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Old 08-31-2002, 02:39 PM   #1
Maédhros
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Sting Burglary, Pockets and the Hobbit

It's very interesting the way that the Hobbit revolves about pockets.
Quote:
So he stood and hesitated in the shadows. Of the various burglarious proceedings he had heard of picking the trolls' pockets seemed the least difficult, so at last he crept behind a tree just behind William.
Bert and Tom went off to the barrel. William was having another drink. Then Bilbo plucked up courage and put his little hand in William's enormous pocket.
Well, you could say that Bilbo had to do that because he was a "burglar" after all (supposedly), but what about the ring.
Quote:
"What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset.
"Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?"
Interesting to note that the most important artifact in ME lay in Bilbo's pocket.
I wonder, Bilbo's pocket and the fact that he was a burglar that pick pockets. A coincidence or not? I mean, after all:
Quote:
"What's a burrahobbit got to do with my pocket, anyways?"
Che pensi tu?
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Old 08-31-2002, 02:46 PM   #2
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Sting

I believe you have stumbled upon the very center of the whole mythology. I believe that the Professor used the 'pocket' as a metaphor representing the true moral of his epic. I'll concede to Sharku for a synopsis of what the 'pocket' refers to.
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Old 08-31-2002, 05:29 PM   #3
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Tolkien

I think the Hobbit revolves around the word "The" i bet its used over a hundred times in that book
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Old 08-31-2002, 06:01 PM   #4
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Sting

Quote:
I think the Hobbit revolves around the word "The" i bet its used over a hundred times in that book
I can live with other people criticism or mockery by other members. I call it In Praise of Folly, like Rosterdamus book. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
The funny thing is that Bilbo, if I recall correctly, was only accused of stealing, when he found the One ring, by Gollum.
He became a "thief" in the case when he didn't stole anything. Curious.
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Old 08-31-2002, 06:32 PM   #5
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Tolkien

He was also accused of stealing by smaug when he took the gold cup.
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Old 09-14-2002, 08:06 PM   #6
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The Eye

The appropriate quote being,
Quote:
You have nice manners for a thief and a liar.
Frodo also kept the ring in his pocket for a while. I myself have always found pockets to be a most useful invention. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
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Old 09-14-2002, 10:20 PM   #7
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Sting

The key to the significance of the word 'pocket' can be decoded by the use of an anagram. Rearranging the letters of 'pocket' gives ... nothing whatsoever. It is therefore necessary to cheat, QED.

Extracting the letter 'c' because all these pocket-references occur in the sightless dark, and the letter 'o' because, as the shape of the ring, it is an evil influence, we are left with 'kept', which is, as Mhoram pointed out, the crux of the problem LotR delves into: the ring was 'kept' by Isildur rather than being cast into the Cracks of Doom.

Returning to the original question, it seems clear that LotR is a treatise on the darker implications of the 'keeping safe and handy' function of the humble 'pocket'.

As a 'pickpocket', Bilbo served, not necessarily wittingly, as an opposing influence to this apparently harmless 'keeping' function: that which the pocket attempts to keep safe, your pickpocket gallantly loots. The pickpocket is thus an agent of spiritual renewal, of release from the covetousness and greed that the 'keeping' of a favorite trinket can induce, particularly if it is 'handy' and imbued with the power of a 'dark lord'.

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: Nar ]
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Old 09-15-2002, 09:45 PM   #8
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Sting

Uh, gee, Nar, I feel so stupid now... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] What an intelligent and inspired thought about "kept-pockets!"

(You see, since Hobbits were simple, unassuming people, I always though that pockets had more to do with simplicity and understatement, as Maedhros pointed out:
Quote:
the most important artifact in ME lay in Bilbo's pocket.
In fact, Hobbits were SO simple and unassuming, that hardly anyone even knew they were there! Certainly none of the Valar (including Melkor) knew of their creation (we are told they "appeared" in ME around a certain time), and even Treebeard can't figure them into his 'roll-call.' And barely a soul who is familiar with the ancient prophecies even realized what a halfling was! So how much more unassuming can a species be? And how much more simple and sensible can you get than to transport something in your pocket, when it fits there so nicely...?)

