Claire writes: I wanted to let you know about the launch last Friday (28th November) of Dr Dimitra Fimi’s new book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, published by Palgrave Macmillan.
The launch was held at Cardiff University, where Dimitra is an associate lecturer. First a good number of university staff, current and former students of Dimitra’s, family, friends, guests and media representatives gathered in one of the university’s lecture theatres. Dimitra was introduced and gave a half-hour talk on her book. She explained that it’s an exploration of the evolution of Tolkien’s mythology within the framework of its cultural and historical context. Continue reading “Dr Dimitra Fimi’s Tolkien Book Launch Report”
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From AICN: In late October, as part of the Chicago International Film Festival’s Closing Night festivities, Viggo Mortensen got himself a Career Achievement Award just before a screening of what will now be his next film to be released in theaters, a strange film that examines the fluid definitions of right and wrong–a movie called GOOD. Set in the early days of the National Socialist moment in Germany, GOOD centers on a professor who wrote a harmless novel years earlier that inadvertently is serving the Nazis as a justification for their theories of racial purity and the killing of the Jewish people. The book serves as such a great inspiration and blueprint that the professor is elevated up through the Nazi ranks almost without any ambition on his part to do so. Now that the adaptation of THE ROAD has been moved into 2009, GOOD is being pushed as Mortensen’s shot at an Oscar for 2008. It’s a quiet, understated performance about a complicated man, who is both far from flawless and far from guilty. Viggo Mortensen Drops Hobbit Hints
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From Pieter Collier at GTC Roadshow AG: GTC AG, a Swiss based company, announces the acquisition of the second most expensive Tolkien book ever sold; a signed Hobbit bought from Peter Harrington¹s for £53,000 setting a new benchmark for a signed book.
The book was inscribed by Tolkien while staying with Jack Bennett, a friend and former colleague from Oxford. J.A.W. “Jack” Bennett (1911-81) succeeded C.S. Lewis as Professor of Medieval & Renaissance English at Cambridge. Continue reading “Signed Hobbit Goes for £53,000”
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From Wired.com: Whether your fantasy hotel is a Star Wars -style cave dwelling or a Hobbit hole in New Zealand, specialty accommodations around the world will fulfill your nerdy needs. Other hotels geek out with crazy gear, from Apple- and Microsoft-themed suites to virtual golf courses….Woodlyn Park is home to Billy Black’s Kiwi Culture Show, with sheep shearing and a dancing pig. But the real star of the complex is The Hobbit Motel, two polystyrene-block units with circular doors built into a hillside. Geek factor: You can pretend you’re a hobbit.
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Annarep sends along a selection from Empire’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of all time.
Aragorn makes it to # 31: Like Gandalf, Aragorn undergoes considerable development across the Rings trilogy, but it’s in Return Of The King that Aragorn must confront his destiny, and ergo that’s when the character has most to do. Mortensen owns the part by this stage, and reliably provides great work in a monumental role that requires as much quiet expression from his eyes as it does from being able to swing a sword
Gandalf makes it to #28: It’s quite a transformation for Gandalf across the span of the Rings trilogy. Sure, leading the charge down to Helm’s Deep at the end of The Two Towers took some beating, but it’s in Return of the King that Gandalf the White reallygets it together – and not just sprouting wisdom in the quiet bits. Between temporarily deposing the deranged Steward (Denethor), whipping the army of Gondor into shape, and occasionally breaking out the staff to up a can of whupass on a few orcs, he’s pretty much the whole action thing covered.
Gollum is #13: Similarly to Yoda, our first fascination with Gollum is with his appearance and his strange speech pattern (as well as being a digitally imposed character), but as the second instalment of Lord Of The Rings progresses, it becomes apparent that he’s not one person, but two. It’s all galvanised by one fascinating, heartbreaking, classic scene, but Serkis’ performance continues to consistently display the demented halfling’s highly volatile state.
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