[mark12_30]

There were moments of humor (plenty of them) that I think detracted from the gravity of the movies. However, at the moment I'm not sure that disqualifies them from being myth.

Tolkien sought to write a myth that was "High, purged of the gross." Are all myths "High, purged of the gross?" Some are, some aren't. Personally, those which aren't I find harder to be enthused about.

The audience does have more of an impact on that than one might hope. There were "humorous" elements included in the movies (Pippin's "Ooof! That was close!" after the fall from Farmer Maggot's Field, comes to mind) that are definitely disqualified from "High, purged of the gross."

But then, there are things in myths that I find-- well, gross. Zeus' numerous seductions/ abductions of various women always struck me as revolting and un-heroic, and quite destroyed greek myth for me. Zeus is an utter cad. Why would I want to hear stories about him, and about his badly-behaved progeny?

In the Kalevala, the poor girl that ends up as a fish after a lousy life always struck me as very sad, and the behavior on the part of the man/men involved (hazy recall)-- rather gross. Bleah.

I want Tolkien to be higher than all that and I love him because he is.

Jackson slipped to the level of the common denominator-- what would be popular for today's audience. Shield-surfing, trunk-surfing (okay, I cheered too, but still) and dwarf-tossing, do seem out of place.

Were all the battles in the book utterly devoid of humor? There *was* the game between Gimli and Legolas at Helm's Deep. I shall have to pay attention to this as I read Chapter By Chapter...