Re:Tove Jansson's criticized illustrations of The Hobbit
by galaxyLogic on Monday March 02, 2026 @05:08AM
(#47215935)
I inhaled Lord of the Rings on first reading. I lived inside it. And it had no illustrations except maps, right? But later when the movies came out they were a big disappointment for ne, they were not the world I had visited. And they were boring. Had I not read the books before, they might have been just fine.
Re:Tove Jansson's criticized illustrations of The Hobbit
by YeGoblynQueenne on Monday March 02, 2026 @07:25AM
(#47217127)
Yeah, the (Peter Jackson) movies were basically LotR seen through the lens of decades of D&D and Warhammer Fantasy, a peculiar aesthetic which of course grew off LotR itself.
I'm guessing that Tolkien would have deeply hated it all with a burning passion.
Being deeply embedded in that culture myself, I must admit that these illustrations don’t appeal to me at all, and don’t match my mental imagery of the story. But I can see how they might have looked like a perfect fit to someone who read The Hobbit with a fresh eye when it was still fresh. I wish I could have read it like that.