Week 06: A Rich Fantasy Life - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (6 pts)

  This week I read an all-time favorite, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was a complete pleasure to move away from my computer and grab one of my copies of book and dive into a world that always seems to comfort me. The Hobbit is not just a story of a stubborn country bumpkin going off into an adventure. It is a story that explores self-discovery and acceptance when confronted with tough situation that tests one self. Which is one of the reasons why I never miss a chance to go back and experience once again with Bilbo how it feels to leave your comfort zone and grow a bit as a person.

As I am writing this, the class discussion on The Hobbit has already passed and one of the comments has kept me thinking and re-examining my favorite fantasy tale is the one discussing about the female representation in this story. As a female reader who has read and watch the saga so many times it surprises me how I never came to question the representation of females in this story. Especially after weeks of discussion during class on how females have written through the years. After much analysis and thinking I must admit with a heavy heart on how there is not a lot of great representation of women in this book other than Lady Galadriel who of course plays a big part in the entire saga but is a also just a side character or an oracle. 

Tolkien seems to not have been quite interested in involving a strong active female character to the tale of The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings. But knowing all this I do not seem to mind. The reason for this is because I believe that our main characters are in a way very gender neutral in the sense that the actions they do or their way of thinking is not tied to gender in any way. The story is not about a group of men going off on a adventure to find treasure and defeat a dragon but as I said before a story of self-discovery. The way Tolkien writes always seems to concentrate on his characters as people rather than the gender they are and how their actions are chosen because of it. I can easily imagine most of the characters to be female and nothing would change much. But I may be saying this because of how much I love this book and how much I can relate to Bilbo as a fellow Hobbit who currently hasn’t left her home at all for more than a month. 

    Either way as I said before I had so much fun going back to face Smaug and feelings myself change with Bilbo who is one of the characters I find most relatable in any type of literature and media. There is something comforting of having a protagonist who is not perfect from the very beginning and admits how wrong they have been. This book is a comfort book of mine and I will continue to be happily biased.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 11: Cyberpunk & Steampunk - Short Stories

       Cyberpunk has always been a genre of interest to me ever since I was little. As I may have mentioned before I love the science part of sci-fi and for some reason the world of cyberpunk in general makes perfect sense to me. The idea of us being so obsessed or reliant in technology that we literally make it part of our body. When you think about it, we are currently not far off from a cyberpunk future as we all slowly grow addicted to social media and almost every bit of information about ourselves are stored in a database. Also let’s not forget that some people do have electronic parts to keep their body running. We may not live in the world of Ghost in the Shell but we sure are close. Which brings me to explain my reactions to reading a few short stories for this week which are “Fragments of a Hologram Rose” by William Gibson, “Rock On” by Pat Cardigan, “Johnny Mnemonic” by William Gibson and “Tales of Houdini” by Rudy Rucker.   Let’s start off with “Fragments of a Hologram Rose
Read more

Week 01: Goth - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (6 pts)

     The book I read this week was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley which is known to be a classic in not only gothic literature but in pop culture. Little did I know the different themes and points of view I would be exploring from what seems to be a simple narrative that is everything but simple. The world of Frankenstein is not only mysterious but haunting as we get into the perspective of not only Viktor but the monster. A surprising twist that makes you question what is right or wrong. What is the difference between nurture and nature? Would the monster have stood a chance to live in society if he was not abandoned? Or is the nature of the world to judge all that is deemed unnatural? As a reader, you are impacted by many elements known in gothic literature such as the feeling of fear and mystery that emanates from the gloomy setting and specific descriptions. These elements force the reader to feel the dread that Frankenstein feels as well as the monster. It’s because of this type of
Read more

Week 08: Contemporary Urban Fatasy - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

       The Graveyard Book is not your usual young adult book which features edgy characters and talks about some sort of teenage rebellion. The story actually feels like a more complicated children’s book. What I mean by this is how the Graveyard Book feels like a series of short stories that teaches you different perspectives and idea just like a children’s book. I feel like Gaiman really wanted us to get back into the mindset of a child and see the world through that lens. By doing so the reader is able to see how the different experiences that happen in each chapter shape our young protagonist and how certain things we mortals care about mean nothing in the end of the day. Reading this book felt like I was a child again as I was being raised by the Graveyard with Bod. Bod I believe is one of the reasons this book was such a delight to read as well as a learning lesson. Most of the times in books I feel like the protagonist is just there to be used by the reader but is not seen a
Read more