Storytelling – J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson

September 28, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

Storytelling

Goodreads has a discussion strand with some 400+ comments addressing the following question: What do you think about Peter Jackson adding a new character in The Desolation of Smaug movie?

Peter Jackson is just continuing a storyteller’s tradition.

Oral storytelling predates the telling of stories by writing them in books and filming them in movies by millennia.

The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf and The Epic of Gilgamesh all began their lives orally. And none of them sprang into being whole cloth, that is, complete in their modern form.

One can easily envision someone (Homer?) telling about a love affair. The lovers are given names, Paris and Helen. The following evening he tells of her husband’s revenge. On another evening, in front of another family’s fire, the author makes the characters royalty, one from a kingdom across the sea. And on still another, he adds a story he heard from someone else, a jealous competition among goddesses. Over a period of years, and maybe generations, you eventually get the version we read today.

The thing about oral storytelling is that the storyteller alters his/her story depending on the reaction of the audience. You embellish the parts the audience likes and dispense with, or alter, the parts they don’t like.

Neither writers nor filmmakers go from start to finished product without editing their work. J. R. R. Tolkien didn’t do so and neither did Jackson.

I would imagine that Tolkien added in and edited out a number of characters while writing his saga of Middle Earth. (Aside from creating it in the first place.) Peter Jackson is continuing the tradition—telling a story according to his personal vision to reach those he considers his audience using his chosen medium as he sees fit.

Should the tales of Middle Earth be re-made into movies again in another generation or two, the director will change interpretations of characters according to his, or her, personal vision. That director will also add or subtract characters and change emphasis according to the audience.

And, when Frodo returns to the Shire after his adventures, will it be the Shire of Jackson or Tolkien?

We may or may not like what he did, or how he did it, but by “voicing” our opinions we are continuing the age-old practice of criticism.

If you don’t like Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Tolkien, aren’t you still happy he made the film rather than not? Would we be better off having no film version of Middle Earth, other than the animated tales? Or, think about it this way, if not Jackson then who? Woody Allen? Martin Scorsese? Oliver Stone? Kevin Costner? Ridley Scott? David Lynch? Quentin Tarantino? Lynne Ramsay? Ang Lee? Who?

Personally, I like the addition. A bright, good-looking, kick-ass redhead is an asset to any action movie.

The Instrumentalities of the Night

June 6, 2013June 16, 2013 Joe AuBuchon2 Comments

Several different Mediterranean eras are portrayed in the stories. In the East you have Mamluk Egypt with Saladin and Syria as separate powers. The Byzantine Empir e still exists and there is danger from the peoples of the Eurasian steppes, Huns/Tatars/Mongols. In the West you have the Reconquista and the Gr Tyranny of the Night eat Schism of the Catholic Church. The Holy Roman Empire is attempting to dominate Italy and the Papacy. The Italian mercantile republics are trying to maintain their independence and influence and the Papacy is attempting to reunite the Church and stamp out heretics in France and, of course, destroy the Muslim powers and recover the Holy Land. This is all complicated by politics, family politics, dynastic politics and a coming ice age.

The Instrumentalities of the Night is, currently, a trilogy (The Tyranny of the Night, Lord of the Silent Kingdom and Surrender to the Will of the Night, and TBA Working the Gods’ Mischief) by Glen Cook. The story revolves around one Piper Hecht (Else Tage) in a pre-Renaissance Medieval Mediterranean world where God(s), devils and all other supernatural creatures exist, or can exist. And, as Piper has discovered, can be killed.

A major obstacle to understanding precisely what is happening is the lack of a defined geography. If one has a basic understanding of the medieval Mediterranean world, the major regions are fairly easy to pick out:

Dreanger – Egypt
Al-Qarn – Cairo
Lucidia – Syria
Holy Lands – Palestine
Calzir – North Africa/Barbary coast

Eastern Empire/Rhun – Byzantine Empire
Andoray – Norway/Scandinavia
Grail Empire/New Brothen Empire – Holy Roman Empire/Germany
Santerin – England
Direcia – Spain
Platadura – Barcelona/Spain
Navaya – Northern Spain
Artecipia – Corsica/Sardinia (a single island, connected by an isthmus, because of lower sea levels)
Shippen – Sicily
Arnhand – France
Khaurene – France/Toulouse
Viscesment – France/Avignon
Firaldia – Italy
Brothe – Rome/Papal States
Sonsa – Genoa: “The west coast of Firaldia, approaching Sonsa from the south, was the most heavily settled rural land Else had ever seen.”
Aparion – Venice
Dateon – Pisa

While I might have some of these wrong, as I am now re-reading the series, I believe that it is, for the most part, correct. One must also realize that the Mother Sea (Mediterranean Sea) is land locked. The Escarp Gibr al-Tar cuts it off from Ocean (the Atlantic Ocean). The surface of the Mother Sea is several hundred feet below what we would expect. Because of this it is far less extensive than the Mediterranean Sea and the European, Asian and African coastlines extend quite a bit farther than we would otherwise expect. Hundreds, if not thousands, of cities with millions of people exist in areas our Mediterranean Sea would would cover in salt water.