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: Evenstar1 ]
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Old 09-15-2002, 10:05 PM   #9
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Sting

What boggles MY mind, Evenstar1, is we can actually think of all these things to say about pockets! Yep, simple and unassuming, I'd say you're right there. That's very clever, Evenstar1: pockets hide things in plain sight, hobbits were hidden in plain sight from all the grand and great. You might say hobbits were the small but handy race in Illuvatar's pocket. No wonder it's in their nature to live in holes... the pockets of Arda. Wow... would they be the piece of string or the pocketknife? No, I've got it, they're Eru's pocket-handkerchief -- remember Bilbo running out his door on his adventure without one?
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Old 09-16-2002, 01:13 AM   #10
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Wonderful, Nar - I'm still laughing!! The irrefutable logic of your anagram reasoning was staggering, then you came up with hobbit holes as the pockets of Arda!!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] But it figures; after all, Bilbo and Frodo lived at Bag's End - what is that but a description of a pocket!
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Old 09-16-2002, 02:06 AM   #11
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Sting

Baggins = a thief who specializes in picking people's pockets. You knew that, right? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
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Old 09-16-2002, 11:50 AM   #12
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Sting

Bilbo was a bachellor. As we have theorized elsewhere, the One Ring is a strong feminine symbol. Therefore, the symbolism of the pocket as a womb is obvious. Both Bilbo and Frodo did not show a “fertile ground” for it, though: both never had children, and only ever kept the Ring in their pockets – Bilbo even leaves without a handkerchief, plainly the fate to find the Ring is forecast here already.

On the other hand, hobbits who later had many children carry clear and obvious symbols of fertility in their pockets: Sam carries apples in them after Bree.
Also, consider this intriguing piece of dialogue:
'Lembas!' whispered Pippin. 'Lembas: I've got some. Have you? I don't think they've taken anything but our swords.'
'Yes, I had a packet in my pocket,' answered Merry, 'but it must be battered to crumbs. Anyway I can't put my mouth in my pocket!'”
Lembas, the filled (like an egg) waybread of the noble Elves, is a clear symbol for fertility, and that both Merry and Pippin possessed some foreshadows their many children. The orcs, however, did not take it – healthy, flawless reproduction is alien to the perverted race of the orcs. And of course Merry can’t put his mouth in his pocket.

Already creepily related to this is, per Unfinished Tales:
“It may be mentioned here that when Beleg brought out the lembas from his pack (see The Silmarillion pp. 202, 204) Túrin refused it:

The silver leaves were red in the firelight; and when Túrin saw the seal his eyes darkened. "What have you there?" he said.
"The greatest gift that one who loves you still has to give," answered Beleg. "Here is lembas, the waybread of the Eldar, that no Man yet has tasted."
"The Helm of my fathers I take," said Túrin, "with good will for your keeping; but I will not receive gifts out of Doriath."”

And we all knew to which ill use Túrin only put his fertility. The rejection of the right form of it, represented by the lembas, is another dreadful omen. “The greatest gift that one who loves has to give” is a beautiful way to put it, by the way.

Gollum was not able to eat the lembas, either; and it is apparent that he had long since abandoned the natural human and hobbit ways.

After Pippin has borrowed the palantír, he promises to Gandalf: “'If all the seven stones were laid out before me now, I should shut my eyes and put my hands in my pockets.”
We have here a very hobbit-like rejection of power and possible wealth, and instead an orientation towards the simple joys of family.

See further also this scene of Sam at Cirith Ungol: “Red with his own living blood his hand shone for a moment, and then he thrust the revealing light deep into a pocket near his breast and drew his elven-cloak about him.” The symbolism is almost shocking in its clarity of the act of you know what (for which the blood may be an interesting side note).
Later, he also hides the box Galadriel gave him in said pocket, and if that isn’t womb-fertility symbolism, then I’m a hobbit.

And what does Bilbo carry in his pockets after the War? “Two beautiful pipes with pearl mouth-pieces and bound with fine-wrought silver. ‘Think of me when you smoke them!’ he said. ‘The Elves made them for me, but I don’t smoke now.’” No, Bilbo, your fertile days were really over, and it was wise to give the obligation to Merry and Pippin instead.

