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A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.
The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.
Finish the job, Mr. President!
Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]
CJN podcast 1400 copy.jpg
Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!
Oh, I forgot to mention this quote from Pete Hegseth, reported by Roger Kimball: "We are sharing the ocean with the Iranian Navy. We're giving them the bottom half."
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Red Leather Suit and Sweatband Edition
And I was here to please
I'm even on knees
Makin' love to whoever I please
I gotta do it my way
Or no way at all
Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click
One day I'm gonna write a poem in a letter
One day I'm gonna get that faculty together
Remember that everybody has to wait in line
Oh, [Song Title], look out world, oh, you know I've got mine
US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
AI is doing a lot of the work in analyzing images to find the exact hiding place of the launchers. Counter-strikes are now coming in four hours after a launch, whereas previously it might have taken days for humans to go over the imagery and data.
Robert Mueller, Former Special Counsel Who Probed Trump, Dies
“robert mueller just died,” trump wrote in a truth social post on march 21. “good, i’m glad he’s dead. he can no longer hurt innocent people! president donald j. trump.”
Canadian School Designates Cafeteria And Lunchroom As "No Food Zones" For Ramadan
Canada and the UK are neck and neck in the race to become the first western country to fall to Islam [CBD]
CJN podcast 1400 copy.jpg
Podcast: Sefton and CBD have a short chat about Iran, the disgusting SAVE Act theater, Mamdani's politicizing of St. Patrick's Day, and more!
[A]n asshole is somebody who looks at a painting of two toddlers doing something totally normal for toddlers and decides that it represents homosexuality and then thinks that publicly saying that is somehow edgy and clever. Instead it is doing what we accuse the Left of, that is sexualizing young children. If that describes you, own it.
Muldoon
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« How Is Bill Clinton Like Yasser Arafat? | Main | Optimistic State Poll Numbers »
November 01, 2004

Oliver Willis, You Are Now Officially My Bitch

WARNING: Utterly self-serving. You probably shouldn't bother reading any further. This is between me and Filet-O-Fish.


I just got the certification from the state Department of Corrections. According to this document duly executed by Governor Pataki, I am now entitled to punk you out for Marlboro Reds, "Odub," if I should so choose.

And, of course, I will so choose.

I want to thank all the bloggers linking me, and all the readers coming here to put up with my abject stupidty and desperate longing for attention. Although I started blogging to start getting some of that crazy blog-money I'd heard about (by the way-- many thanks!), and to find some way of getting a screenplay sold, the main, proximate impetus for beginning this blog was reading Oliver Willis.

I could not believe this talentless, thoughtless hack was not only getting traffic, but the occasional mention from newspapers. True, the mentions tended to be from college papers and the various free presses that no one reads, but still.

"How can this idiot be getting read, while I'm just sitting here trolling for porn?" I thought to myself. "If that idiot is getting so much unwarranted attention, can't I get some unwarranted attention, too?"

The guy just isn't funny. And I mean that. There are some guys who you don't laugh at but you're not ready to say they're not funny-- they just have a different sense of humor. They're too dry, too "witty," too whatever. You would just say, "Okay, I don't find him funny, but tastes vary."

But Willis actually has a similar sense of humor to mine-- third-grade-to-middle-school playground taunting and rank-outs, plus a lot of stupid pop culture references.

It's just that he's... not good at it. So I'm pretty confident when I declare that he is, in fact, not-funny, and always has been not-funny.

Anyway, it took a lot longer than I expected, but I've finally beat him in both important categories simultaneously:

Ahead in links (in Playful Primates).

Ahead in traffic.

So, "Odub," still worried that by linking this tiny little blog you'll give me some of your scary-big traffic?

You should know I've got big plans for you, Ollie. I think I'm going to keep you as my main bitch, rather than just punking you out for speed.

I will make you the top ass-clown in the Travelling Ace of Spades Psycho-Sexual Circus, and you will be forced to perform unspeakable acts on monkeys, elephants, and maybe some pumas, if I can find some pumas.

They're hard to find, pumas are. Try looking. See? No pumas. We live in a virutally puma-free environment, sadly enough.

And then I will grab your skinny, weak, mantis-like arms and force you to slap yourself in the face, all the while saying "Why are you hitting yourself, Ollie? Stop hitting yourself! Please, for the love of everything holy, stop slapping yourself!"

Okay. Now for the big game: Marshall and Sullivan.

Trickier. Much trickier. I actually should probably set my sites lower, but I don't know any idiots that are about halfway between Willis and those two retards.

Thanks again to all the bloggers and readers who have helped make this dream of mine come true.

Yeah, I know. It's not really much of a dream. It's pretty pathetic, when you think about it. One could make the case that I'm the douchebag for deciding that beating the likes of Oliver Willis would be my bar for success.

Still-- thanks. It's nice to have even an embarassing, retarded dream come true now and again.

Ironic Acknowledgment: Based on the number of new blogs linking me, I can only deduce that a good sized number of people have the same reaction to me-- "Hey, this guy Ace is obviously a moron, and a porn-obsessed dork besides; ergo, I can easily beat him at his own retarded game."

You're probably right. I don't take it as an insult, though. I think that's how people motivate themselves-- you always need some untalented dumb-ass you can do a better job than to motivate you to try.

OTOH, with me and Filet-O-Fish, it really is meant as an insult. You might think I'm a moron, but you probably have a grudging respect for what I've accomplished with my dimwitted immaturity. I just don't respect Ollie at all.

posted by Ace at 01:36 PM