Posted on 09/16/2010 10:09:21 AM PDT by Pyro7480
We've learned a lot of quirky facts about Christine O'Donnell. We already knew the Republican Senate nominee abhorred masturbation and believed that looking at pornography was cheating. Well, yesterday, we learned yet more about her view of relations between the sexes – through, of all things, her analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien's work. In a 2003 essay, she wrote about the roles of women in "Lord of the Rings" and argued that Tolkein's female characters offer "insight into what it means to be a woman." But, more importantly, O'Donnell's exegesis gives insight into what she thinks it means to be a woman. Let's take a look, shall we?
She explains that Tolkein's "female characters, although drastically different from each other in personality, manifest at their core, true womanly femininity," and each represents a different female archetype, as she puts it: the "matriarch, princess, and warrior."
...What's most interesting is that, despite waxing poetic about the Middle Earth equivalent of stay-at-home moms, O'Donnell seems to identify more with Eowyn, "Arwen’s opposite." While Arwen is "content to stay at home," Eowyn "feels caged in her role as nursemaid to an ailing king." It's easy to see how this character might inform O'Donnell's personal mythology: "She displays an absolute refusal to watch her country fall down around her while she is doing nothing," she says....
O'Donnell is clearly a determined striver, but it seems she also romanticizes traditional female roles. It's kinda like Sarah Palin claiming to be a regular ol' hockey mom at the same time that she was running for vice president of the United States -- indeed, some are calling O'Donnell "the next Sarah Palin." For now, all I'm comfortable concluding is that she's an Eowyn running on an Arwen platform.
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
“Ents for O’Donnell”
:-}
I disagree; that scene weakened Frodo as a character. Remember, in the book, he faced the Nazgul at the ford alone; his companions dove out of the way of the charging riders, knowing that if the elven-horse Frodo rode could not save him, nothing would.
That scene is about Frodo, on his own, rejecting the evil call of the Lord of the Nazgul to come to them and surrender the ring.
The movie scene puts Frodo, symbolically, into the role of a frightened “child” that must be protected by “mother”.
Forgot to add:
The Arwen of the book, though sheltered by a father who did not want to lose her as he had lost her mother, acted in ways that supported the male characters without either diminishing them or emasculating them.
Well, it’s official.
I now know more about Christine O’Donnell after three days than I know about Obama after three years.
Ah. Wasn’t addressing the effect on the film as a whole, just on Liv’s performance. In context, it is second only to having Pippin fool Treebeard as a desecration of the text and your analysis is right on. I actually whispered this to my son as we watched. He nodded: he’d read the book too (he was 11, btw).
And I have pointed out I belive that Elijah Wood was only physically correct for the part. Frodo was 50 when he had to run for it, not 19. Elijah was too young for the part and could not deliver much in the way of dynamics. He mostly looked like someone was using a taser on him through most of the film, IMHO.
So you could relate to the Helcaraxe, I see!
Tolkein did a nice job of writing for being pretend
“He mostly looked like someone was using a taser on him through most of the film, IMHO.”
Clearly, one of the most nefarious abilities of the One Ring is to give its Bearer a wide-eyed, frightened face throughout 9+ hours of film. :-)
Of course it’s all real; I saw Rivendell, Hobbiton, Rohan, Minas Morgul and Gondor on film between 2001-2003.
You can’t tell ME they were fake sets put up against bluescreen or New Zealand landscape. :-)
But even in the book Frodo needed to be protected by elven magic to cross the ford (with Fashionable Accents by Gandalf (TM))
Did you notice it even worked on Sam? When Frodo asks for the ring back, Sam’s eyes get real wide for just a moment. Thankfully, Sean is good enough to have that been enough, mans up and hands over.
Next shot of Elijah was best in the films: the look of the junkie getting his fix.
Very true
Hey, while you’re swinging the Helcaraxe (sound effects by Mandos), could you tell Turgon’s wife he’s really worried?
I was cheating because my username is from the First Age. It’s from the Silmarillion. I guess the orthodox reaction would be to suggest you would have voted to go over Caradhras. As an elf, of course, I would have just walked on the snow and been a-ok. Woulda felt bad for the periannath, of couse. :)
It’s hubby who has the ring ping list... :~)
Might have to dust it off!
It is, according to God! (Mat.5:28)
Can’t you just see the campaing slogan:
DON’T NEED NO MORALS??
VOTE DEMOCRATIC!!
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