Happy New Hobbitry to 2013!!

So - I went to see the Peter Jackson version of The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey a few days ago, and have to say that, overall, I am very impressed and highly pleased with the result.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been a HUGE Tolkien fan for the best part of forty (yes - forty!) years, and I always approach these film versions with a critical eye toward the poetic license they will undoubtedly take.   They did it with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and some of that did not work as well as it should have done.  And, having read or listened to many of the preambles leading up to The Hobbit, I knew there were going to be aspects of the adaptation I would not like or find difficult to accept.  And there are, but, overall, the package seems to have worked so far!

 

Yes - I wasn`t too keen on the inclusion and representation of Radaghast the Brown, and the reincarnation of Azog the Terrible, alive and well and masquerading as The Pale Orc!  Not really necessary to the storyline.  However, the inclusion of the The White Council meeting helped build the link between The Hobbit and LOTR, as did the appearance of many of the cast members from LOTR in the introduction.

 

But, for me, the biggest pleasers are the majestic representations of the Middle Earth kingdoms, countries and vales, along with the creatures that Tolkien populated his world with.  The additional time provided to the director and producers by stretching the relatively small book into three three-hour films allows them to lavish more time to display these lands and creatures in even greater detail than in the LOTR films, and makes the journey even more worthwhile.

 

Of course, what they fill out with scenery makes the plot even thinner and more tenuous, hence the need to fill the gaps with parts of the Untold Stories and pure fabrications, such as the meetings of The White Council, the trip of Radaghast and his Rhosgobel Rabbits to Dol Guldur, the fabrication of the Morgul Blade of Angmar, and the resurrection of Azog.  But, to a student of JRR such as myself, seeing some of these things included gladdens me, but others detract from the tale, and are more of a distraction.  But, as I already said, all-in-all, I find the whole package very entertaining and very enjoyable, and not only am I looking forward to Part 2, I am also looking forward to seeing Part 1 again!

 

Ah, yess, my Preciousss, I want to see that nasty little Hobbitses again!

And I hope you see it too, if you haven't already!

 

 

Farewell 2012 - And All That Jazz!

So - here we are - on the verge of the End of 2012, and the start of 2013! How time flies!

I cannot say 2012 has been the best year of my life so far - although it is far from being the worst! It has had many challenges, and many goals (and their inherent dreams) still remain unattained, although, admittedly, a lot closer than they have been in previous years. Some of the impacts that have either delayed or prevented certain achievements were not of my own making, nor were they under my control, which makes them even harder to bear.

 

But I am not going to dwell on those events and occurrences, as that will only serve to bring the mood lower than need be!  There were still many things about 2012 that gave me a certain amount of success - especially in areas I had only pondered about previously - and which have laid a very hopeful foundation for the future on a number of levels.  Work went well, with the new company being very successful, and looking to continue that for the next 12 months.  And my writing has been successful in ways that both myself and my wife find amusing and inspiring, if somewhat unexpected, and, with a little more effort from myself, looks poised to bring even more success in the coming years - hopefully to the extremes of my dreams.  The only challenge is reigning in the new diversity and channelling that into those routes that others would expect from me, while still allowing the new routes I am following to achieve their success.  It will be interesting!

 

So I enter 2013 with a certain amount of optimism, putting behind me the depradations and interferences of the past - both 2012 and beyond - and looking forward to bringing greater achievements and successes to ever-growing audience - no matter what the field or endeavour!

 

Another aspect of my future life is these blogs I have so recently started writing.  These will be a challenge on a number of fronts.  First - I am by no means a strict diarist or journalist (in the pure sense of that word), so writing regularly will be an interesting challenge.  Then the challenge to that challenge is to write something interesting, informative, or entertaining, because I don't believe in writing a blog entry just for the sake of having a blog entry.  And the other challenge is keeping it fun and interesting for myself, otherwise it will languish in that special purgatory set aside for failed hobbies and projects that we all have!  Time to make the hobbies into obsessions!

 

Finally - if you are reading this, I wish you a very happy and successful 2013.

 

Paul J Todd