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E-Mail of the Month
For whatever reason or limitation on my part, I now realize that whenever I went back into Tolkien's world via the book, I also went back into the universe as I understood it as a child, without adding all the layers of experience and learning and loving that have enriched the intervening years. Jackson's deviations, the dissonance, the resonance (a few things I think he got better than JRRT!), or just the change jarred me out of that. Now I am seeing the book and its meaning in a whole new light...
The Best of November, 2004
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THE LORD OF THE RINGS
E-MAIL OF THE MONTH: DECEMBER 2004
The Best of November
This
page was created on January 7, 2004
This page was last updated on
May 31, 2005
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E-Mail of the Month
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 Edited by
Pastor Greg Wright
hjpastorgreg@hotmail.com
The best of November's mail bag: Maureen Stewart's comments regarding Jeffrey Overstreet's guest column, Lost in Jackson's Translation.
A few days short of her fiftieth birthday, Maureen is a grandmother of two, a mother of three, and has been married
for 30 years. She's a secretary by profession, and an avid reader,
particularly of the Inklings and those authors that influenced them. She claims to have a very disorganized mind which makes connections
between ideas that others might not see (much to many people's amusement
or confusion, as rumor has it). She's contributed four essays (concerning her unusual connections between Lewis and Tolkien) to the Special Guest section of TheOneRing.net.
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As the Hollywood Jesus LOTR coverage (including this particular column) has wound now to a close, I had thought to leave a collection of the best bits from the thousands of emails I've fielded over the last several years. There have been many memorable moments, such as the time one reader let me know I was a long-winded fool—and the message was so brief as to make it impossible to reply, "Who are you calling longwinded?"
And then I got this email from Maureen. Sometimes we get so caught up in being critics we forget that there's been an awful lot to be grateful for while on this long road we've taken. So I'd like to leave you all with Maureen's words, and let my keyboard fall silent... Except for that last little bit coming December 14!
I have enjoyed watching and reading the unfolding "saga" of Jackson's film and everyone's reaction to it. Mr. Overstreet's article was a beautiful acknowledgement of "The Bible" on which Jackson based his work, and the flaws of that "translation." (I think it would be better to use the term "transposition" as C. S. Lewis uses it in the beautiful essay of the same name—I could write pages about how that dovetails in this situation!) However, I think that we should remember that Jackson's films are another work of "sub-direction," and that the Director is still at work, His Spirit still whispering in hearts everywhere.
I read the books first as a child, and now, more than thirty years later, after many re-readings, also have experienced some curious effects from the movies. Sometimes, on re-reading a favorite scene, I am disconcerted when my mental picture flickers between the old imagined picture and the newer memory of the filmed image, or I realize I'm hearing the wrong character's voice. So in a way, that is a loss.
However—HOWEVER—there is a far greater gain. For whatever reason or limitation on my part, I now realize that whenever I went back into Tolkien's world via the book, I also went back into that universe as I understood it as a child, without adding all the layers of experience and learning and loving that have enriched the intervening years. Jackson's deviations, the dissonance, the resonance (a few things I think he got better than JRRT!), or just the change jarred me out of that. Now I am seeing the book and its meaning in a whole new light, and myself and the culture I swim in more clearly. Jackson's version, with assumptions so different from my own, made me examine and better see my own assumptions. For that I am sincerely grateful.
I think those of us who are book lovers should remember the Author in whom we all trust, and let Him work. I'll be keeping my eyes open, His wonders to perceive!
There is still a Kindler of Stars and a Kindler of Hope!
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THAT'S All, FOLKS!
Thanks for all the e-mail you've sent about The Lord of the Rings. I haven't always agreed with what I've read, of course—but that's hardly the point! It has usually make for good discussion.
I'll always welcome more e-mail, naturally. Keep them coming...
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