75 reasons why you should read “The Hobbit” before watching the films

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St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. In ancient times ...
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. In ancient times ...

Starting September 22nd, 2012 thetolkienist.com will host a series of articles from experts, artists and fans why you should read J.R.R. Tolkien’s children’s book classic, The Hobbit, before watching the upcoming film trilogy by Peter Jackson with a first film premiere on December 13th, 2012. It is an ongoing project supported by 75 people from all over the world who would want you to appreciate the unique story that is The Hobbit.

For a very simple reason: Reading a book is an experience that is very different from watching a film. Whereas literature leaves mental pictures open to the individual imagination of any reader a film draws in its audience by presenting pictures in a (hopefully) very creative and fascinating way. Therefore, if you watch the film trilogy by Peter Jackson first you will -in all probability- not be able to come up with your own pictures but will be stuck with his interpretation and that would be great loss for any reader of this wonderful book.

What this series is not

This series is not about telling you not to watch those films – not at all. Peter Jackson and his team have proven over the years that they are passionate, creative and successful film makers whose works rightfully deserve to be watched. However, due to the simple fact that this website hosts this series you may expect very clear statements about this topic from people who have J.R.R. Tolkien’s works first and foremost in mind.

Who is behind this series?

This series has been planned and organised by the Tolkienist, Marcel Aubron-Bülles. Any inquiries should be directed to him at marcel(at)thetolkienist.com.

Participiants’ List

  1. Brian Sibley.
  2. Verlyn Flieger.
  3. David Bratman.
  4. Chris Seeman.
  5. Tom Shippey.
  6. Colin Duriez.
  7. Guglielmo Spirito.
  8. Jonathan Fruoco.
  9. Douglas A. Anderson.
  10. Dimitra Fimi.
  11. Michael Drout.
  12. Thomas Honegger.
  13. Paul Vigor.

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Marcel R. Bülles

Marcel R. Bülles is the author of thetolkienist.com, a specialist blog centering on worldwide Tolkien fandom, geekdom and research. For more than twenty years he has worked as a freelance translator and writer and is the founder of the German Tolkien Society as well as a co-founder to RingCon, the first ever film trilogy convention. You can find him in cafés all over the world sipping an espresso blogging, writing, reading. At one point he was married to an extremely lovely French lady by the nickname of Sauron. Yes, that Sauron. He is also active with the International Tolkien Fellowship on Facebook and the Tolkien Folk on Instagram.You can support his many ventures, including the weekly, all things Tolkienian newsletter, the Roving Ranger, via crowdfunding with Steady.

5 Responses

  1. Bywater Bob says:
    25. September 2012 at 19:51

    Marcel,
    This is a wonderful idea. I eagerly await the posts.
    BB

    • Marcel Aubron-Bülles says:
      27. September 2012 at 17:02

      Dear Bywater Bob,

      many fellow Tolkienists have been talking about this for quite some time and I suggested we should do a small project out of it. If we can get people to read the book/s then I am more than happy!

  2. Troels Forchhammer says:
    30. September 2012 at 13:16

    I really love this idea and all of the articles so far. Good work!

    I notice that as of today (September 30th), David Bratman’s article from September 28th has not yet been listed under “The articles so far” – as someone wishing to direct others to this series of posts, it is of great value for me if such an internal directory is kept updated.