I am not going to say today is a good day. But I did just snag the 9 cd set of the dramatization of the Lord of the Rings book trilogy off the free table at work.
Do I have a working CD player? Not at the moment.
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The world needs more hobbit software
I just love the concept and agree with it. I think of Glowbug (this blog) as hobbit software.
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Lord of the Rings Family Tree
An amazing fan resource that charts as much of the LOTR family tree as possible.
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A breakdown of the "Rings of Power" in Lord of the Rings
Found on Reddit and it is a beautifully made. Props to Madison Apple on the graphic.
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Rings of Power
I tweeted the following last night:
I am so excited to be back in Middle Earth and I am looking forward to this show. The first two episodes were great.
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The belief that Middle Earth is onlly populated by white characters is not only faulty, it misses the spirit of Tolkien entirely
This title is my modification on the article's subtitle section. It's an opinion piece which pushes back on the beliefs that Tolkien was racist and wanted only white characters.
Yet, there remains the idea that because Tolkien sought to create an English mythology that he intended Middle-earth to be comprised only of white people. This ignores the individuals of color who have populated England throughout its history, and that the first modern Britons had dark skin, based on DNA evidence taken from the Cheddar Man, a 10,000-year-old skeleton discovered in 1903.
And while there's no sense in speculating on the reactions of a dead man who could not possibly fathom the 21st century by the time of his death in 1973, Tolkien was notably anti-racist, even for the time period. Biographers have noted Tolkien was very much opposed to the Aryan ideology popularized by the Nazis, and of colonialism in South Africa. While there are those, as a number of Twitter accounts have to sought to remind me, who believe orcs are intended to be Tolkien's perspective on people of color, there's no evidence from Tolkien's writing or life to justify that (as opposed to, for instance, the wide array of evidence that speaks to the racism of his contemporary H.P. Lovecraft in both his writing and personal life).
But here's the thing: Even though Tolkien's early 20th century progressiveness was not analogous to the progressive attitudes of today, it has no bearing on an adaptation or extension of his works. Things change. The movies and television released in 1954, when The Fellowship of the Ring came out, obviously look very different in terms of casting choices than what we see today. As such, Rings of Power looks different from Peter Jackson's films from 20 years ago. Systems adapt, people formally denied opportunities to showcase their talent are afforded a spotlight in which they can and do earn it. Audiences of color, who have been asked to, and excelled at, empathizing with white people throughout the history of visual media, can wish to see themselves onscreen and see those wishes validated.
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Amazon's Lord of the Rings show will be the most expensive season of TV ever produced, and it isn't close
That the total price tag for the first season of the show is estimated to come in at $450 million. (By comparison, a season of “Game of Thrones” was estimated to cost $90 million, or about $15 million an episode.) According to New Zealand publication Stuff, the amount was ascertained by the NZ$160 million tax credit the production will receive for filming in the country. To receive a tax credit of that amount, the budget is estimated to come in at just shy of half a billion American dollars.
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Russian TV Hobbit adaptation is amazing
I have a deep love for Middle Earth and the works of JRR Tolkien. So, when my friend Aideen shared this video, I knew I had to dive in and it is... amazing? It's not a Hollywood blockbuster, but I wouldn't expect it to be. I don't speak Russian, but I am watching it with Google's translation of their auto-generated Russian captions, and it's good enough that I can follow the story (given that I know the book.)
It is like looking at a piece of art you know extremely well through a concave lens that also swaps colors. It's the same, but different. It lets me appreciate things I had forgotten or hadn't considered. Also, I have a soft spot for Russian music so that helps as well.
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