So, here's an odd one -- a love/hate self-debate on the Senate health care bill expressed in Gollum fashion, Stinker vs. Slinker. Just another sign of Tolkien's ubiquity as part of our culture, with his characters becoming as familiar as Ebenezer Scrooge or Doctor Watson.
If, like Janice, you'd prefer not to hear more about the health care debate after all these months, better to stop after the opening paragraphs under the following link.
Amusing in a different way was this post a few days back by Viggo Mortensen, who played Strider in the LotR movies but who turns out to have totally internalized Tolkien's message that it's the little people, not the great kings, who really matter, the small hands that turn the wheels of the world:
--John R.
I suspect it's less Tolkien's ubiquity than Jackson's. Two words in Lux's opening paragraph give that impression. One is "watching": you watch Gollum in the movie; it is rarer, though not at all unknown, to describe yourself as watching a character in a book you're reading. The other word is "schizophrenic" - he means "schizoid", of course, but while Movie Gollum shows serious personality psychosis in this scene, Book Gollum does not: he's just having a discussion with himself, which is not the same thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's not surprising that the actor who played Strider should have understood Tolkien's message that it's the little people who matter, since the character certainly did. All I have to say to Mr. Mortensen based on his performance is: Speak up! You mumble too much.