Now, to kick off this blog we will start with the fantasy to
end all fantasy novels- well in my opinion, it has a special place in my heart.
J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937) was the opening text to kick off before his Lord
of The Ring trilogy. His readers were introduced to the world of Middle-Earth,
where we witness hobbits and elves and trolls and wizards and dragons all
inhabit this land. Now, as we can see, Middle-Earth has absolutely no likeness to
our world. This presents us with the theme of high fantasy fiction. Brian Laetz
and Joshua J. Johnston state in their article What is Fantasy? how Tolkien pioneered
the high fantasy genre. High fantasy can be differentiated as it is completely
otherworldly, with little to no connection to our actual society, separating it
from low fantasy. I characterise The Hobbit as more high fantasy than juvenile
fantasy as Tolkien appears to mainly create a sense of adventure, rather than
to teach his readers a lesson. Laetz and Johnston continue their discussion on
the definition of fantasy by saying:
“fantastic narratives are fictional action stories with
prominent supernatural content that is inspired by myth, legends, or folklore.
Further, this content is believed by few or no audience members and is believed
by audiences to have been believed by another culture. Moreover, it is not
naturalized, solely allegorical, merely parodic, simply absurd, or primarily
meant to frighten audiences. These are all important elements for a definition
of fantasy, though the relations they bear to one another might be debatable.”
Not all these elements have to be as present as each other,
yet they are all there, which allows readers to differentiate what mode of
fantasy a novel is. The Hobbit is a classic depiction of high fantasy, as it
appears Tolkien wants to instil fear in his young readers, which is created by
the setting of the unknown.
www.spotern.com
This leads us on to how food is working within this text. My argument and analysis stems from the scene in chapter two, when Bilbo and the dwarves stumble across some trolls who attempt to eat them. We are first introduced with the description:
www.spotern.com
This leads us on to how food is working within this text. My argument and analysis stems from the scene in chapter two, when Bilbo and the dwarves stumble across some trolls who attempt to eat them. We are first introduced with the description:
“Three very large
persons sitting round a very large fire of beech-logs. They were toasting
mutton on long spits of wood, and licking gravy off their fingers. There was a
fine toothsome smell. Also there was a barrel of good drinks at hand, and they
were drinking out of jugs. But they were trolls. Obviously trolls.” (39)
Now, if Tolkien first presenting us with these beasts as they are about they are about to chow down on meat purposefully not to get his readers to have an- oh no!- moment, than I don't know what foreshadowing is anymore. The scene continues as the trolls complain about eating "mutton yesterday, mutton today...never a blinking bit of manflesh" (39), which surely would get his readers screaming "RUN" at the page. Once the trolls have captured the dwarves, Tolkien continues: "three angry trolls...sitting by them, arguing whether they should roast them slowly, or mince them fine and boil them, or just sit on them one by one and squash them into jelly" (42-44). This is a perfect depiction of how to use the fear of becoming food to entice a child reader, as they would be the ones scared from this description, imagining themselves in this terrifying situation. Tolkien's way of describing just how the trolls could kill and eat the dwarves engrains the image further, by using descriptions of methods that readers associate with cooking, therefore an image of a dwarf being squashed like jelly is highly visceral.
Overall, my analysis of this scene in The Hobbit supports how I believe food used in high fantasy fiction can be used as a tactic to create a certain emotion. In this case it is generally fear, as the reader is not familiar with the world, putting us more on edge. I'd like to sign off this post with a clip from the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which visually depicts the scene just discussed. Enjoy!
Emily
Laetz. B. & Johnston, J. J. "What is Fantasy?" Philosophy and Literature, vol. 32 no. 1, 2008, pp. 161-172. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/phl.0.0013
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1975.
Warner
Bros. Home Entertainment. ""Trolls Cooking Dwarves"- The Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey- Available March 19". Youtube, Youtube. 20th Feb
2013, Web. 12th March 2018.
This post reminds me very much of what we spoke about yesterday. It's one of the most persistent tropes in children's literature: sadism. There's this inherent interest and repulsion in reading about what it would be like to be eaten, to literally become food. I personally have never enjoyed reading about stuff like this, but I have to agree it's hard to look away! I like the image of being crushed like a jelly bean, it shows real body horror but also disgust and/or anxiety with food itself as well as the cooking process. I'm not sure why a child would be afraid of food or cooking, as they're probably left out of the process for much of their adolescence. Maybe then it's the fear of the unknown, which ties to the fear Tolkien is trying to create, as the readers are introduced to an entirely unknown realm that for all it is fun and beautiful is also dangerous.
ReplyDeleteThis post really gives me the hebie-jeebies. I have never read nor seen The Hobbit, but I am thoroughly and equally enticed as I am afraid. Associating words like "roast," "mince," and "jelly" with humans is completely chilling, especially handed with the fact that we don't know this world and it is entirely possible they do so. There is no more effective way of creating a beast in literature than to make them revel in eating humans -- it's terrifying to imagine the food we eat and prepare could be us. Ughhh! --Great post!
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