Do you think Gollum is closer to a villain or an anti-villain?

[Deimos]

Another thread cites Tolkien is calling Sam “despicable“. I think very few would agree with his opinion in that matter.

I agree... with you, that is.
I saw that previous post about Tolkien saying Sam is despicable.
I'd like to know the source of that citation. In other words I'll believe it when I read it.

 

[Ent]

I'd like to know the source of that citation. In other words I'll believe it when I read it.

Interesting, sir @Deimos... i'll be looking. (Stuck it on my plate as soon as I read it.)

I do know Tolkien says at some point in one of his Letters, "he likes Sam, but often finds him intolerable" or frustrating or something like that... i'll be hunting that up again as well. But 'despicable' I haven't come across.

I also have to wonder, IF it's really said, whether he's really referring to Sam, or to Sam's actions... which on occassion were 'desipicable' from a certain point of view.

Anyway, this is why I love being here... always being moved forward to search, research, and review..!

"Life is a series of lessons, Watson, with the greatest for the last." (Sherlock of course.)

 

[Muskrat]

Music theory is simply an attempt to describe what composers did in works of genius. It is not a recipe for writing works of genius. I sometimes wonder if the same is true for Tolkien’s theories. He was inspired to write a work of genius and then attempted to explain it rationally. I suspect, that that endeavor is impossible. He wrote better than he knew.

 

[Deimos]

Interesting, sir @Deimos... i'll be looking. (Stuck it on my plate as soon as I read it.)

I do know Tolkien says at some point in one of his Letters, "he likes Sam, but often finds him intolerable" or frustrating or something like that... i'll be hunting that up again as well. But 'despicable' I haven't come across.

I also have to wonder, IF it's really said, whether he's really referring to Sam, or to Sam's actions... which on occassion were 'desipicable' from a certain point of view.

Anyway, this is why I love being here... always being moved forward to search, research, and review..!

"Life is a series of lessons, Watson, with the greatest for the last." (Sherlock of course.)

To be Intolerable and frustrating is not (as you know) anywhere near the damning indictment as being called "despicable".

 

[Ent]

is not (as you know) anywhere near

exactly. 'tis why I must research and see if it's really said. Most uncharacteristic, I find it.

 

[Eljorahir]

An interesting thread regarding Sam's alleged "despicableness":

Tolkien's opinion of Sam Gamgee

I was reading Clyde Kirby's 'Tolkien and the Silmarillion' and came across this; 'I have never known a reader who did not on the whole find Sam {Gamgee} a person to be admired. Yet Tolkien spoke to me about Sam as "vulgar" and "despicable,".... Is this corroborated in any other sources - it...

thetolkien.forum

Sorry, but I had to include...

 

[Ent]

I can’t wait to read the book.

Well, just checked, and we're running into a little delay still, getting the book into the eBook and Hardcover formats.
Was due out possibly in February... but it's looking more like March now.
We're targeting around Marcy 24th... March 25th being "Tolkien Reading Day."

(You're all free to laugh at me... I didn't even know there WAS a 'Tolkien Reading Day.' I guess I just assumed every day was a Tolkien Reading Day.)

Anyway, it will get here... really it will.

And the next book, though still a ways off, will be here sooner than expected probably since we're ahead of the game getting the editing work done.
(Assuming I can get the Appendix for that one written in the next couple weeks, as I'd like to.)

Then I'm off to writing my own stuff at last..! Getting very excited. (Hard on an old Ent...excitement. Almost makes one hasty.)