Underhill, back me up here, please. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
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Old 09-16-2002, 11:57 AM   #13
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Brilliant, Sharku! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Perhaps you could explain what purpose Lobelia's umbrella serves in this context.
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Old 09-16-2002, 02:46 PM   #14
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Silmaril

Bravo, Sharku! That's absolutely brilliant! I don't think anyone could possibly beat that explanation. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
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Old 09-16-2002, 03:23 PM   #15
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Sting

Quote:
Perhaps you could explain what purpose Lobelia's umbrella serves in this context.
Oh dear! Not to mention glowing Elven blades... [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Very good, Sharku! (And Nar, you win the one-upmanship contest. For now. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )
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Old 09-16-2002, 11:49 PM   #16
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Though your current theories seem to have had a better reception than others previously devised by synergistic conversation, Sharkey, I offer backup, as requested.

I can only applaud your very comprehensive analysis of the pocket-symbolism which underlies and pervades the Legendarium; you’ve left me scarcely anything to add, and I can only bring up a few points and examples to strengthen and amplify what you’ve already discovered.

Your reading of the pocket as a womb/fertility symbol is very sharply perceived, as is your observation that the presence of the Ring in a pocket foreshadows a disrupted connection with the feminine and a resulting childlessness. The symbolism here is clear – the Ring blocks access to natural feminine sources and prevents maturation and the normal progression from child to parent – the endlessly repeated cycle of life.

This is represented by another side-effect of the Ring – its preservative power. The possessor is locked into a state of nearly unchanging agelessness (Bilbo’s remarkable preservation, for instance). While this side-effect may seem attractive at first, it’s a false lure – how can we expect seed to take root and grow when the pocket (i.e., fertility) of the Ring’s possessor is held in a state of sterile, unnatural stasis? Look at what Gollum, who as you mention had long abandoned natural human and Hobbit ways, kept in his pockets: “fishbones, goblins' teeth, wet shells, a bit of bat-wing, a sharp stone to sharpen his fangs on, and other nasty things.” All death symbols; all signs of anti-fertility and barrenness.

This fertility-blocking power of the Ring is shown quite clearly in Bilbo’s innocuous dialogue: “I found I couldn’t rest without it in my pocket.” With the Ring-blockage removed, Bilbo’s latent urge towards procreation and fertility stirs. Gollum clearly senses Bilbo’s Ring-potential in their encounter under the Misty Mountains. "What has it got in its pocketses?" he asks over and over again, knowing all too well that empty pockets are a foreboding sign.

I’m also struck by Tolkien’s use of pocket symbolism to represent a desire to return to the safe, warm, and uncomplicated environment of the womb – a desire for regression and retreat from the cares, worries, and responsibilities that accompany mature adulthood.

This symbolic desire to return to a childlike state is mirrored in the power of the Ring itself, which elevates the selfish, childish ego of the wearer to the exclusion of all other considerations. With the Ring’s power at its wearer’s command, the wearer has no cares or responsibilities. The world is ordered according to the wearer’s slightest whim, and others become his (or her) playthings, mere objects who only have meaning insofar as they please or displease the guiding ego. The Ring is the ultimate childish wish realized, even in its most mundane effect – invisibility. Notice how the wearer usually gets a perverse delight out of the “I can see you but you can’t see me” feeling imparted by the experience of being invisible – and Frodo’s displeased reaction when he realizes that Bombadil can see him even with the Ring on.

These two regression symbols combined make for a powerful pair, and it’s no mistake that in times of stress and danger, Frodo’s automatic impulse is to grope for his pocket and the Ring it contains. The chain that Bilbo, and then Frodo, use to secure the Ring in the pocket has clear umbilical connotations in this context, and it's an important step in Frodo’s maturation process when, following the symbolic death of his young, immature self from the Morgul-knife wound and his rebirth/recovery in Rivendell, the Ring moves out of his pocket and onto a new chain around his neck.

Your linking of the pocket/lembas symbolism to foreshadowing in the tale of Túrin is outstanding. I’ll add another example of its use: Gimli’s gobbling of the cake in Lothlórien and Pippin and Merry’s indulgence near the eaves of Fangorn are sure signs of the fecundity of their respective races, whereas the Elves, a dwindling and less fertile race, are content with much smaller portions: `No more, no more!' cried the Elves laughing [to Gimli]. `You have eaten enough already for a long day's march.' Dwarves and Hobbits clearly have much more lusty appetites than the more staid Eldar.

