I always liked The Hobbit much more than Lord of the Rings. Aside from the fact that a lot of the action of LotR involves walking from one place to another – a lot of repetition of how the characters unpack their gear, have lunch, then pack it up again – the themes and tone always spoke more to me. The Hobbit is the story of greed, with Thodrin intending to get a lot of treasure and the Dwarves intending to get paid or die tryin’. Bilbo’s motivation throughout the story is to be comfortable; famously, he’s deeply exasperated at being interrupted by the unexpected party in the first place, and he defeats a dragon that acts as a symbol for complete and unnecessary greed, holding onto an enormous treasure for no reason beyond he feels entitled to it.
There is an extent to which I’m responding to this story the way certain men respond to American Psycho – that is to say, incorrectly. Like, I’m not on Smaug’s side, but I do get the motivation behind greed. I wonder how much my class and times affect the way I always interpreted this book; my grandparents were working class English, and while my family is generally agnostic at best, we’ve always had that Protestant work ethic. When I was a toddler, my grandfather built the house that he now lives in; when I was a teenager, he and my uncles built a bar on his property.
Despite inheriting neither aptitude for nor interest in handiwork, I did inherit some of their attitudes; a sense of responsibility to the world, a desire to make things with one’s own hands (in my case, stories), and most relevant to this, a belief in the connection between skills, money you make, and your value as a person (my ability to act upon these values is not the subject of this essay). This all relates to The Hobbit in that I responded quite positively to a story about a guy who goes out into the world, does some difficult things with quick thinking, and goes home with a lot of cash money.
I’m often bothered by hypocrisy, especially hypocrisy in stories; Bilbo is already unfathomably rich by birth at the start of the story, and he goes home even richer than before. A real person happening to make a lot of money in the process of finding themselves is forgivable; if you’re making a story about how money is irrelevant and what matters is who you are inside, giving them a lot of money undermines that. The Hobbit does overcome that by having Bilbo give away a lot of his stuff, and indeed, the sequel helps here by having him much more preoccupied with pranks and books and his own amusement.
I think the main reason I respond so strongly to The Hobbit over Lord of the Rings is because it reflects my actual, day-to-day life more accurately; even as a kid, my attitude towards school was that of a middle-aged office worker, and as an adult, the pretense that I’m labouring for reasons other than money is something I’m really losing patience with. A clear-eyed willingness to do exactly what you’re told with no interest in arguing with the boss is, ironically, something that costs you points at a job interview.
On the other hand, I am interested in this book as a depiction of evil. There are a lot of variations on what dragons represent these days; there’s a post on Tumblr floating around (which I can’t seem to locate) which suggests that a dragon could gain a horde by simply performing duties for villagers in exchange for money. This always annoys me because, while imaginative, it misses the point of the dragon’s horde, to wit: it doesn’t need it and doesn’t want to work for it.
This is especially true for Smaug, and it’s a reflection of the real world evil many of us are having to deal with now. One thing I often see in defence of billionaires is how many of them don’t actually have a big pile of money somewhere but rather have lots of assets, which a) shut the fuck up, and b) ignores how much money they’re draining from other, more valuable assets. Enshittification and destruction of public services is as much the act of a dragon as directly stealing gold. Anger at that is something that exists very visibly in my life.
About the writer
Tristan J. Nankervis
Tristan J Nankervis (aka Drunk Napoleon) has been a writer, pop culture critic, dishwasher, standup comedian, waiter, potato cake factory worker, gamer, TV worker, and various other things. You can find him in Hobart, Tasmania.
Tristan J. Nankervis’s ProfileTags for this article
More articles by Tristan J. Nankervis
"There are other things than smart." / "Yeah, those are not smart."
Year of the Month
Well, it's not realistic. I suppose it's socialist.
Year of the Month
A man's attitude goes some ways to the way his [movie interpretation] will be. Is that somethin' you might agree with?
