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Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:48 pm
by promethean75
thank you, madam taxidermist. finally i get some proper representation around here. every time i turna round i get accused of being an existential-this and a marxist-that and one time this guy even had the nerve to call me a Dostoyevskyian nihilist.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 10:51 am
by Harbal
I still say there were far too many dwarves.

Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:41 pm
by Iwannaplato
Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 10:51 am
I still say there were far too many dwarves.
Despite the wealth of pro-dwarf arguments?
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:49 pm
by Harbal
Iwannaplato wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:41 pm
Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 10:51 am
I still say there were far too many dwarves.
Despite the wealth of pro-dwarf arguments?
I'll be perfectly honest with you; the dwarves get on my bloody nerves, and no wealth of argument is going to argue that away.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 1:35 pm
by Iwannaplato
Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:49 pm
I'll be perfectly honest with you; the dwarves get on my bloody nerves, and no wealth of argument is going to argue that away.
It's tempting to now try to make you seem irrational, but I was just playing with you. Or, maybe your response was just drier humor than I'm used to and you knew that.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 1:49 pm
by Harbal
Iwannaplato wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 1:35 pm
It's tempting to now try to make you seem irrational, but I was just playing with you. Or, maybe your response was just drier humor than I'm used to and you knew that.
Well I didn't actually know if you were being dry, either.
It must be 40 years or more since I read the book, and I don't remember having a problem with the dwarves then. I watched one of the films on Netflix recently, and the dwarves just irritated me beyond belief. I just wanted the little bastards to be wiped out. I suppose it's Peter Jackson's fault as much as Tolkien's.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 2:02 pm
by Iwannaplato
Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 1:49 pm
Well I didn't actually know if you were being dry, either.
It must be 40 years or more since I read the book, and I don't remember having a problem with the dwarves then. I watched one of the films on Netflix recently, and the dwarves just irritated me beyond belief. I just wanted the little bastards to be wiped out. I suppose it's Peter Jackson's fault as much as Tolkien's.
There's a lot of dwarves in the Hobbit and in his film versions of that. And I hated the film versions of the hobbit. It was like a long disney ride with, yes, dwarves. It would have helped if they were just a bit more handsome.
I loved Gimli. He was my favorite character and I'm a sucker for the facile 'born enemies become best friends' with Legolas thing.
I can't say I'd wanna be around a lot of Elves (in life, in films). The whole mechanized unity, lack of emotional expression thing. I'll take a surly dwarf over that. Falstaff over I don't know, a pack of Romeo's doing ballet.
But the dwarves in the Hobbit (the book) didn't bother me. In the film version, yes.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:03 pm
by henry quirk
Astro,
Gandalf and the other wizards were angels, yeah? Diminished angels (had to be...can't pour all that power into a mortal frame). And each carried a staff. Is a wizard's staff his symbol of station or is it conduit for the metaphysical forces he commands or was it the reservoir for the power he can't contain in his old man body?
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:12 pm
by Harbal
henry quirk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:03 pm
Astro,
Gandalf and the other wizards were
angels, yeah? Diminished angels (had to be...can't pour all that power into a mortal frame). And each carried a staff. Is a wizard's staff his symbol of station or is it conduit for the metaphysical forces he commands or was it the reservoir for the power he can't contain in his old man body?
It seemed to me that what his staff was able to do varied in order to accomodate the plot at any given time.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:18 pm
by henry quirk
Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:12 pm
henry quirk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:03 pm
Astro,
Gandalf and the other wizards were
angels, yeah? Diminished angels (had to be...can't pour all that power into a mortal frame). And each carried a staff. Is a wizard's staff his symbol of station or is it conduit for the metaphysical forces he commands or was it the reservoir for the power he can't contain in his old man body?
It seemed to me that what his staff was able to do varied in order to accomodate the plot at any given time.
Mebbe. Like you, I haven't read the books in a long time. The movies figure way more in my recollections than the words. With that in mind: it always seemed to me the staff was sumthin' more important than a tool. I think the staff is as much the wizard as the old man.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:26 pm
by Flannel Jesus
What bedroom antics are like with a LotR fan:
1n62pa5omoe91.jpg
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:28 pm
by Harbal
henry quirk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:18 pm
Mebbe. Like you, I haven't read the books in a long time. The movies figure way more in my recollections than the words. With that in mind: it always seemed to me the staff was sumthin' more important than a tool. I think the staff is as much the wizard as the old man.
I don't know, henry, I haven't given too much thought to where the staff ends and the wizard begins, but there just seemed to be some inconsistency. Sometimes Gandalf would blast his foes with his staff, and sometimes he just ran away from them, along with the others.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:44 pm
by henry quirk
Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:28 pm
henry quirk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:18 pm
Mebbe. Like you, I haven't read the books in a long time. The movies figure way more in my recollections than the words. With that in mind: it always seemed to me the staff was sumthin' more important than a tool. I think the staff is as much the wizard as the old man.
I don't know, henry, I haven't given too much thought to where the staff ends and the wizard begins, but there just seemed to be some inconsistency. Sometimes Gandalf would blast his foes with his staff, and sometimes he just ran away from them, along with the others.
We'll have to wait on Astro to issue an expert rulin'.
Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 4:16 pm
by Harbal
henry quirk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:44 pm
We'll have to wait on Astro to issue an expert rulin'.
I'm not sure about that. She has ignored my comments so far, and I think I may have done something unforgivable by disparaging the dwarves. Also, it is obvious that I'm not an aficionado, and so am not considered worthy of attention. I suspect her contempt for me is similar to that of mine for the dwarves.

Re: Give me your LotR questions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 5:27 pm
by henry quirk
Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 4:16 pm
henry quirk wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:44 pm
We'll have to wait on Astro to issue an expert rulin'.
I'm not sure about that. She has ignored my comments so far, and I think I may have done something unforgivable by disparaging the dwarves. Also, it is obvious that I'm not an aficionado, and so am not considered worthy of attention. I suspect her contempt for me is similar to that of mine for the dwarves.
Poor Harbal: snubbed by a stranger on-line.