't have the familiarity to cling to, what was left to keep him "home"? Did EVIL damage Frodo so that he couldn't live normally at the end of the story? Or did the changes to the Shire (which were wrought by evil, but would have come anyway, albeit more gently) simply kill what little Frodo had to connect him to others?
I like YOUR Ringbearer better than the original, Truepenny. There is loyalty, honesty, and a courage in your character that I don't think exists at all in the original. Your ringbearer is NOT detached.
Alas, I suppose you'd get your socks sued off if you rewrote the whole tale, lol. Plus you probably have other stories clamouring to be written. :-)