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Happy Endings, Season Two, Episode Eleven, “The Shrink, The Dare, Her Date and Her Brother”
“No, that’s the title of the movie, That’s The Way It’s Gotta Be.”
“How many times has your grandmother died? You said the same thing about half a club sandwich.”
“Get back here, you gay!”
“Gay? That’s the best you can come up with?”
“What is the point of having white friends?”
“You are guys are so vain. You probably think this sweater’s about you.”
“Don’t you – don’t you dare make that joke.”
“He’s my therapist.”
“Oh thank god! I thought you were actually taking a dance class.”
Eliza Coupe has a lot of fun conveying Jane’s barely concealed rage.
“He touched me here. And here. And I wanted him to touch me here but I wouldn’t. Why wouldn’t he?”
“It’s like being attacked by a rake!”
“No phones sound like that.”
“Shh! Babe, I’m on the phone!”
“Is something she’d only say to you, or something she’d say to a boyfriend, or an on-again-off-again female lover?”
“How do you think Jane would feel about high-waisted jeans?”
“I think she’d have to be high and wasted to wear them.”
“Are hip-hop and rap the same thing?”
“Yes.”
“So socially, he prefers ‘Rick Rickman’?”
“My personal best is a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker, and yes… we were all in one tub.”
“Tell me it wasn’t our tub.”
“I came here to get my vase.”
“That’s mine.”
“Then where did I put mine?”
“Listen, babe, I gotta go into a meeting, I’ll call you back in… about a hundred and ten minutes?”
“He’s my patient, so mum’s the word. That’s what puts him into a deep trance.”
“Does it look like I’m having an emergency?”
“Well, your other sleeve’s on fire.”
“Damn it! Why does this keep happening?”
“Well you’re married. None of them can see your legs. And I know how much you need outside validation.”
“Where’s the fire?”
“Right here, boys.”
“Jane! I thought we agreed to say ‘in our pants’! The fire is in our pants.”
“What?”
“The fire… is in our pants.”
I’m not gonna lie, the poignant speeches that end the episodes bother me. They’re not as bad as in Bob’s Burgers, and obviously they don’t bother me that much, but they do make me ask ‘why do you worry that I’m upset by the implication that these are bad people that don’t actually like each other?’. It feels mostly like a structural thing – a way to end an episode so it’s a reliably entertaining twenty minutes, or perhaps a way to lower the necessary inspiration for an episode (“Okay, we need a conflict, and then an escalation of that, then it goes too far, then they make up”). Certainly writing a novel has taught me that telling a big story is a lot of work, and you find ways to reduce that work without, ya know, plagiarising*. Anyway, my point is that I do actually like the idea of a Dave/Penny pairing that they’re suggesting here.
*Actually the same thinking factors into why I watch shows like this once a week – reduce the number of decisions I have to make over the week as much as possible.
Macbeth
A staging by Bell Shakespeare. Really excellent; it went for a very abstract staging, where the setting was nothing more than a bunch of chairs and curtains behind everything. My favourite part was when soliloquies were underlined with the other actors in the background, moving and talking in slow motion, but there were other things like an intense musical score and very heavy lights (they staged the climactic swordfight in total blood red). Anthony Taufa played the title character, and for once the character wore his crumbling psyche entirely on his face, becoming visibly more desperate and unstable.
“What is the point of having white friends?” A Black friend has said something similar in the context of my not having enough white privilege that she can turn to her advantage.
Live Music – an all-day charity gig featuring my girlfriend’s band, some kinda sludgy metal, an offbeat electronic artist and headliners Irked, who are a great hardcore band I’ve seen a few times now. Was a really fun day, great atmosphere and since we were staying over I got to drink spicy margaritas and do a Flaming Lips song at the karaoke.
