(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Webcomics characters complete the sentence "I like my women like I like my coffee...."

Bob The Angry Flower and the robot from Diesel Sweeties are my favourites.

Also,
Riddles In The Dark: The two versions on Bilbo and Gollum's riddle game, presented side-by-side with the changes marked.

The original 1937 printing of The Hobbit presented Gollum as willing to bet and then willing to give away the One Ring. After Fellowship was written and Gollum 's motivation clarified (and the power of the Ring, for that matter) , Tolkien went back and changed that chapter in all future versions of the Hobbit, claiming that the original was how Bilbo wrote it in his book, trying to make himself look more as a justified and innocent victim of an irrational Gollum and less as a ring-thief.

EDIT: Clarified the last sentence to make it clear that I'm saying Bilbo was the self-serving editor, not Tolkien. Tolkien just came up with a good excuse to retcon a scene.

Comments

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

Because I have the shirt "I like my women like I like my coffee..." I hear lots of answers like

"Hot and on the table"
"filled with cream"
and of course...
"Ground up and in the freezer"

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

"...delivered on a mule by Juan Valdez!"

[neobitch.livejournal.com]

The page says:

---
In the foreword to The Lord of the Rings (specifically, Section 4, "On the Finding of the Ring"), J.R.R. Tolkien describes an alternate version of the riddle-game with Gollum that appears in Chapter Five of The Hobbit. He even goes so far as to describe Bilbo writing the "fabricated" version in his memoirs, and the unwillingness of Frodo to change it after he learned the truth. In Chapter Two of The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo tells Gandalf that Bilbo told him the "real" story of the finding of the ring, specifically stating that it was not the same story that was in Bilbo's book! Why all this emphasis on clearing up real versus false accounts of this critical chapter in the history of the Ring?

In fact, the "account that Bilbo told the dwarves" of the events is what appeared in the first edition of The Hobbit in 1937. When the character of Gollum was revised (and his history and motivations more extensively explored) for The Lord of the Rings, Chapter Five of The Hobbit was subsequently changed by Tolkien in later editions to reflect the version described in LotR.
---

Now, I love me some Tolkien, so I am awfully biased here, but I fail to see how this change can be seen as J.R.R. "trying to make himself look good" rather than clarifying things for his Gentle Readers -- whom we all know are awfully good at missing subtle details.

He wrote a book. He was encouraged to write more. He did, and his storyline took fuller form, he went back and fine-tuned some earlier details.

I guess I'm just not seeing the point of viewing this so negatively.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I interpreted that phrase as applying to Bilbo—Bilbo was trying to make himself look good with a version of the story somewhat different from the truth.

It's not the first time an author has revised something after the fact, but I like the way Tolkien did it.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I was very amused the first time I read the Foreword and worked it out, actually. (Took a while, because I hadn't read The Hobbit before then.) It is definitely a nice way to do it.

I'd never been able to get the original. Thanks for the link, theweaselking.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

BILBO was trying to make himself look good.

Since "The Hobbit" is supposed to be Bilbo's book, Tolkien's story is that the original wording (it's a gift, Gollum promised it to him, etc) was the way Bilbo wrote it, and the later version is the truth, as explained under duress to Frodo.

Basically, instead of just rewriting the section, Tolkien rewrote it AND explained away the rewriting as a character falling under the influence of the ring and writing that section of his memoirs in a lying way.

I was thinking it was kinda cool, not insulting Tolkien.

[neobitch.livejournal.com]

Ah-hah. My bad, and I apologize. :)

[jirel.livejournal.com]

I too always viewed it as Bilbo trying to make himself look good. Whatever though, it doesn't really matter. Its neat to know what the 'original' story was and what the 'real' story was since we the readers only ever heard the version told to the dwarves which was pretty different.

[jirel.livejournal.com]

I should qulify that as we the readers after the first edition.

[rgovrebo.livejournal.com]

I knew that Tolkien had made some changes to that chapter, and that he made it fit totally within the backstory. I think it's the coolest retcon ever.

I'd never realised the changes were so small, though.

first thing in the morning.

[mckenzee.livejournal.com]

"...like my coffee..." has been stolen, serial numbers filed and reposted to snarkoleptics.