If you lack a background on the Mediterranean world at this time, and would like some easily readable background, you might try Will and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization series. (Yes, I know there are a lot of books, I own a set, and it’s fifteen million pages long, but each volume has an index and the writing is for the layperson not a dedicated historian.) It will give you a background for all of the “history” in Instrumentalities. For the character and motivations of Sublime V and the other Patriarchs try Barbara Tuchman‘s The March of Folly (the chapter on the Renaissance popes).

In terms of groups of people you have:

Chaldereans – Catholics/Christians
Maysaleans – Chalderean heretics (Albigensians/Cathari)
Pramans – Muslims
Dainshaukins – Jews (Orthodox)
Devedians – Jews
Hu’n-tai At – Huns/Tatars/Mongols

And all of the various nationalities and sub-groups.

In terms of individuals there are dozens of characters with unusual names to learn. A half dozen storylines are active at any given moment and succeeding chapters interweave among them. None of the characters is perfect, including Brother Candle; each has his own virtues, faults and past. Their characters are reminiscent of those in the Black Company books. Moral ambiguity is everywhere; survive at all costs.

Characters

Piper Hecht/Else Tage – Protagonist – Praman captain/soldier (Sha-lug – Mamluk/Janissary)
Anna Mozilla – Piper’s lover/mistress
Pella, Vali and Lila – Piper’s “adopted” children
Muniero Delari – Piper’s grandfather/Eleventh Unknown/Sorcerer
Cloven Februaren – Muniero’s grandfather/Ninth Unknown/Sorcerer
Heris – Piper’s sister
Grade Drocker – Brotherhood of War/Piper’s father

Redfearn Bechter – Brotherhood of War/Piper’s aide
Pinkus Ghort – Mercenary/Commander of Brothen City Regiment
Titus Consent – Deve/Piper’s intelligence director

Johannes Blackboots Ege – Emperor
Lothar – Johannes’ son and heir
Katrin – Lothar’s half-sister/second in line
Helspeth – Lothar’s and Katrin’s half-sister/third in line
Ferris Renfrow – Imperial Intelligence
Algres Drear – Imperial commander and bodyguard

Gordimer the Lion – Sha-lug ruler of Dreanger/Egypt
Er Rashal (the Rascal) al-Dhulquarnen – Sorcerer
Osa Stile/Armand – Sha-lug/Spy
Al-Azer er-Selim – Sha-lug
Nassim Alizarin al-Jebal – the Mountain

Sublime V – Brothen Chalderean Patriarch

Brother Candle – Maysalean Perfect

Starkden – Sorceress
Masant al-Seyhan – Sorcerer
Rudenes Schneidel – Sorcerer
Grimur Grimmsson/Shagot the Bastard – Andorayan sturlanger/viking
Asgrimmur Grimmsson/Svavar – Grimur’s younger brother

There are literally scores of other major and minor characters in the story; as I get the time and inclination I’ll add to the above lists. I’ve just finished re-reading the three books and hope number four comes out before I have to re-read them again. If you find something wrong (please, page and quote for evidence) or would like to add to the above, let me know.

Oh, yeah. I enjoyed The Black Company and Darkwar books. I’m waiting for A Pitiless Rain and Port of Shadows. But, what I’d most like is a sequel to The Dragon Never Sleeps; hands down, this is my favorite Glen Cook book.

6.1.2013

History

June 6, 2013June 16, 2013 Joe AuBuchon

The Future becomes the Present;

The Present becomes the Past;

The Past becomes History;

History becomes Legend;

Legend becomes Myth.

So much of what we know about the Past has become lost in Legend and Myth. And much of it is a mixture of relics, oral histories and should have beens.

Was there a Great Flood such as that survived by Noah? Or was there a memory of a great flood among the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean area that was used by a writer of the Bible to teach a lesson?

Did the story of Atlantis have an actual historical basis, such as, the destruction of the Minoan culture owing in part to the volcanic eruption at Thera/Santorini?

Was there really a Trojan War as told by Homer? There is physical evidence for the destruction of a city at the site where Calvert and Schliemann believed Troy to be.

In The Rise of Rome Anthony Everitt divides his history into three parts: Legend, Story and History. I am finding the Story section to be quite interesting as it is a blend of fact, as we currently understand it, and fiction. How does one decide what is factual and what is not?

Physical evidence does not tell us the whys of things and the voices of those who lived two thousand years ago are long gone. Some of their writings survive, but what writer, including myself does not bring his own preconceptions, biases and desires to his writing? Ferretting out the “truth” is a fascinating adventure.

How will Future treat our heroes and villains, our stories and legends?

What will it make of George Washington and the Cherry Tree as told by Mason Weems? And, how about, tossing a coin across the Potomac? What will people believe about Washington if the Washington Monument and his head on Mount Rushmore survive into the far future but there are no writings or electronic media?

How do you write an accurate history of the 20^th century if the only evidence you have are the writings of A. Hitler, J. Goebbels and, maybe, W. Churchill?

How do you explain the United States in the second half of that century if you have no knowledge of Joe McCarthy, Lester Maddox, Rosa Parks and the Vietnam War?

What will people several thousand years from now make of the 2000 election and its “hanging chads” – I think they’ll have a great chuckle.

Future – Present – Past – History – Legend – Myth. Will the story of the human race continue until it passes the point where we become Myth and that Myth becomes Forgotten?

11.27.2012