Seinfeld, S9 – “The Strongbox” felt like a weaker episode, I was entertained but noticed I wasn’t laughing as much as usual. Elaine’s plot – where she doesn’t care that her date might be married but is devastated when he turns out to be poor – and Kramer’s plot – in which he accidentally kills his neighbour’s parrot and lets Jerry take the blame – definitely feel like further steps towards this show inspiring Always Sunny. Illeana Douglas turns up, which is fun, although I’m not sure what’s going on with her intensely orange makeup.
“The Wizard” was better all round. Some great stuff with Jerry’s parents (that also ties in Kramer briefly retiring to Florida and embarking on a political career) and also, unexpectedly, the return of Susan’s parents who mess with George in hilarious fashion. Elaine’s plot about her racially ambiguous date is also pretty funny.
Ludwig, S2E2 – enjoyed the case-of-the-week more than the first episode, I like that they’re making the effort to make Ludwig’s puzzle-setting background more integral to the crime-solving. Curious where the main plot is going, there are some conspiracy theory bits and I hope they’re going to pay off and not just get overly complicated and pointless, like actual conspiracy theories.
Woooooooo live music! Wooooo sludgy metal and spicy margs!
And George vs. Susan’s parents on that long drive to the Hamptons is one of the best subplots the show ever came up, almost noirish in terms of a guy trying to get out from under and digging himself deeper the entire time. Two solariums! Snoopy and Prickly Pete! It even ends out in nowheresville with a final owning. So good.
“We don’t like you, George.”
I like the noir comparison a lot! It’s wonderful how obviously they see through him from very early on, but he just has to keep digging. Because he’s George Constanza.
THE SEAFARERS–This is the last of Kubrick’s documentary featurettes–although this one goes a bit long at 28 minutes. It’s essentially a film that was shown to new members of the SIU, the union that represented sailors on commercial vessels, and it documents what the Union provides to make lives for it’s members better, in terms of improving salaries, working conditions and workplace sociability. I can’t imagine that Kubrick was working with a much bigger budget here than in his previous docs, but he does get more out of it. He uses camera tilts and tracking shots on several occasions (trademarks of his signature style) and he gets to use color. A key difference between this film and its photojournalist inspired predecessors is that it’s subject is that the collective rather than on the individual, or to be more specific, the corporate gaze of the sponsor–It’s clearly a job for hire and allows for practically no room for Kubrickian introspection.
The Hired Man – Got invited by the director to a small screening of his short crime film, shot in Philadelphia, apparently the start of a mini-series he wants to make. It definitely has some hallmarks of Pilot Syndrome, especially that the story isn’t fully fleshed out and the plot is partly explained through flashbacks. Still, the director described to me how he wanted to make a noir series for a post-2020 world and he nails the aesthetic of an even more isolated, grimmer country than before: N95 masks dangling from car dashboards, small, dingy hostels and apartments. Some good ownage in the dialogue – “I’m using you because I trust you” – and Raw Lieba as the lead is a heavy with a soulful, expressive face. There’s real promise here and I hope he gets to make the rest of the show.
Giancarlo Soresi: Thief of Joy – Very funny stuff. Soresi is great at using his physicality to make the jokes land harder, like when he hides from the crowd as if ashamed of one gag, and he visibly enjoys what he does. “I gave his hand a squeeze…just to remind him about the Venmo request.” “‘Whose dick do I have to suck to get some pussy around here?!'”
Woooo scuzzy crime! An intriguing premise, one thing I’ve been mulling over is how divorced crime has become from the real world and moved online/over the phone, this is something Blackhat really pointed toward and has only become more entrenched. Emily The Criminal was a great update on this.
Yeah, this is something the movie sort of dodges but Philly is still in a semi-analog world in some neighborhoods, especially South and North.
I watched an interview with Soresi recently where the interviewer noted how much he uses the stage, and he replied something like “I’m dancing. I’m not actually good enough to do it at a professional level, so my whole act is a way of getting an audience to watch me dance”; I’ve heard him talk a bit about being a talented theatre kid who turned out to have a high floor and a low ceiling, which I found very relatable and just not something that one hears commented upon very often.
