All he needs is the love of a good woman

[altariel]

I rang my mother yesterday to let her know I was OK; mother is in her mid-seventies and vaguer even than me. Anyway, she hadn't been in the least bit worried (I suspect she has no idea where I live in relation to London) so we talked about The Fellowship of the Ring, which someone had got for her on DVD. Mother has made various attempts to read Tolkien (which my dad adored) over the years, and not really got much past the bit about the mushrooms.

So did she enjoy it? It was "very violent". Well, yes, it is - I suppose that's because it's about World War 1. "Is it about WW1?" I think you could make a case for that... "Oh. Does Gandalf live?" Sort of... (Didn't much want to get into an involved explanation.) "I did like that young man." Which young man? "Frodo. He has very expressive eyes."

Yes, my friends, my seventy-five-year-old ma appears to have a crush on Elijah Wood. I moved on quickly. A little time was then spent explaining that there are two more films to sit through.

Comments

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Yes, my friends, my seventy-five-year-old ma appears to have a crush on Elijah Wood.

Well, she's certainly not the first - and only - one. *grins*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-D It was... an unexpected quarter!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I suspect the violence and expressive eye quotients both increment with each film.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*snorts drink up nose* I wish I'd said that to her.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yes, my friends, my seventy-five-year-old ma appears to have a crush on Elijah Wood.

And why not?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Cos Viggo's sexier.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

And Andy's sexiest.

Did you notice from steverogerson's journal that we saw several Ents in Sherwood Forest? All much more convincing than anything Peter Jackson produced. I want a Campaign for Real Ents.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Any piccies?

Our back garden turned into forest - I'm sure I saw a couple of Huorns lurking around.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

One particularly dark-looking one could well have been a Huorn. Sadly, Steve didn't bring a camera. They were mostly what the Forest Centre called stag-head oaks (presumably because sometimes the branches look like antlers) and I call blasted oaks (but apparently it's nothing to do with lightning, they just go like that as the heart rots and starves the upper branches).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hoom hom!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Or hoom (http://www.boldoutlaw.com/images/stagoak2.jpg). Or hom (http://www.boldoutlaw.com/images/03sher4.jpg).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Haroom!

[archbishopm.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAGGGHHHHH STOP IT.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Don't be hasty.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Calm down. They're Ents. Not Ewoks.

[archbishopm.livejournal.com]

I do not have a mortal fear of Ewoks. I just feel they bring down the tone of the otherwise subtle and sophisticated Star Wars franchise.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That made me laugh so much it unnerved the cat on my lap.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

As I said in my non-rave review, Now Is the Winter Of Our Discount Ents.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

::groan::

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Cough Weaving cough.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Prefer him in drag.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Or a hundred of him in matching tasteful black dresses.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

I made several attempts at reading LotR that never got beyond Bilbo giving his stuff away, so I think your mum's doing well. Glad she's enjoying the films.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

You shouldn't let that first chapter put you off. The tone is very different from that of the rest of the novel. (In fact it's much akin to the tone of The Hobbit, which Tolien had written for children rather than adults.)

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was when I was a kid - I have read the whole novel since. I still find the first chapter the most accessible, though :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I've tried a number of sneaky ways over the years: the radio play, three book editions to lessen the pain, artwork. Didn't think the films would be her thing at all.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

I persuaded my mum to see Fellowship with me as an act of bonding, although she normally has an aversion to anything fantasy or sci-fi. She called it 'stunning' when we came out of the cinema. Eventually she forgot, and went back to not liking fantasy again.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm like that with westerns. I don't like them - except for the ones that I've seen.

[kathyh]

my seventy-five-year-old ma appears to have a crush on Elijah Wood.

Just shows you're never too old!

My 79-year-old father (though he must have been 78 when he watched it) said it made no sense to him - obviously the Elijah Wood factor didn't work on him.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

And not even the Cate factor? Or Liv?

[kathyh]

Sadly no. I think he was only watching it so he could tell me he didn't like it *g*. It's all part of an ongoing argument we've been having for at least 35 years on the merits of fantasy literature in general and Tolkien in particular.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-D

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Cool!

[archbishopm.livejournal.com]

That's sick. Sick and wrong.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

She hasn't seen 'Two Towers' yet, maybe her allegiance will switch Brad-wards.

[(Anonymous)]

My thirty-five year old soon-to-be apartment mate spent much of his first viewing* of FOTR telling Frodo to grow a pair and get on with it. :D It'll be interesting to see what he makes of TTT...

Dwim

*See my rampant optimism at work. 'Tis only the first viewing!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

telling Frodo to grow a pair and get on with it. :D

*snort!*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I was surprised mum complained about the violence since she's been known to sit through some really strong stuff without a blink. I think it might have been the orc faces and so on that did it.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Particularly Theoden's transformation.

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I think your mother must be secretly related to mine. (She's 79.) She shook her head and said it was all very confusing....

[altariel.livejournal.com]

On previous attempts mum has complained about the names: both oddness, and profusion for single individuals.

[kerravonsen]

I'm afraid that my father (who read the whole darn trilogy onto tape for us when we were kids) didn't manage to sit through the movies because the fast-moving flying camera work (for things like that scene at Orthanc) made him dizzy. And he didn't like the changes from the book.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

my father (who read the whole darn trilogy onto tape for us when we were kids)

Wow, do you still have the tapes? My dad did some recordings of comic verse for us; I don't know where the tapes are now, and I think they were reel-to-reel, I doubt we could play them.

[(Anonymous)]

Likewise -- they were reel-to-reel; even if we could find them, we couldn't play them. Ah, the ephemeralness of data formats! Give me a stack of papyrus any day!

[metamorphosa.livejournal.com]

OH, to have something of INTEREST to put on a reel-to-reel!!! My 8??? grandad who lives a mile away STILL has hit reel-to-reel thingie (what IS the proper name??) that every now and then we have to suffer through. Though I can assure you it CERTAINLY wasn't as fab a topic as LOTR!!!