Fare you well, and sleep not.
Apr. 3rd, 2002 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osarabaBIG SPOILER!
I’m really enjoying the third part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series: The Return of the King. Much to my surprise. I don’t know why I kept expecting to be bored by the books. Well, The Fellowship of the Ring was not exactly confidence-inspiring, to say the least. But The Two Towers was much fun to read and I think I like The Return of the King even more! Lots of action, and more time was spent with my favorites (Aragorn, Gandalf, Merry, and Pippin) than with Frodo and Sam. I’ve liked Sam better than Frodo since the end of FOTR, but since Book Four in TT, I’ve completely thrown Frodo into the "discard" pile and stayed with Sam.
Oooh, and ever since meeting with Boromir’s brother, Faramir, in Book Four I’ve been wondering if there’s any AragornxFaramir slash out there. They’ve got to be my favorites… they’re both so sweet and kind and nice, and yet very willing to protect/fight/etc. Ah, be still my heart. Although I think it the height of irony that Faramir ends up with Aragorn’s sloppy seconds. Not that Aragorn ever did anything with Eowyn – I would’ve been very disappointed if he had because he professed to be devoted to Arwen – but you know what I mean.
The beginning of ROTK starts on page 731 and by 926 the Ring has been destroyed. I was surprised, considering the story doesn’t end until 1008, which leaves another 80 pages of story. At this point – page 999 – I’m feeling really appreciative of the fact that Tolkien – misogynist or not – didn’t do one of the two typical endings to epics like this: (1) When the deed is done, that’s the end of the book and you’re left to imagine what happened next. Example: The ring was destroyed. Blah fire blah lightning blah rain blah. "....for the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam." THE END Or (2) When the deed is done, that’s the end of the chapter. Then you get one additional chapter of about 4 or 5 pages explaining – one paragraph per character – what happened to each of them. And they all lived happily ever after.
Instead, what Tolkien did was write 80 pages of what happened next. So it doesn’t feel like you were only listening to a story about a Great Deed, but that it was actually taking place as you were reading about it because it didn’t end right after the Great Deed was done, but gave you an actual description of what took place after the Great Deed had been accomplished.
I have lots of admiration for that.
Maybe Terry Goodkind could learn a little from J.R.R. Tolkien. Considering that his books are a minimum of 600 pages each, you’d think it wouldn’t be that big a deal to write another 50 pages about the aftermath instead of having the Deed done, and then: Look for the next installment of the ongoing-with-no-end-in-sight Sword of Truth series, by the amazing Terry Goodkind!
I’m really enjoying the third part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series: The Return of the King. Much to my surprise. I don’t know why I kept expecting to be bored by the books. Well, The Fellowship of the Ring was not exactly confidence-inspiring, to say the least. But The Two Towers was much fun to read and I think I like The Return of the King even more! Lots of action, and more time was spent with my favorites (Aragorn, Gandalf, Merry, and Pippin) than with Frodo and Sam. I’ve liked Sam better than Frodo since the end of FOTR, but since Book Four in TT, I’ve completely thrown Frodo into the "discard" pile and stayed with Sam.
Oooh, and ever since meeting with Boromir’s brother, Faramir, in Book Four I’ve been wondering if there’s any AragornxFaramir slash out there. They’ve got to be my favorites… they’re both so sweet and kind and nice, and yet very willing to protect/fight/etc. Ah, be still my heart. Although I think it the height of irony that Faramir ends up with Aragorn’s sloppy seconds. Not that Aragorn ever did anything with Eowyn – I would’ve been very disappointed if he had because he professed to be devoted to Arwen – but you know what I mean.
The beginning of ROTK starts on page 731 and by 926 the Ring has been destroyed. I was surprised, considering the story doesn’t end until 1008, which leaves another 80 pages of story. At this point – page 999 – I’m feeling really appreciative of the fact that Tolkien – misogynist or not – didn’t do one of the two typical endings to epics like this: (1) When the deed is done, that’s the end of the book and you’re left to imagine what happened next. Example: The ring was destroyed. Blah fire blah lightning blah rain blah. "....for the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam." THE END Or (2) When the deed is done, that’s the end of the chapter. Then you get one additional chapter of about 4 or 5 pages explaining – one paragraph per character – what happened to each of them. And they all lived happily ever after.
Instead, what Tolkien did was write 80 pages of what happened next. So it doesn’t feel like you were only listening to a story about a Great Deed, but that it was actually taking place as you were reading about it because it didn’t end right after the Great Deed was done, but gave you an actual description of what took place after the Great Deed had been accomplished.
I have lots of admiration for that.
Maybe Terry Goodkind could learn a little from J.R.R. Tolkien. Considering that his books are a minimum of 600 pages each, you’d think it wouldn’t be that big a deal to write another 50 pages about the aftermath instead of having the Deed done, and then: Look for the next installment of the ongoing-with-no-end-in-sight Sword of Truth series, by the amazing Terry Goodkind!
