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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Aug 20 2012, 12:18am
Views: 514
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Repeatedly Bilbo “pinches himself”, and slaps and scratches himself, as he tries to think of a riddle. Meanwhile Gollum is “pawing and poking him.”
C. Why all this sudden physicality?
Doesn't this remind you of two kids sitting in the back seat of a car, one fidgeting while the other is being obnoxious to him? Bilbo is being physically nervous, while Gollum is getting anxious...and maybe trying to see just how "nice and juicy" this creature is.
In his distracted and desperate state, Bilbo “even felt in his pocket” – and finds the ring there. He asks himself “What have I got in my pocket?” out loud, but not as a question to Gollum. According to the narrator, “he was talking to himself.” But Gollum takes this to be the “question”, that is, the riddle, he has been waiting for.
D. I find this musing out loud in the middle of a deadly-tense confrontation to be rather contrived and unbelievable. Do you? Why does Bilbo not simply make up a rhyming riddle on the spot, that is based on the ring in his pocket?
Bilbo is so intent on remembering another riddle and being able to say "I've got one!" that when he chances (if chance it is) upon this recently-acquired object which he has totally forgotten about, that three-word phrase is replaced by the seven-word one.
H. Wait… Gollum has pockets? Is this consistent with our mental image of Gollum up to this point?
Good point! Up to this point, Tolkien makes no mention of what Gollum is wearing - or whether he's wearing anything at all. For that matter, what are the goblins wearing? But now it's made clear that Gollum wears some kind of garment which has the equivalent of pockets.
P. As Gollum sits still, “shivering and whispering”, what is going through his mind? What was going through his mind in the original version?
What's going on in his mind now, is hatred-revenge-murder. He wants to throttle Bilbo, no more playing around then killing - like Shelob's response to Sam's attack. But in the original, we have an agreeable, honest Gollum, which would never do for LotR, oh no precious.
X. Although we will continue to explore this subject, what do you feel so far about the way in which the tone and dynamics of the chapter’s plot are changing due to the revision?
This is a bit scarier that what I think someone like Tolkien would read to his boys at night. This isn't pleasantly spooky-scary: this is the dark bogeyman of nightmares.
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"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
"It struck me last night that you might write a fearfully good romantic drama, with as much of the 'supernatural' as you cared to introduce. Have you ever thought of it?"
-Geoffrey B. Smith, letter to JRR Tolkien, 1915
(This post was edited by dernwyn on Aug 20 2012, 12:21am)
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