The thing about the book characters is that they do have very human story arcs going. But Tolkien assumes you don't need to be told much about them, because you'll get all the hints. Relationship with Arwen? Hint. Friendship and collaboration with Bilbo? Hint. Sneaking around the entire known world, spying out the land and learning the players? Hint, hint, hint.
Hint hint what? We're told certain things about Aragorn and the other characters and we're not given modern personal motivations and character development. The story of Aragorn and Arwen isn't cleverly given in hints, it's given in the appendix. I don't think Tolkien would have been shaking his head that we weren't getting the hints, I think he'd be shaking his head that we'd want these kinds of details about what was motivating the characters--an ability to translate poetry like other noblemen of one's time is not character development. If we want that, we have to project it ourselves, as I certainly like to do with the hobbits and I think you're doing by saying Aragorn's motivation is, "Do I want to leave Rivendell for Gondor?"
And that's where I have my problems with Jackson et al. I mind the hamhanded insertion of motivational badfic. Instead of presenting Tolkien's non-modern characters with non-modern psychologies driven by non-modern cultures and ideas, we get stock Hollywood characters dressed in Tolkien clothes. Borrrrrrrring.
Well, I had nowhere near these kinds of problems with the movie characters--in fact I always find it odd what other people's experience of stock Hollywood characters are because I can easily imagine the stock Hollywood versions of these characters and these Jackson's ain't it. They're different from Tolkien's more iconic characters, but they're not just stock Hollywood types either.
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Re: Bursting into song
Date: 2004-04-14 05:53 pm (UTC)Hint hint what? We're told certain things about Aragorn and the other characters and we're not given modern personal motivations and character development. The story of Aragorn and Arwen isn't cleverly given in hints, it's given in the appendix. I don't think Tolkien would have been shaking his head that we weren't getting the hints, I think he'd be shaking his head that we'd want these kinds of details about what was motivating the characters--an ability to translate poetry like other noblemen of one's time is not character development. If we want that, we have to project it ourselves, as I certainly like to do with the hobbits and I think you're doing by saying Aragorn's motivation is, "Do I want to leave Rivendell for Gondor?"
And that's where I have my problems with Jackson et al. I mind the hamhanded insertion of motivational badfic. Instead of presenting Tolkien's non-modern characters with non-modern psychologies driven by non-modern cultures and ideas, we get stock Hollywood characters dressed in Tolkien clothes. Borrrrrrrring.
Well, I had nowhere near these kinds of problems with the movie characters--in fact I always find it odd what other people's experience of stock Hollywood characters are because I can easily imagine the stock Hollywood versions of these characters and these Jackson's ain't it. They're different from Tolkien's more iconic characters, but they're not just stock Hollywood types either.
Luckily, there's always Bakshi.