puzzle
Regular
Apparently, I'm going around in circles. But this time I took a detour and went off the previous track.
I'd tried reading the Lord of the Rings a while back, and it never clicked... as for the Hobbit, it's a children's book and it never clicked already way back in Soviet times (in primary school, no idea really, maybe 1987 or something)...
...but for some reason, I grew bored and tried again. And this time, it clicked. I still cannot read The Hobbit (that's what movies are for - it diverges quite far from the book apparently ) but I can read LotR and the story "works" for me... and in fact, I was able to steal the time for reading it through.
Can't say that I'm any bit wiser, but it was interesting to experience that fictional world... and to settle for myself the question of whether a certain JMS was "doing LotR with the serial numbers filed off" or not. Nope, for me he wasn't... in fact, myself subjectively... I could not "recognize" anyone from B5 except in Gandalf, and in him I could recognize many characters, so there it goes.
The movies suffered from a common problem, though... the lack of perspective into antagonist characters. Mass after mass of one-dimensional orc are boring and make me want to cover my eyes with both hands, or press the fast forward button. OK, Smaug the big wyrm has a personality and is talkative, but the orcs of the movies are bloody damn gapfillers.
In books, the going gets somewhat better, up to the point where at the end of The Two Towers, some Mordor orcs are seriously talking of taking a hike and finding a land with less nasty and demanding overlords.
On the other hand, I think the myths within the myth that LotR contains are a nice touch. In contrast with the orc business, these do give the world a real and inviting depth.
As for the matter of whether stuff exists in the real world that has the properties of the One Ring, I think that almost.. I think it is at least to certain extent a tale of caution, about not wearing any magic rings you find, and maybe also about not making any that you'll be forever seeking to control. But of course, everyone can read the story in their own way...
...either way it was a worthwhile detour for me. And now I'm considering whether to name one of my competition robots Eärendil and the other "ash nazg" just to troll other teams.
I'd tried reading the Lord of the Rings a while back, and it never clicked... as for the Hobbit, it's a children's book and it never clicked already way back in Soviet times (in primary school, no idea really, maybe 1987 or something)...
...but for some reason, I grew bored and tried again. And this time, it clicked. I still cannot read The Hobbit (that's what movies are for - it diverges quite far from the book apparently ) but I can read LotR and the story "works" for me... and in fact, I was able to steal the time for reading it through.
Can't say that I'm any bit wiser, but it was interesting to experience that fictional world... and to settle for myself the question of whether a certain JMS was "doing LotR with the serial numbers filed off" or not. Nope, for me he wasn't... in fact, myself subjectively... I could not "recognize" anyone from B5 except in Gandalf, and in him I could recognize many characters, so there it goes.
The movies suffered from a common problem, though... the lack of perspective into antagonist characters. Mass after mass of one-dimensional orc are boring and make me want to cover my eyes with both hands, or press the fast forward button. OK, Smaug the big wyrm has a personality and is talkative, but the orcs of the movies are bloody damn gapfillers.
In books, the going gets somewhat better, up to the point where at the end of The Two Towers, some Mordor orcs are seriously talking of taking a hike and finding a land with less nasty and demanding overlords.
On the other hand, I think the myths within the myth that LotR contains are a nice touch. In contrast with the orc business, these do give the world a real and inviting depth.
As for the matter of whether stuff exists in the real world that has the properties of the One Ring, I think that almost.. I think it is at least to certain extent a tale of caution, about not wearing any magic rings you find, and maybe also about not making any that you'll be forever seeking to control. But of course, everyone can read the story in their own way...
...either way it was a worthwhile detour for me. And now I'm considering whether to name one of my competition robots Eärendil and the other "ash nazg" just to troll other teams.
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