I’ll only note in closing that the pocket-fertility symbolism is further demonstrated by the lack of pockets elsewhere. Creatures like Smaug and the Balrog have none; surely Sauron, as well, never wore anything so mundane as trousers with pockets. These evil beings are, despite their potency (or perhaps there’s a more complex relationship between sheer physical potency and fertility – what are those wall-to-wall Balrog wings compensating for, anyway?), sterile, unnatural, and barren.

Hats off, Sharkey!

[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: Mister Underhill ]
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Old 09-17-2002, 01:06 AM   #17
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Mister Underhill, your argumentation is so excellent that I hesitate to point out a flaw in your logic. However, Gimli's "gobbling" of the lembas cannot denote the fertility of his race, which is in fact dwindling as well and is characterized by an imbalance of female to male population very unfavorable to reproduction. Moreover, he himself cuts off any connection to the females of his own race by adopting an unrealistic passion for an unreachable object (a married woman of another race = no possibility for real consummation and therefore barren), leaving him without any genuine female relationship. Instead, he chooses the friendship of a male of that race to enable himself to keep up the illusion and not have to face reality. In the light of these facts, I would interpret (and we are of course speaking of applicability, not allegory!) Gimli's gobbling of the lembas as a destructive act, an avoidance of ever having to place the lembas in his pocket in the first place!
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Old 09-17-2002, 01:35 AM   #18
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Interesting point, Esty, though I’m not convinced that my lembas reading in Gimli’s case is misconstrued. Gimli’s gluttonous gobbling (and his unrealistic obsession with Galadriel) are both signs of a strong dash of fertility (and willingness) but – tragically – without an appropriate female relationship within which to expend his energy. This is the fate of many Dwarves owing to the poor ratio of males to females in the population (perhaps a reason behind general Dwarvish grumpiness and industriousness?). This is expressed in large scope by the Dwarvish tendency to delve enormous womb-symbols for themselves (Khazad-dûm, et al) and in Gimli’s particular case with an unusual fixation on the Caves of Aglarond, which is really only another symbolic longing for what Galadriel represents to him:
Quote:
'And, Legolas, when the torches are kindled and men walk on the sandy floors under the echoing domes, ah! then, Legolas, gems and crystals and veins of precious ore glint in the polished walls; and the light glows through folded marbles, shell-like, translucent as the living hands of Queen Galadriel. [...] No dwarf could be unmoved by such loveliness. None of Durin's race would mine those caves for stones or ore, not if diamonds and gold could be got there. Do you cut down groves of blossoming trees in the spring-time for firewood? We would tend these glades of flowering stone, not quarry them. With cautious skill, tap by tap – a small chip of rock and no more, perhaps, in a whole anxious day – so we could work, and as the years went by, we should open up new ways, and display far chambers that are still dark, glimpsed only as a void beyond fissures in the rock.’
I hardly need to comment on the subtext at work here. Besides, I think the ratio is about right. An Elf would be content to nibble a corner of a cake; Gimli gobbled one; the Hobbits each eat two or three.
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Old 09-17-2002, 01:36 AM   #19
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Silmaril

While I must applaud the theory as a whole, there seem to be some deplorable misperceptions circulating of Gimli here. He gobbles the lembas not out of greed (or, as Underhill so elegantly puts it, appetite), but out of a lack of understanding of the substance itself. He underestimates the power of the waybread because it is elven; it is something not valued or easily understood by the Dwarves, though they have their own equivalent, in which they invest less care and less skill.

This is easily transferrable to Dwarven sexuality, which is both hidden and scarce. The lack of women is less problematic than (and possibly results from) their hiddenness. Furthermore, dwarves are possesive in marriage, perhaps hinting at an underlying anxiety about presently leashed power of sexuality. Dwarves, in short, repress and oppress their sexual natures, keeping it, so to speak, in their pockets--the stone halls mentioned above.