And fuck yeah, Philly noir. It’s a great city for it, always thought there should be more crime stories set there.
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan — I watched the first Trek movie four or five years ago, on this pace I’ll finish the series in 2050. If the first movie’s problem was having the plot of an episode stretched over two hours, this is better-plotted (although not by a whole lot) while mostly losing the awesome visuals of the first flick and only Ricardo Montalban keeps this from being a losing trade. Well, that and the last five minutes or so, where Shatner really brings it. His kid fucking sucks though, what a dipshit.
Adults, more episodes — I understand that Charlie Cox is a guest star and had to get bounced from the show somehow but the way they handle it feels abrupt and weird. Not sure the people I’m watching should be judgy about drug use! I also don’t understand Julia Fox so that part of the episode mostly sat there too. The show is apparently going for some emotional throughlines and not just being Always Sunny: Zoomer Edition, which is fine, but this was a misstep. Still funny though!
The Blackout — Abel Ferrara is judgy about drug use! But he knows what he’s talking about and also depicts it in visually interesting ways, lots of dissolves of Matthew Modine getting fucked up along the way to see title. And then afterward, after he gets sober, because he’s still obsessing over the woman he left behind and maybe murdered, perhaps porno king Dennis Hopper (playing Frank Booth as Bob Guccione) knows the truth? This is not good at many points, the dialogue is pretty bad and what is very weird is the transfer on Criterion looks like a VHS rip, parts of the movie were filmed on video (and there is a lot to do with memory in this regard, Blue Heron prequel?) but reviews refer to 35mm shooting and the parts of the movie that aren’t butt ugly are gorgeous. A weird and sloppy but not false or mailed-in movie, it seems to have been largely written off but there is unsettling stuff here.
The Last Winter — a small group of people in the frozen wastes succumb to paranoia and terror and an unstoppable killer, but the strongest Thing tie in Larry Fessenden’s movie is a sense of doom. Our crew is up in Alaska preparing to uncover an oil well that was mysteriously shuttered 20 years ago but will be re-opened for a big pipeline promising “energy independence” (the flick came out in 2006). Fessenden’s previous film was Wendigo and that creature is still on his mind, but also on the mind is toxic gas leaking into the atmosphere as the permafrost melts and things buried for 10,000 years are released. An extremely loaded cast — Ron Perlman and James Le Gros and Kevin Corrigan, rather amusingly Connie Britton and Zach Gilford just before Friday Night Lights — that fleshes out archetypes, Perlman in particular makes his Evil Corporate Honcho an understandable person. And this provides its own solid ground that weird shit undermines, Fessenden is not Kiyoshi Kurosawa but is working in a similar mode of dread and sense of menace out of the frame. And while the film follows a horror structure the rhythm is stretched and snapped, one expected scene in particular turns on a dime into a much uglier and horrific version of what is expected. But in the end there’s only one thing to expect and Fessenden is bleak as hell about this and what people have or have not done to bring it about. One could argue that it’s been 20 years and the world hasn’t ended; I watched this on Tubi (hooray!) with constant interruptions of commercials for gas-guzzling trucks and energy wasting in every sense of the word prediction markets and gambling apps. So the world hasn’t learned much either.
Fessenden is a blind spot for me, maybe I’ll finally try to fix that now that the sinister season is closing in.
He’s an odd guy who very much has his own vibe. I’ve seen this, Wendigo and Habit. Wendigo was 25 years ago and I remember it being striking but also slow, however it was also in the middle of a 12-hour marathon so I definitely need to rewatch. Habit was great, 90s NYC low-budget that still looks amazing with great vampire stuff, would make a superb double bill with Abel Ferarra’s The Addiction.
Seconding Habit, though his Frankenstein hybrid Deranged wasn’t great.
Wrath of Khan might be the ugliest of all the Great Sci-Fi Classics (unless we count stuff like 12 Monkeys where the ugliness is the point). The Future Is Now? No, the Future Is Beige!
