My name is Kelsey Till, and I am an English Education major. I’m guessing that you can gather from that information that I love to read, which is part of my reason for taking this class. The first time that I was exposed to the Lord of the Rings was a couple of years ago when a few friends of mine who are obsessed with the books and movies sat me down on three separate days and had me watch the three extended versions of the movies. They were horrified when I had told them that I knew nothing of the movies or books. I remember that when I watched the movies, I was overwhelmed by the amount of names and places, and the length, but I was also amazed and entranced by them. I wanted to watch all of them on the same day because I itched to know what happened in the next movies. I thought that Frodo was a weak, flaky character and was given too much credit for what he did. Most of the time when the camera focused Elijah Wood (Frodo) doing something stupid or rash (which soon became inevitable throughout the movies), I just laughed.
My name is Lukas Gill and I am a Technology Education major in my second year at Buffalo State. I first became a LOTR fan because of my younger brother. He had read all of the books in middle school and begged me to take him to =======see The Return of the King when it came out in theaters. I didn’t want to feel lost while I was watching the movie, so I decided that it would be beneficial to me to sit down on a rainy afternoon and watch the first two movies with him. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed the movies and found myself looking forward to going to see the 3rd one when it came out. A few weeks later, we went to see The Return of the King and I was hooked. >>>>>>>
<<<<<<< Anyways, I asked for the extended versions for Christmas this past year, and watched them with my brother, which was exciting getting him to share in the wonder of them with me. This summer I first read the books (which I had been planning on reading anyways), and am now in the middle of “The Hobbit” and was surprised by how much of the storyline was omitted when the books were done in cimatic form, but also was impressed by how much important information was included, and also the incredible cinematography and the choice of actors, etc.
In this class, I would love to discuss some of the major themes in the books, including the nature of evil, and also the portrayal of certain characters in the movies as compared with their portrayal in the books.
I do confess to being a huge fan of the Harry Potter series, and am proud of it! I was first introduced to these books when the first one came out while I was in fourth grade, and I remember my fourth grade teacher reading it to us and in fifth grade my teacher doing a similar activity. I recall arguing about the pronunication of Hermione’s name. I feel proud that I was involved before the whole “Harry Potter craze” was introduced and it became “popular.” I have many fond memories of reading the Harry Potter series, and have read them all numerous times. The night that the seventh book came out, my friend Elizabeth had a Harry Potter-themed party at her house and we all dressed up as characters. I was Ron Weasley, one of my favories, and pinned my hair up and sprayed it orange, and wore a maroon sweater and my dad’s jeans. When I walked into her house, her mom mistook me for a boy. We all went to Barnes and Nobles to get our reserved copy, and I spent that entire weekend reading it, even giving up a trip to Canada with my family because I didn’t want anyone ruining the ending for me. For the fifth movie, my friends and I also went to the midnight showing, which was extremely exciting. I feel like my generation, and especially my age level had grown up with these books, especially since the characters were the same age as us. I am thrilled that I was a part of the Harry Potter world and one of those crazy people who gets together with friends to play Quidditch. (We really did, just a watered-down version that does not include brooms).
I immediately noticed, especially while reading the Lord of the Rings books, the overlapping of these books and Harry Potter. I wondered whether J. K. Rowling “borrowed” anything from these books, as there were many points when I exclaimed to myself, “Wow! Definite Harry Potter deja vu right here!” Gandalf was like an alternate reality Dumbledore, or vice versa. I think that my fascination with both the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings definitely stems from the fact that I am an avid reader, and one who enjoys these specific kinds of epic fantasy novels.
However, I have never found myself interested in the Harry Potter series at all. I started to read the books in middle school when I saw that the majority of my peers were interested, although I never really made it past the first few chapters. I guess I didn’t have the imagination necessary to become a true fan (which sounds ridiculous considering the fact that I had no problem diving into the LOTR trilogy).
For me, I am more of a movie lover, and I feel that I would be more interested if the films were studied more than the books. I have never been much of a book reader and feel that I can dissect and critique movies with the best of them. For some reason, movies always seem to capture my imagination much better than a book because I can see the scenes unfolding right in front of me instead of having to create them myself. Also, I like to be able to put faces to characters and appearances to locations. I’m sure this will catch some heat from those people who feel that there is nothing better than a good book, but for some reason I just can’t dive into them as easily.
Lukas Gill? August 28, 2008, at 07:38 PM >>>>>>>
