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reading (The Two Towers)
The second book of the trilogy fell through a sustained assault of three days.
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derien said she got bogged down during her first reading of this book back in the dark ages. I can understand why.
The first part of the book follows the Company, runs and jumps with peril and change. The second part, following Frodo and Samwise, trudges through the wastes with building and crashing gloom. The fact that this bit feels like forever is a tribute to what Tolkien was capable of. It's not that long a bit, but it's dark and hopeless and you don't want to stay there. Well that's the point isn't it? If it was short and tolerable you wouldn't get any feel at all for what Frodo and Sam were experiencing.
In the first part of this book I was struck by how far the story of the movie diverges from the original. The end of the battle of Helm's Deep didn't work at all in the movie, it just didn't make sense. That part plays out completely differently in the book. The movie lost the sense of the treachery of Saruman and his greed for The Ring. Also the movie completely overplayed the influence and ability of the Ringwraiths.
The interplay of psychology, the luck of timing that is often influential in war, and the perception of Other that humans inevitable build in their minds is wonderfully brought out in this book.
37. J.R.R. Tolkien "The Two Towers"
derien said she got bogged down during her first reading of this book back in the dark ages. I can understand why.The first part of the book follows the Company, runs and jumps with peril and change. The second part, following Frodo and Samwise, trudges through the wastes with building and crashing gloom. The fact that this bit feels like forever is a tribute to what Tolkien was capable of. It's not that long a bit, but it's dark and hopeless and you don't want to stay there. Well that's the point isn't it? If it was short and tolerable you wouldn't get any feel at all for what Frodo and Sam were experiencing.
In the first part of this book I was struck by how far the story of the movie diverges from the original. The end of the battle of Helm's Deep didn't work at all in the movie, it just didn't make sense. That part plays out completely differently in the book. The movie lost the sense of the treachery of Saruman and his greed for The Ring. Also the movie completely overplayed the influence and ability of the Ringwraiths.
The interplay of psychology, the luck of timing that is often influential in war, and the perception of Other that humans inevitable build in their minds is wonderfully brought out in this book.
37. J.R.R. Tolkien "The Two Towers"