Elves, though indeed less fertile than they once were, are still able to wield their sexual powers to some extent. Note that Galadriel is the holder of Nenya, and it is she to whom Gimli feels such a strong attraction. He is pulled toward this strength, and he becomes more and more deeply attached to Legolas, a member of the more potent race.

From this perspective, it hardly seems surprising that Gimli devoured the lembas in much the same manner that the dragons devoured the rings of the dwarves, dragons that had, in fact, been attracted by the possesiveness of that race.

In other words.... it's time to Liberate Dwarf Women!!

--Belin Ibaimendi

[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: Belin ]
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Old 09-17-2002, 01:55 AM   #20
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Silmaril

And what about the dragons, hiding their treasures in the caves = pockets of the earth? Did they substitute riches for fertility? They did, after all, die out!

I would like to add the following discussion link for your perusal:
What's With this Always Going Underground
Sharku plainly exposes the symbolism as sexual, though he tries to disguise his explanation as irony...

Furthermore I highly recommend that classic discussion of the ring's female symbolism, my all-time favorite thread:
The One Ring?
It is nice to know that those discussion days have not ended irrevocably!

PS edit: Is my usage of the word 'disguise' in my above comment symbolic as well? Dis-guise = taking the guise of Dís, the only female dwarf we know by name. There has to be some underlying meaning there!!

[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: Estelyn Telcontar ]
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Old 09-17-2002, 07:21 AM   #21
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Perhaps we have missed a very obvious (perhaps the most obvious) obstruction to fertility caused by the Ring being in the pocket. For the Ring to be in possession of the person in the pocket, the trousers must be ON.
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Old 09-17-2002, 09:08 AM   #22
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Not at all, red! The trousers could be wrapped around the head in a sort of turban.

Mr Underhill, you have inexplicably missed the connection between Lobelia's umbrella and the smothering wings of the Balrog. It seems clear that those great shadowy bat-wings indicate the Balrog's inability to allow its surrogate charges, the mountain orcs, the freedom to grow, mature, roam, and achieve self-actualization through looting and pillage. Instead, the Balrog's young (relatively speaking) charges are enjoined to sterile, smothering old feuds. Beware the pocket unfolded, expanded into a hideous parody of shelter or (if the winds are right) uplift! Similarly, poor Lotho is drawn into his mother's quest for vengeance and conquest, dropped into this smothering umbrella like a Bag-End trinket! It was probably even a black umbrella.

The classic bat-brolly-ed smothering mother figure is of course that demonic nanny, Mary Poppins. Note how Balrog-like, she uses her dark umbrella to fly about in defiance of the natural laws of uplift and wing-to-bodyweight ratios!
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Old 09-17-2002, 10:15 AM   #23
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Indeed, this thread refutes firmly the notion of Tolkien's percieved misogyny - the Ring chooses which fingers get to go in. A direct indicator of the gender power-balance in the mythology.

Consider also the Two Trees, phallic in their sturdy uprightness, which failed over time - pulled down by the brooding female figure of Ungoliant no less - to be replaced by two giant ovi...

All these concepts are swallowed, of course, by the gaping maw of the Ring's final destination. A return to mother indeed.

[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: Rimbaud ]
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Old 09-17-2002, 11:33 AM   #24
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Do you guys take this symbolism stuff seriously? It is funny to me, and I think it may be a joke, but judging by the thought that has gone into, it must be long in the making, some sort of ongoing inside Barrow-downs joke? I do not aim to attack or offend, but only to explain why I question your purpose.

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Old 09-17-2002, 12:00 PM   #25
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The tone in here is as wry as it can be; dry as to be arid, a veritable desert of jocularity, Amarie.
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Old 09-17-2002, 12:09 PM   #26
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To me, it was similar like in the Ring theory thread - "a spark of truth at the core of the joke" as Underhill put it. I realized that core when I remembered the side note in UT which described Túrin's declining of the offer of lembas.
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Old 09-17-2002, 12:52 PM   #27
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Is there a mother thread for all of this?
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Old 09-17-2002, 02:23 PM   #28
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Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!Estelyn Telcontar has reached the Cracks of Doom and destroyed the Ring!
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Amarie, check out the links in my above post for similar (background) threads. This is one way of combining fun with intelligent discussions!
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Old 09-18-2002, 09:06 AM   #29
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And of course the etymology of "pocket" is "little bag" -- a baggin, you might say. So Bilbo was the quintessential Man-Woman. It alll fits . . . [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
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Old 09-18-2002, 09:22 AM   #30
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*coughs*

I note that none of the male memb--er, ah, minds here have, ah, touched, as it were, upon the topic of the unfortunate loss of Frodo's finger, made even more significant by the fact that it was encircled at the time by the Ring.

