Last week everyone here was complaining how it seemed like summer just wouldn’t quit, and gee wouldn’t it be nice to have a night where the minimum temperature falls below 20°C for once, and why is it still so hot most of the way through autumn. And then yesterday and today the cold hit like a brick wall. The week of rain we’e had has slammed temperatures down and where last week we were going around in shorts and T-shirts, now we’re pulling out the winter gear and rugging up in long pants, jackets, and wearing slippers inside to keep our feet warm.
However apparently it won’t last, because the rain is forecast to clear up over this weekend and next week we’ll be back up to 26°C days again.
Today while huddling inside and trying to stay warm, I taught some ethics classes, and in between did some comics stuff and processed some photos from my Japan trip back in February. While doing this I normally would put the radio on, but lately it’s been full of election campaign ads, so I decided to play some music from my collection, and I threw on the Howard Shore soundtracks from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. And while listening to them I realised just how utterly depressing I find everything to do with Lord of the Rings.
I mean the fact that Frodo is so scarred by the experience and seems to have PTSD, and can’t talk to his friends any more, and decides to go off and exile with the elves in their overseas Land of Perpetual Lamentation. It’s not a standard happy ending, and I respect that, it’s just that it makes me depressed and not want to reread the books/rewatch the movies. As much as I like the story, the ending makes it kind of sour for me.
Anyway. On a happier note, here’s a photo of some sakura (cherry blossoms) I took in Japan in February.
The thing is, I never cared much about Frodo. To me, the interesting story followed Aragorn, Merry and Pippin. Everything else was flavor for the real story of those three heroes. Frodo’s ending was sad, but (in my head) he’s a side character.
I have a question adjacent to your LotR comment. What are your feelings on the Hitchhiker’s Guide series or the Dune series? Either author originals or “expanded”.
I love HHGTTG, at least the first three books. The ones after those were not as good, in my opinion, but okay.
I’ve never read Dune.
Hitchhiker, at least once you get past the first one, is about how the universe kicks Arthur Dent every time he gets something halfway good. It’s a very one step forward, two steps back kind of gag in every book. Arthur never gets to keep what matters to him.
Contrast with Frodo, who took a terrible task and it affected him deeply. I know Tolkien has said his war experiences aren’t directly reflected in his books, but there is a tragedy that millions of soldiers suffer from living through strife, and Tolkien did as well. My wife says her mind replaces “normal” after about two weeks, like changing a job or taking new classes — she needs that extra time to “imprint” on her. But living through months or years of death and misery then coming home? Frodo is the “everyman” who lived through a terrible time, and it scarred him. I think Tolkien was reminding us that there is a cost to heroism, and we should try to be there for those who suffer it.