So, I'm not going to work today:

Partly on account of the freezing rain and snow, but mostly on account of my mom calling me and telling me not to go to work in the freezing rain and snow. There is never a good day to cause a mom excessive worry. And she's generally good about not worrying too much, so when she does go all way concerned, it's the good daughter thing to listen.

This does, however, mean that I have an unexpected free day of being stuck at home.

Hmm.

Dead Things and Not-Dead Dead Things

( minor spoilers for Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean. )

I really should just start a 'pet peeves' list.

Fic: The Deep Breath Before (Perfect Possible; Willow/Giles)

Wrote this for lasultrix and realized that I was writing Perfect Possible Willow and Giles. Which is great, because I've been wanting to set their characters (I want to write every character in an intimate one-on-one setting before I try anything fancy).
( Roughly a year and a half after Chosen )

Fic: Aftermath (Perfect Possible; Willow and Xander)

A great movie is one that lasts. A movie that you want to watch again, and when you do, it still hits you in your heart and mind.

Moulin Rouge is a great movie. I've seen it more times that I've counted and I always get just as caught up in it. I get swept into this world of color and passion and pain, and I just live there until the movie releases me. Every single time, it's a roller coaster of joy and grief.

Return of the King is a great movie.

But that, really has nothing to do with my primary purpose - fic. redredshoes asked for Willow&Xander, not necessarily romantic, just something that showed their deep connection. So this is a short post-Chosen snippet - Perfect Possible 'verse.
( Riding on the bus after the end... )

Books and Movies

Probably no one here actually needs to read this, but hey, I'm compiling that 'pet peeves' list.

Whenever I think of a book turning into a movie, The Princess Bride comes to mind. Now, the movie and the book are both excellent, but they're also quite different in parts.

The big thing? The book and the screenplay were written by the same person (S. Morgenstern being a work of fiction). The writer who knew the story most intimately and knew what needed to be kept and what didn't. Looking at the difference in treatment when the writer is the same should let anyone know how much more things will change when the screenwriter/director is different than the author.

Different eyes see different things.

The movie of The Lord of the Rings is, and can only ever be, an adaption of Tolkien's work. This is LotR as seen through Peter Jackman's (and the countless others who created the movie) eyes. It is not Tolkien's LotR. But no one is ever reading Tolkien's LotR - they're reading their LotR as seen through the eyes of Tolkien.

The only way to satisfy every purist (for they all get upset about different things) would be to film every shot exactly as Tolkien described it. Long speeches. Poems. Songs. Tom. And it would be a really long, really sucky movie. Movies aren't books. When you make an adaption and stay too close to the letter, you run the chance of missing the spirit (Harry Potter thus far comes to mind).

Shot-by-shot misses the point (which the color adaption of Psycho showed). Every medium works differently. And treatments vary depending on the culture of the time and place.

Changes will be, have to be, made. And the mere fact of a change is not an evil. Are some things in PJ's LotR not done as well as they are in Tolkien's? Probably. But some things in the movie version are better - Boromir comes to mind. And things have to be condensed - for example, it's silly to spend a long time on a bit character when you can be using that moment to introduce a major one. You don't have internal monologues, so some characters seem more emotional than they do in the books - their feelings need to show on their face, whereas in the book, they would just be implied.

It's different because books and movies are different. They're both art, both creation, but they're different forms. You don't draw anime the same way you sketch a landscape.

Authorial Intent:

I've said that I love the story of The Lord of the Rings but don't like the books. Tolkien's style in the book just doesn't suit me at all. Oh, but the world and the characters that he created are glorious. And he can write and write quite well. There are so many lines from the book that I do adore. And I love The Hobbit (have I mentioned that before? I'm not sure that I have. It's quite an engaging tale.).

If the roads are clear enough and the library is open, tomorrow I'm going to see if it has The Silmarillion. I haven't yet tried to read that and I might like its style better.

Tolkien's an interesting guy - he disliked allegory, but both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are steeped in who Tolkien was and comparisions are nearly impossible for me to ignore. And just because he didn't want allegory in his stories doesn't mean that it can't easily be found in them.

Because there's always more to a story than what the author puts in it. Every single reader brings their own perspective to the piece - making the work richer and more vibrant by the act of interpretation.

When we reread a story, it's because something in that story calls to us. There's so much in The Lord of the Rings that's worth thinking about. So many ideas and ideals and idealogies at work in the story. I'm bringing up The Princess Bride again because that's the story that made me into the reader that I am - that story is all about choosing your own story inside the text.

What's The Lord of the Rings about? That's something that's unique to each reader.

To me, it's about friendship and love triumphing over corruption and fear. It's about compassion and courage. It's about unlikely heroes and unlikely friends. It's about nature and power - the fight between what is natural and what is artificial. It's about sacrifice and war and the consequences of growing up. It's about doing the job that needs to be done, regardless of the personal cost. It's about understanding who you are and that anyone is capable of being more than what they seem. It's about knowing what's right and standing behind that, come what may.

It's a million and one ideas, all fascinating. All worth delving into and exploring. And the characters. Words cannot express how much I adore the main hobbits.

I definitely understand why the books sold so well and have become what they are today. The story and the characters, yes, but also the sheer reality of the world that Tolkien created. It's a breath-taking accomplishment.

It's a world well worth many a visit.