LOTR, Enid Blyton, HP movie

[Sam Brown]

Catherine wrote:
> I agree with you about LOTR.  I always skip the songs.

I'm so glad to hear that other people do this - I felt really guilty 
when I started to do it! I struggled through all of the songs in the 
Hobbit, but when I moved on to LOTR I just gave up on them.   

Tabouli wrote:
> JKR is much wittier and more accessible than Tolkien, and her 
setting, style, characters and plots are very different.

I agree, particularly in terms of dialogue. Some of the dialogue in 
LOTR just sets my teeth on edge because it's so... well, I'm not sure 
how to describe it, but y'all know what I mean. It's that fantasy 
type speech that really, really annoys me. Tolkien isn't too bad, 
though - at least he falls short of using thous and thees, IIRC. 

Tabouli also wrote:
> Though I suppose being derivative of Billy Bunter and Enid Blyton 
is rather less dignified than being derivative of Tolkien...

I used to love Enid Blyton so much when I was little kid! The Faraway 
Tree, the Wishing Chair, Mr Galliano's Circus, Willow Farm... I'm 
feeling all nostalgic! Unfortunately, I find the books pretty twee 
and very 'English' now - but, IMO, there's no disputing the fact that 
EB definitely deserves her place in children's literature. Confession 
time: when I first started reading EB, at the age of 7-8, I initially 
thought she was a man. I'm not sure why... Enid isn't exactly a 
masculine name!

Heidi wrote:
> I'm going to see the Harry Potter movie next month.

Me too! But not until November 28th... *grumbles about lucky 
Americans and Brits*. It seems bizarre that it's next month; I can 
remember when the first trailer came out circa-March and 
thinking, 'man, it's so long until the Harry Potter film comes out!' 
And now it's not! I second your 'Woo hoo', Heidi <g>.

Sam
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