Annoying Amateurs

[Gil-Galad]

For the record, i knew about this site for awhile before joining it, after a read teh books a couple times and felt confident, i joined hoping that this wasn't a movie-goers site, but its not and i'm glad

[Lyta_Underhill]

An amateur is a person who wants to read books and learn more, but an annoying amateur doesen't have to read, because they claim to know everything.

An apt observation, Thorongil, because, in my opinion, the term "amateur" is often misused in common parlance. I understand this term to mean someone who pursues an interest out of love, thus the prefix "ama-" or "amat-" (but, I think Bethberry would be more skilled at pulling out the etymological reference than I, who merely remembered the prefix meaning!) Perhaps an "annoying amateur" would be one who loves the subject matter but rattles on in an annoying manner about it!

Cheers!
Lyta

[Estel'sAngel]

All my friends haven't read the book and everybody at my schools (in high school and some in college) considered themselves experts on Tolkien because of the movies.

I got a kick out of it in my Senior AP English class when I did a presentation on Tolkien. They all started asking me questions from the trilogy.

"Boromir was evil, how come he was in the Fellowship?"
"What, who was that character again? You know...the greasy one with the sword."

So I told them that Boromir was a good guy, just easily persauded by the Ring and that the greasy one was my fave character, Aragorn.

"How do you know so much?"

"I've been reading the books every year since the 6th grade."

So I know annoying amateurs. But luckily I do know that some are making an effort to read the books or at least come to me and see how that part happened in the book. I like being an expert in their eyes, but then I come here and see how much I don't know. Sorta a good feeling ya know. Just to know you're own standing and importance in the world.