![]() ![]() It’s not always unintentional or “naive,” as Susan Sontag wrote in the 1964 essay that popularized the term, but can take pleasure in a kind of “too muchness,” an extreme quality in the aesthetic that the work can’t really hold without showing its own lack of realness. There’s not an easy consensus on what is and is not “camp” (it tends to be a “you know it when you see it” kind of deal), but it’s predicated on a subjective engagement with a piece of work and an awareness and love of excess and artifice, which coalesces into a sensibility and aesthetic that is transgressive or outside the realms of conventional taste in some way. The Lord of the Rings movies are campy, and that makes them great. The abstract idea of power itself has a visual language to play with, and the stranger and more unusual aesthetic moments of the films makes them better movies. But rather than detracting from the films, it makes them deeper and more interesting more complex movies about artifice and openness. Revisiting the trilogy as an out queer adult made the seams more apparent. The universe created by Tolkein and brought to life by Peter Jackson had no stitching that I could see. The ents and oliphants were tactile and fantastical, its elves and hobbits beyond reproach. When I watched The Lord of the Rings with my mother growing up, it was a sincere, real transportation into the world of Middle-earth. So each Wednesday throughout the year, we'll go there and back again, examining how and why the films have endured as modern classics. ![]() Could she have provided the same help had she come to Rivendell? I doubt it.2021 marks The Lord of the Rings movies' 20th anniversary, and we couldn't imagine exploring the trilogy in just one story. So your route will have meant going south to Isengard, then north to Lothlorien, then back south. He will have been familiar with Galadriel and that she can help - and frankly, without her help, the quest will have failed. Third, as Galadriel mentions, it may be that Gandalf had intended to go to Lothlorien from the outset. So did he really believe he had an ally in Isengard? And even if he did, it was still the best for as few people to know about the Ring as possible. Second, I believe Gandalf had misgivings about Saruman long before latter openly revealed himself. And what better place to have it than Rivendell? And considering the stakes, a council was necessary. One Ring was a massive threat to the entirety of Middle Earth, and with Sauron back in Mordor, this was no longer the case of simply taking a stroll. I'm wondering if Gandalf had some kind of misgiving toward Saruman, even if he didn't state it or wasn't fully sure, or some premonition from Eru, that caused him not to send Frodo toward the south but instead northeast.įirst, they didn't decide anything yet. Other than having one of the three Elven Rings to protect it, it doesn't seem anything special that could be worth going out of the way for. I mean, other than going through Caradros or whatever that mountain's name is, or through Moria, there was no sensible other way (we can rule out the route Bilbo took in the Hobbit as not only was it possibly goblin-infested again, but that way was also blocked by Dol Guldor, unless they want to go all the way down from the Long Lake down that river and miles and miles down, possibly into Rhun and hostile territory, to the Ash Mountains, which would likely have taken too long, allowing Sauron to break through Gondor by then, not to mention, I think Mirkwood was still unsafe anyway and probably growing more so even than it was when Bilbo went through, unless he went way around, which would take even longer and also go too near goblin territory.), that the best route, seemingly, would be again to head near Isengard, which they could have done earlier anyway, as I mentioned, so going to Rivendale seemed out of the way in the long run. While I'm getting the impression that Gandalf would have left immediately with Frodo and not even bothered to go to Isengard if he'd had a strong enough inkling that the Nazgul were out already and looking for the Shire, I'm still thinking that Rivendale is an odd route. The much quicker route, and, it would seem, as far as Gandalf knew, safer route, would have been to go toward Longbottom and the Gap of Rohan and ultimately cross the Misty Mountains there, where, as far as Gandalf knew, at least he had allies present in Rohan and Isengard, and cross the Anduin from that way (basically where he crossed in the end of Fellowship anyway but instead going the opposite route that the company, sans Frodo and Sam, went in The Two Towers. I see that Gandalf recommended that he go to Rivendale, but that seems out of the way if he wants to ultimately go to Mordor. ![]()
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