Yeah, it’s just … pedestrian. Not what you want in a space epic! The exceptions are with the Genesis stuff but boy howdy is that whole element misconceived — you can see the writers realizing how a “create life machine” immediately fucks up the prime directive, not to mention a whole shitload of basic ethics (Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is where that line of thought needs to go) so they just handwave it away. We evolve plants, not sentient life! Eh? Eh? Just total hogwash (and in terms of neoliberal analysis this is basically a way to create endless property, what a utopian vision) that should’ve been scrapped entirely.
Without Warning – Twentysomethings in the woods fighting aliens. Not terrible but doesn’t live up the stacked cast. Jack Palance plays a manly hunter with a half-crazed gleam in his eye who helps the teens survive the night. They’re being chased through the woods by a paranoid vet played by Martin Landau. Neville Brand and Ralph Meeker keep the barstools warm for five minutes. Larry Storch is a doomed scoutmaster. The kids are forgettable but a young David Caruso gets it early. This could have been amazing. The main problem is the pacing, too much messing around and running in the woods. But once the final two kids get to the abandoned house and Kevin Peter Hall’s (the Predator in Predator) big, bald alien cranium is revealed it’s pretty great for the final ten minutes. I latched on to Palance and Landau and Dean Cundey’s night time cinematography to get through this. Apparently, this was an influence on Predator??? Sorta, Jack Palance’s line, “He’s hunting us! But he doesn’t know I’m hunting him!” feels familiar.
Have you seen Don’t Go Into The Woods?
What did we play?
Pokémon Snap – Nintendo 64: Nintendo Classics on Nintendo Switch
Played the first level. Struggled with the controls a bit, so I’m definitely looking into the settings next time, but I enjoyed it. It’s pleasant and charming, and you can see a way to play it really low-stakes, or to play it for maximum performance. Either way, there’s a potential here for actual, pretty photography here.
Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness – Capcom Fighting Collection on Nintendo Switch
Played a few rounds. Doesn’t play like any conventional fighter, and it’s definitely on Capcom’s more experimental side, but it’s promising. And it looks and sounds great.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound on Nintendo Switch
Beat the first level with the second, female character. Got into a good groove, and fought a pretty cool boss. It’s been interesting to me that it has its own thing going on and doesn’t really play like the NES NG games. But it just dawned on me this time that if it did play like the NES games, it would be virtually indistinguishable from The Messenger, Devolver Digital’s action platformer/stealth Metroidvania from 2018.
“Enshittification and destruction of public services is as much the act of a dragon as directly stealing gold.”
Hmmm. I guess Smaug does steal gold, but what the book seems to really be down on is the hoarding, not just the acquisition but the greed in never letting go. Which can be turned into its own capitalist metaphor (money needs to be in motion! Smaug, your dollar today is worth more in the market now than under your bed tomorrow!) but also feeds into that destruction of public services and general rage — this is just existing for someone else.
I do quite like The Hobbit even if I don’t find it superior to the later work. But I think Tolkien just doesn’t even notice the class issues you describe. It’s just the way it is that Bilbo is well heeled. I was struck by something similar reading the beginning of C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy. As it begins the protagonist is on a walking tour of rural England and just expects that when he starts to tire he will come upon some farmhouse and they’ll be perfectly willing to put him up for the night. They just see working people as there for their convenience.
Year of the Month updates:
Here’s all the movies, albums, books from 1998 you can sign up for this October!
Oct. 3rd: Gillian Nelson: Movie Surfers
Oct. 4th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Pi
Oct. 9th: Gillian Nelson: Mighty Joe Young
Oct. 13th: John Bruni: High Art
Oct. 18th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Who Moved My Cheese?
Oct. 30th: Gillian Nelson: Halloweentown
And there’s still time to write about any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1937.
Sept. 22nd: Lauren James: Stage Door
Sept. 25th: Gillian Nelson: Donald’s Ostrich
*Thorin