The Hobbit is the first book I ever read of my own free will. It made a great impression on me; it had a mythological feel to it and it had profound meaning – even on a religious-spiritual level that I back then was unable to properly understand. Today I see how similar this story is to the Pagan initiation ritual, with a child (a Hobbit) travelling into a cave (The Goblin Gate) and through a dark forest (Mirkwood), where he faces his worst fears (Smaug) – and overcomes them. He enters the world of the dead (The Lonely Mountain) and gains his Hamingja. The dragon’s gold is metaphorical; the true gold is Honour. Aurum nostrum, non est aurum vulgi («Our gold is not like the gold of ordinary men»). Bilbo becomes a man.
Naturally I don’t download films illegally, and I don’t ever go to the cinema, so I had to wait some time to see the filmatization of The Hobbit. By chance I saw the DVD in a grocery shop a few days ago and naturally purchased it – and finally saw it.
Yes, I already know that films based on books tend to be poor, even if the books are superd, as proven by Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I sat down to watch the first part of The Hobbit with no such prejudice and hoped for a good film. It started out alright, but I quickly understood that this was «yet another Hollywood production», and the absolute low point must have been when the party of dwarves lead by Gandalf fought their way through the Goblin Gate. Oh dear. What was that? A parody of PC platform games from the 1980ies? What was the point of those scenes? What relevance did they have to the plot?
Because of my love for the book I really wanted to like this film, but no, I don’t. It reeks. This first part of Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy (?) is an infantily comedy made for kids. It can please others too, of course, but it is obviously made for kids. The whole film followed the same pattern; stupid, exaggerated, unrealistic fighting scene (alias «Hollywood fighting scene»), Gandalf saves the day and then some sentimental talk before it starts all over again. The dwarves looked like idiot clows. Gandalf is still played by a homo. It felt not like The Hobbit, but like a story about a child Shang-Hai’ed to help a party of greedy, ugly and stupid Jews steal the gold of someone else .
Dwarves or actually clowns?
The book I love, and if I can find the time I think I will read it again some day soon. Tolkien was a genious, and I really don’t need to have his work be «interpreted» by some Hollywood team of film makers. My mind works fine and the pictures it makes inside my head when I read books are always better than those in any film. The power of imagination is wonderful, and should not be underestimated, ignored or indeed be suppressed.
When the Pagan child entered the caves or burial mounds of yore the often plain drawings on the walls were enough to create vivid images in his head; he didn’t see just crude lines and drawings of animal-like creatures; he saw moving, living creatures, and he could even hear them! He saw something not seen anywhere else in his world, and he had to cope with the fear his imaginative mind struck him with when he saw these images.
When the Pagan adult lay on the ground under the clear night sky he didn’t see just stars, but the spirit of the universe, the breath and movement of the universe; the meaning of life! He saw and named the constelations that we still know by his names. He saw eternity – without anything but his senses, and his mind to interpret their singals.
Today we are too busy looking where there is nothing, because we have been mislead. Wonderful stories, like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, by Europeans, are used to turn our minds’ attention to absolute nonsense; and in the background, behind out backs, when we look the other way, cretins of Judean stock work hard to fasten the shackles of slavery on our feet and hands.
I’ll save my money when part II comes out.
