I'm curious about a quote that seems to be attributed to someone from this site

Magpie

Magpie

Immortal
I hesitated as to where to post this but, in the end, decided for this board because I truly (at least at this moment) am just curious about the source of the quote and that question seems to be about the 'site'.


http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/casting-the-hobbit

Casting The Hobbit

Alex Ritman

Last Updated: Feb 1, 2011


While casting good-looking chaps and chapesses might be fine for slushy teenage vampire flicks, it seems the world of dwarfs and dragons is a very different kettle of fish. The line-up for Peter Jackson's forthcoming version of The Hobbit is slowly taking shape, with the welcome news last week that Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis will reprise their roles as Gandalf and Gollum respectively. The roles of each of the 13 dwarfs accompanying Bilbo on his merry little quest have finally been filled. But the news that Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of this vertically challenged company, was to be played by an actor with a not-that-appalling appearance, sparked minor fury in the fan ranks.

"So far, the biggest controversy among fans with the casting of The Hobbit has to be the casting of Richard Armitage as Thorin," says Pat Dawson, a senior staff member of the Tolkien fansite TheOneRing.net. Armitage, best known for a major role in the BBC spy drama Spooks, is considered by many to be a somewhat handsome gentleman, and certainly not "grim-faced" as Tolkien described his dwarfs. And it's this that is causing the upset.

"It would, quite frankly, ruin the movie if the dwarfs are portrayed as anything more or less than what they are: short, strong, muscular, slightly over-weight, bearded and 'grim-faced'," one commenter on the site exclaimed. "Authenticity is very important."
Click to expand...

emphasis (bold) above is mine

The attributed quote from TORn is Pat Dawson who is known senior staff member and that part is not questioned by me. But the second quote ... unattributed except as 'one commenter on the site'.. is what I do question.

I initially assumed this was a message board post. But I've tried various sorts of searches and can't find it either on the message boards or anywhere on the domain theonering.net.

Can anyone illuminate where this quote is from?
 
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2010/12/08/41237-the-%E2%80%9Chobbit%E2%80%9D-cast-is-looking-good-really-good-oooooooh-yeah-realllllly-good/

It's a reply by someone named "Nathan" about 1/4 of the way down the page.
 
Although the comment is otherwise decent.

I never realized that stories on the home page can receive comments until last year, when I pointed a serious Tolkienist acquaintance to one of squire's essays there. My correspondent observed that while squire's analysis was very interesting, the discussion which followed demonstrated precisely why he avoided message boards -- and I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I read the comments, which were not at the level of discussion on the boards, at all.
 
I also tried plugging the quote into google but the article I linked to mispelled Dwarves (although Nathan didn't). But even shorter versions of the quote weren't giving me results.
 
Yeah.. I've got a slight problem with comments made like this (either on the front page or on the message boards) as representing the voice of the fans. I scanned the comments on that article and it seemed to me it was running about even between the people who thought Armitage was a good choice (or were willing to trust PJ knew what he was doing) and those who disliked the idea. Why is only one side presented then? I want to get a sense that the reporter has made an effort to read lots of comments in lots of venues and maybe even ask people for their opinion.

I am not going to rehash what I think over and over again. Does that mean what I think falls out of potential sampling. But if a reporter came on and said, 'Hey guys... I want to know what you think', I'd tell him. If you walk into a town meeting and only listen to the people who are first to stand up and talk... you aren't going to get a good sampling of opinions.

But that's the kind of stuff that happens and I don't think we can do much about.
 
who paid attention to what Tolkien had to say on the subject. For those of us who pronounce "fs" as "vz" it's a bit tricky keeping it straight. Note too that he did not capitalise "dwarves" (another point, for my part, where inconsistancy is the norm).

Since they changed the spelling of one of his words I'm surprised the editor didn't use [sic] to indicate this. Now that would have been funny!
 
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