[Lush]

<B>lindil</B>, you're older than I am, have hung around this board much longer, have read the books more times than I probably ever will (I doubt I'll live that long ), and are involved in a super-duper challening Silmarillion project of astounding complexity, and I respect all that sincerely.<P>However, I have perceived a thinly veiled condescension in your posts on this thread, and I am calling you on it, because it is, by default, directed at me. <P>Then it is as follows:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>No offense meant at all Rinodwen, but how many times have you read the LotR? I have read it at least 20X's since 1977 or so.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, if we're going to be whipping out our credentials here, my guess is that I am going to come up dreadfully short, so I won't even bother with that. I understand though that for a person with such a long "kinship" with a special work of art, movies like Jackson's are bound to hurt and offend. But maybe you should also recognize this emotional involvement in yourself, and understand, perhaps, that not all people will react this way to PJ's Arwen, Faramir, Aragorn, et al. And your seniority as a means of politely keeping them in place does little for the debate, in my opinion.<P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>I am glad many more folks are reading [at all!] and JRRT in particular, but it is bittersweet knowing that they will be reading through PJ's flawed filter.<BR> <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, as someone who couldn't be bothered to even flip through the LOTR before I saw PJ's "Fellowship" (what can I say? I thought I had left fantasy behind in middle school somewhere), I was <I>delighted</I> to have all of a sudden discovered a wonderful book, and grateful to the one person who had lead me to it, Peter Jackson, whether he did it in a heavy-handed, Hollywod-esque manner or not. A year later, I was in the front row, cringing at every word Faramir said (not that it prevented me from admiring those lips and eyes, but that was almost all he had going for him at that point anyway), but enjoying myself nonetheless. And for me, Jackson's movies were worth it. And for you to tell me that because of that I am somehow deficient in my understanding/enjoyment/whatever of Tolkien, is <I>not very cool</I>. Who knows, maybe in a decade I will be reading <I>The Hobbit</I> to some bouncy little "spawn of Lush" (that'll be the day!), and I will <I>still</I> be remembering the fact that it was all due to Peter Jackson. <P>Once again, I may not have been cherishing the book for over twenty years, therefore resulting in a slightly more casual attitude toward PJ's choices, <I>especially</I> regarding Arwen, but perhaps the fact that I have a slightly cooler head about this allows me to understand where he's coming from<P>And, something like:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>He was guaranteed a blockbuster, just by virtue of the budget he had and the material he was working with and a great cast. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Is, in my opinion, very naive. Nothing is guaranteed in this world, <I>particularly</I> in the movie business. Perhaps you ought to flip through a few pages of filmmaking history; perhaps we <I>all</I> ought to be reminded of the example of how "Cleopatra" nearly bankrupted Fox, and it had the young Liz Taylor in it.<p>[ January 30, 2003: Message edited by: Lush ]