Faulty Electrics

[poliphilo]

The thing that was wrong with the boiler was the same thing that was wrong with it in January- the electrics had been flooded with some sort of light, oily, slightly sticky, liquid stuff. The guy in January was mystified. The guy yesterday said it was caused by "the coating coming off the wires". He replaced a part- not the part the other guy replaced- and things are working again.

I watched bits of The Fellowship of the Rings yesterday evening. I don't like it any better than I ever did. Tolkien's book is about the industrialisation of the Midlands- with occasional flashbacks to the First World War- and is the product of a peculiarly English, conservative-romantic imagination.  Peter Jackson doesn't understand the first thing about it- and his film is a coarse, empty, dim-witted travesty. 

Comments

[silveredmane.livejournal.com]

It seems that this is another example of the adage 'Where you stand depends on where you sit'. I'm unfamiliar with the geography and so don't have that same critique.

And, I perhaps give extra emphasis to the note in the preface that says "Belladonna Took was the mother of us all". In the '60s, when I first encountered the books, that was a very significant remark.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The difference between Tolkien and Jackson is that one has a feel for landscape and the other doesn't. Jackson's Middle Earth is just an assemblage of backdrops.

I hadn't thought of Tolkien as being in favour of matriarchy, but I suppose that note shows he was- at least to a degree. On the whole the absence of women from his stories annoys me. If there's one thing I applaud Jackson for it's for beefing up Arwen's role.