Originally posted by Alatar:
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Do you have a list of scenes, and if you have that much time on your hands , could you give the details - whether the scene should be deleted or altered?
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No,
Alatar - I spoke too carelessly and I apologize for it. I don't really have the time or expertise to compile such a list to back up my claim, so it was a pointless claim to make. I can think offhand of scenes that I might like to see eliminated, but as far as arguing for alterations I am probably not up to it in expertise. Sorry again.
But I do tend to agree with
Quempel on the issue of Shadowfax, dwarves, and physiological endurance. If you were to poke and prod Shadowfax, would he not feel like a real horse? And if you were to (sorry) dissect Shadowfax, would he not be composed of tissues? And if you looked closer, would not these tissues be composed of cells? And then proteins and nucleic acids?
Or was he composed of pure magic designed to look and act like a real horse?
I suspect that Shadowfax looked, felt, and smelled like a real horse. If he had a father and a mother, then I would imagine he came into being when a sperm cell fertilized an egg cell, and grew from there. He seemed to exist in the physical world, he did get tired if memory serves, gravity seemed to have an effect on him, he did not fly but seemed held to the ground by the same force that held Gimli to the ground. But he raced along far faster and further than any horse we know of. So why shouldn't Gimli be able to run longer and faster than one of us can here in the "real" world? He was a heroic, stout little member
of a different species than us, so we can only guess at the metabolic pathways governing his physiology. And Gimli might have a long history of strengthening his body by running up mountains, for all we know. Plus, the oxygen content of the Middle Earth atmosphere might have been higher, permitting a longer run.
Besides, if we are willing to make an argument as STW does that Gimli should be constrained by the biochemistry that governs our bodies, then where does it all end with science versus LOTR? A physicist could come here and make the argument that there is no way that putting a ring of metal on your finger can make your physical form, and everything you are wearing, become invisible (i.e. no longer absorb, reflect, or refract light), especially while you remain solid and able to interact with other physical objects (pick them up, kick them, etc.).