Day 289: The Hobbit

On many a rainy or cold, snowy Sunday afternoon, I'd lay in my bedroom as a kid reading those pages in my copy of "The Hobbit" in which Bilbo engaged in a game of riddles with Gollum. I read and re-read "The Hobbit" numerous times, but on these days when the wind was whipping outside and the covers of my bed were toasty warm, I tended to skip directly to this passage and take in Tolkien's brilliant words over and over. 

As any great book makes possible, I formed my own visions of Bilbo and Gollum in my mind, and even now if I close my eyes, I can conjure those images up with fairly impressive clarity. It has been more than 30 years, after all. On a really good day back then, I could even convince myself that I knew just how damp and suffocating and horrible the tunnels that Gollum resided in really were. I undoubtedly could feel Bilbo's fear. No matter how many times I read those pages, that fright never seemed to diminish. 

Of anything that I read during those years of my life, "The Hobbit"  provided the greatest escape from the real world. It could transport me to a different time and place like nothing else I'd experienced previously, with the possible exception being "The Wizard of Oz," which when I was young, a kid only got one chance a year to see on television. "The Hobbit," though, felt more sinister and real. The stakes were much higher. Bilbo's responsibility far greater than Dorothy's. Bilbo obstacles far greater. He had no comrades or confidants other than Gandalf, and Gandalf wasn't by his side constantly for reassuring and positive reinforcement life the Scarecrow for Dorothy. Those who were with Bilbo didn't believe in him and didn't want him around in the first place. Bilbo had everything to prove. I learned a lot from Bilbo's courage as a kid. Better, I learned that a sharp mind can accomplish a great deal. 

I've seen the theatrical trailer for the upcoming "The Hobbit" more times now than I can count now it seems. I still don't know how I feel about it. As much as I loved "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy and as much as I've viewed each installment (ask my wife), I don't hold the same attachment to them as with "The Hobbit." I don't have visions of them in my mind in the same way. "The Hobbit" opened up doors and possibilities and meanings for me, including in the way of entertainment, literature, morality, alternative worlds, bravery, wisdom, etc. Moreover, it provided a great deal of inspiration to start writing on my own. More than anything, though, I fear "The Hobbit" the movie will somehow alter my relationship that I formed with Bilbo and Gollum in that tunnel, somehow changing the fear I've always felt, changing the tension I've always sensed, changing the attachment. Whether that really happens or not, I don't know. I tend to think not. Still, there's something to be said of leaving well enough alone.