The eating metaphor also offers opportunity for the clear sublimation of, um, other topics. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

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[ September 18, 2002: Message edited by: Bethberry ]
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Old 09-18-2002, 09:24 AM   #31
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The subject of which you speak is discussed in this thread.
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Old 09-18-2002, 09:42 AM   #32
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Oh, I beg to differ, Rimbaud. I see nothing in that thread which remotely touches upon the inherent symbolism whereby the mature impulse to rid one of feminine emprisonment and entanglement necessarily involves any acts of mutilation of a particular sort. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

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Old 09-18-2002, 09:52 AM   #33
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Ah, my dear, thou wishest for further discussion on this topic? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Sharkû touches upon the subject matter in a brief note and it seemed to me that further discussion would mean necessarily a different medium for display. Such tender minds at work; I wish to harm not these sweet and tender hooligans that live herein.

[img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Pertinently, that emasculation you and the Old Man refer to appears to be inherent in mere possession of the Ring, not merely apparent at the gruesome parting. Although, I concede the obvious symbolism easily enough.
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Old 09-18-2002, 09:52 AM   #34
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Bethberry -- Sharkú's postt from that thread comes close:
Quote:
A -- for this thread -- uncharacteristically short note for now, another circumstance that adds to the Ring theory as it stands developed is the fact that the Ring could only be forcefully removed from its bearer by cutting off the finger. The symbolic intent of this is obvious; the person who wants to gain the Ring for himself intentionally robs the current bearer of its fertility and masculinity in regard to the Ring, here the possibility of wearing it. The rival is then no longer attractive to the Ring, and the Ring perveives that the new bearer, strong enough to beat the rival, is a better mate for it.
Though I admit your particular version of digitizing is a little different. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Btw we're trashing Marvell in The Barrowdowns thread, join in ! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
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Old 09-18-2002, 09:59 AM   #35
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Clearly, gentleman, this is a topic which would pain you more than it would me. I defer to your tender feelings on the matter and withdraw any cutting remarks.

Yours, etc.
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Old 09-18-2002, 10:06 AM   #36
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You have a very euniche perspective, Bb, but I admit that the subject can be wince-inducing for men. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]
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Old 09-18-2002, 10:08 AM   #37
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Well, the pen is mightier than the sword is a saying that can be questioned...(delete spaces where necessary).
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Old 09-18-2002, 10:17 AM   #38
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There's a major silly virus going around the 'downs today . . . [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
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Old 09-18-2002, 10:20 AM   #39
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Blame that romance going on at the Lonely Star. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
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Old 01-21-2003, 07:15 AM   #40
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And Then Somewhere in the Middle It Got Serious
Quote:
surely Sauron, as well, never wore anything so mundane as trousers with pockets.
I beg to differ. Or perhaps you have never heard of such an important item as the Keys of Barad Dûr? I suppose you think that when he went from his office to the factory at Orodruin, or to get a loaf of bread from Núrnen, he just LEFT IT UNLOCKED for any filthy tark to come strolling in.

Pockets are and have always been a very manly thing, so perhaps the pockets of our three shortest ringbearers were further proof of their masculinity (remember, all ringbearers are very masculine, even Galadriel). In hunter-gatherer societies, hunting is exclusively the domain of the man. Pockets served to keep small implements or other supplies in while on hunting forays, leaving the hands free for the task at hand. The female gatherers had less need for pockets, and so they did not proliferate amongst the gender.

As for Gimli's almost American Pie-like fondness for lembas, don't forget his initial thoughts. "Cram," he muttered. Or was it "Dwarf women," he muttered, believing that all such baked goods were as bland and tasteless as the ones back home. Lembas, and Galadriel, are much newer and fresher for him. And so gobbling, he was taken by the fiendish elven spell.
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