Quempel...
no I have never recieved on thin dime from Mr. Jackson. I have no disdain of JRRT - in fact I count LOTR as my all time favorite book. I truly love it. I have been reading it and rereading it for over 35 years now. I do however, view JRRT as a human being who created a book which has its own beauty, its own wonder and its own flaws. After all, it is a creation of a flawed human being and we are all in that category. Divine perfection is not achieved by any of us, JRRT included.
My entire point here began in the thread labeled as DENETHORS PLUNGE. In it, someone, I believe Knight of Gondor, went to great lengths to reproduce stills from ROTK to show the exact distance that Denethor had to run while on fire before his plunge off the edge. It was concluded that this would have take at least three minutes to complete and thus was impossible for a man to do while being consumed in flames.
Fine. He did a good job and was technically correct in his findings.
I pointed out two things: one, we only see Denethor on fire for a total of ten seconds in his run not three minutes - so what the audience saw was a ten second sprint - something they have seen many times in many movies with people on fire for far longer durations. Two - what ever happened to willing suspension of disbelief? You know what that is right? Its what every fantasy, horror and science fiction tale needs to survive beyond the "that cannot really happen" statement from viewers who apply actual science and reality to these type of tales.
None of us could enjoy the LOTR as a book or as a film if we did not employ a healthy dose of willing suspension of disbelief.
My point was a simple one: Why is it that when it comes to the books, many here can willingly engage in suspended their disbelief and just go with it - while at the same time - doing what Knight of Gondor did in the previously mentioned thread, applying reality and science to mock and ridicule the films?
In fact, when something in the books is criticized for not being feasible, even in the confines of a fantasy world, many here go to great lengths to come up with all manner of intellectual exercises to show that Tolkien could never have made a mistake. But when it comes to Jacksons films, its a whole different ballgame with a whole different set of rules.
I see that as a hypocritical double standard.
I merely used the example of Gimli not being able to run 140 miles in three days as an obvious hole in the book. As predicted by myself, many Tolkien book enthusiasts came up with all manner of intellectual explainations to show why a four foot, 200 pound dwarf, in heavy boots and carrying heavy weapons, with no long distance running training, could accomplish what a marathon runner could not do with months of training.
You still cling to this fiction. Your latest tact is that Gimli is not human and thus all bets are off. I refer you to this site
http://www.answers.com/glycogen?cat=health
If you read the article about glycogen and how muscles utilize it you will read that it applies not only to people - of which I thought Gimli was one - but to all animals as well. Somewhere in there is Gimli. Or is he such an alien creature that all normal rules of muscles do not apply to him. Thats a pretty big loophole if you are going to maintain that.
Even in a fantasy novel such as LOTR there is an internal logical structure that applies to its inhabitants.
It is not by job to show you that Gimli DID NOT TRAIN. How does one point to what is not there? Proving a negative comes to mind. It is your job to demonstrate that he did. The book gives us no evidence that Gimli engaged in the type of long term long distance running or even race walking that is necessary to rack up the kind of miles that Tolkien uses. Tolkien gives us no evidence of it. Its simply not there. If it is please quote me the edition, the chapter and the page. I will be glad to read it.