On an entry a couple days ago, Tanja suggested "It would be interesting if you kept a LotR diary or something similar where you would compare the book and the movie. Just your random thoughts. Many people have compared the movie and the book, but I have never seen a comparision made by someone who saw the movies first."

Sounds like a great idea, say I. So without further ado:

Musings on Book One of Fellowship of the Ring

Plenty to talk about here, though I imagine many of the things I'm going to point out could easily have been made by someone who had read the books first. Of course, because lines from movies often stick in my mind more readily than lines from books, I suppose I have a slight advantage, as it would therefore be easier for me to pinpoint the source of narration and dialogue as I read for the first time. I think that to keep references to the books and movies straight, the book titles will be prefixed as "Book!Fellowship of the Ring" (or B!FotR) and the movie titles as "Movie!Fellowship of the Ring" (or M!FotR, with M!FotR:EE indicating the Extended Edition). Mmm, acronyms.

Spoilers assumed for both versions of the entire "trilogy."

I guess the first character I should mention is the obvious Tom Bombadil. I'm struggling to think of why on Middle Earth people were getting so up-in-arms about his removal from the screenplay, as he really didn't strike me as being terribly vital to the story, with the possible exception as being vehicle to gratuitous hobbit nekkidness and blatantly obvious super-gaydom. In fact, so much of what I've read so far seems so drawn out and superfluous. I would probably feel very different and much more territorial and protective if I had read the books first, but having seen the movies first, it's much easier to appreciate Peter Jackson's nerve and ability to look through the book and ask himself "Is this vital to the plot? What is this supposed to contribute to the story? Could something else fulfill this same role?" Without it, M!FotR would probably end up being about 15 hours.

And interestingly enough, I've come to realize as I make my way through the book that the film is actually surprisingly close to canon. Tolkien's story still gets told. It might be Gollum muttering the incantation of the Barrow-wight or Treebeard speaking the words of Tom Bombadil (I'm now curious as to what Treebeard himself has to say, now that so many of his movie lines are revealed to have come from Tom.) or Gandalf imparting to Pippin the description of Frodo's dream of the Grey Havens, but the words are still said. The "shortcut to mushrooms" is not the only easter egg Jackson offers the fans.

I was positively gleeful when I found the words of M!RotK!Pippin's "Steward of Gondor" song in one of Bilbo's old travelling songs, then noticed that in M!FotR(:EE?), Gandalf and Bilbo in turn sing one of Frodo's walking songs ("The road goes ever on and on". (Edit: Oh, wait. The song was Bilbo's first. Well... Gandalf and Bilbo sing it in the movie, and Frodo and Bilbo sing it in the book. So there.) I just love what the movies do with the songs I've seen so far. "Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go" is amusing (or slightly depressing, given your reading) in book-context, but I think M!FotR:EE Pippin's modification was a great improvement over the ending of Tokien's version in the new movie context, i.e. sung while very, very drunk. "Better than rain or rippling brook/There's a mug of beer inside this Took!" *loves* I adore all the songs the book has to offer, and I'm sad to see so many of them go for the movie. Though I'll probably have more to say about this when I see Legolas bursting into song.

I grinned at Fatty Bolger's cameo in M!FotR, as he was practically a bigger character than Merry in Book 1 of FotR. Hanging around with Alicey has gotten me in the habit of watching movies with captioning; I don't think I would have noticed it otherwise. He's one of the guests Bilbo greets at the party, and interestingly enough, one of the few hobbits that didn't look totally stereotypical and overblown in Hobbitness. I marvelled at the "Concerning Hobbits" scene in M!FotR:EE, as none of the hobbits Bilbo describes really look like real people until you get to Sam, who is a bit of a surprise in comparison. Probably because he was one of few hobbits Bilbo wasn't making fun of. *shrugs*

I'm not yet sure how I feel about Arwen taking Glorfindel's place. Yeah, it works, and it's one less (fewer?) character to introduce, and it's nice to have a bit more female representation following Goldberry's removal from the script, but as I'm still a book newbie, I'll keep my mouth shut on matters I haven't read enough about.

And I've now written way more than enough, so I'll close this chapter of Priscilla's LOTR Diary-Thing and return when I've finished Fellowship. *goes off, humming M!FotR:EE!Merry and Pippin's drinking song*