Hobbit Reviews

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I think the funniest thing about Linkara's The Hobbit reviews (which I am rewatching at the moment) is that I don't disagree with any of the critiques he has to the storyline--it's all spot-on true for how to build a good story. The extra characters, the climax, Bilbo's role in it, the second climax, etc.--none is particularly good novel technique.

--And yet, at the same time, every single thing he critiques is another reason why The Hobbit is my favorite book in the world.

Most of it boils down to one thing--that it really is Bilbo's story. It gives us his point of view, and while he's a hero, he's not a Hero. So I like that the Dwarves are kind of an amorphous mass, with one or two personality traits materializing out of it sometimes, because I have the feeling that's kind of how I'd perceive it if I was sort of accidentally dragged on this adventure. I like how he was accidentally dragged on--for all that it's nice to show him consciously deciding to change his life in the movie, I like how Gandalf actually just flusters him into joining in the book. I really like that he bitches the whole damn way--I hadn't realized how important it was that he piss and moan all the way to the Lonely Mountain until it was taken away in the movies. Yeah, he's rising to the occasion, but by god, he's not happy about it.

But what I especially like is Linkara's big complaint--the double-climax and how Bilbo plays into it.

I like that he doesn't slay the dragon. I like that his contribution was a small one--a critical piece of information that would get around to some other hero to do the job. Here in a world were we can't actually do heroic, world-saving deeds, the idea of doing a small thing that still touches off a great change is a really uplifting one.

I like the Battle of Five Armies. Aftermath is difficult and more complicated than a usual denouement is. And your friends can turn into jerks even then.

And most of all, what I like is how Bilbo tries to handle the standoff leading up to the battle. His true bravery is in his attempt to make an outcome that works out best for everyone--trying to do the right thing despite his own friends' not appreciating that. And that he tries to solve it peacefully. And that he fails--but that everyone realizes what he was trying to do, and winds up respecting the hell out of him for it. He may have changed them a little more for next time--maybe they'll try a little harder to fix things.

So, yes. It doesn't really reflect everything we're used to in a story, but it's something I really love. His story is one of the small people who don't slay dragons or move mountains. He's just the guy who flubs his way through the adventure he's dragged on, trying to do mostly the right thing as he goes. It's not the person we like to imagine ourselves as, but it's rather nice to realize that the person we actually are, for all our flaws, can be respectable, too, in our own small and admirable ways.

And that he snarks the whole time. Really, I can't overstate how important it is that he whines so much.

Comments

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Yes! Thank you for laying this out! I've had similar feels, but never really put them together like this.

Frankly, those are all things I think we need more of in our stories. Especially the bit about average people doing small things that matter.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall ursulav recently got disillusioned with the world in general and lamented that maybe it's partly because all our stories are about world-changing heroes fixing everything, instead of lots of people incrementally making stuff better. I guess the small things stories are something we need.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

That was one of the things that got me on to that topic, but it came after reading another article (which I can't seem to find again :P ) about Django Unchained, and how it reduced and simplified the complex saga of emancipation, with literally millions of people doing their part, into a tale of a single Hero. Now, it was obviously supposed to be a microcosm, but the article went into a bunch of other stuff and did a great job of showing how thoroughly the concept of the One True Hero for any given situation has permeated all of our narratives, both fictional and "historical" (e.g. reducing the Civil War to Lincoln, or the Civil Rights Movement to King).

(I need to find a better icon for this. Maybe something from that one Buffy episode where they all combined their energies to take down the Big Bad. This one's the best I can do right now, because it's at least got the communist symbolism in there.)

[broken-moons.livejournal.com]

I guess what those criticisms boil down to is that those aspects of The Hobbit are nonconformist when it comes to our tradition of storytelling, but I agree that is in a large part what makes it so enjoyable. Bilbo (and the Hobbits by extension) are very much the little people, the non-Heroes, but even they have their stories, and those stories are worth telling.

This reminds me of a story I have long since abandoned, but it was written from the perspective of the mother of the Prophecied Hero, and focused more on her journey and struggles in raising a future saviour than on his fight against the Big Bad. It had lots of things I wouldn't do in a story now, but the premise was fun! The sidekicks definitely deserve their own stories :D

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I think I remember you mentioning that story once! That would be interesting!

The sidekicks especially deserve their own stories since the current cultural hero is generally a bland white guy without much in the way of personality, and all the interesting characters are sidekicks. Let's just start with THEM, shall we?

And I'll admit, all of those criticisms are valid, because if you screw 'em up you just get a badly-written story. But The Hobbit does them well. It's very much a Professional Driver Closed Course way to write.

[broken-moons.livejournal.com]

I guess what those criticisms boil down to is that those aspects of The Hobbit are nonconformist when it comes to our tradition of storytelling, but I agree that is in a large part what makes it so enjoyable. Bilbo (and the Hobbits by extension) are very much the little people, the non-Heroes, but even they have their stories, and those stories are worth telling.

This reminds me of a story I have long since abandoned, but it was written from the perspective of the mother of the Prophecied Hero, and focused more on her journey and struggles in raising a future saviour than on his fight against the Big Bad. It had lots of things I wouldn't do in a story now, but the premise was fun! The sidekicks definitely deserve their own stories :D