Hi James, I hope you are enjoying your time out west. I thought I would give you the links to my BlogSpot posts, in case you would like to link on your main site:
Taboo Hand
James recommends boxing to any young man who wants to develop his masculinity:
The Taboo Hand
jameslafond.blogspot.com
Cultivating the Elite Warrior in You
Do you have a desire to be counted a dangerous man? If you do not, then your reticence has c...
Crackpot Podcast Episode 7
: LaMano, this one is for you! We discuss The Worm Ouroboros, world building and some of James' fiction. Check the BlogSpot post for show notes and important links:
James and Lynn talk Fiction Crackpot Podcast Episode 7
jameslafond.blogspot.com
Welcome, friends, to long awaited Episode 7 of the Crackpot Podcast with James LaFond and Lynn Lockhart. In this episode, we talk fiction, ...
James LaFond Headquarters
The first three in a series of videos showing James' dwelling, a writer's refuge stuffed with books, research notes and edged weapons, lots of weapons.
James LaFond Headquarters: Parts 1, 2 & 3
jameslafond.blogspot.com
James has invited his readers into his secret lair on Caucasian Avenue in Baltimore. Come inside the Toxic Treehouse, the Yo-Resistant Yurt...
American Empire & The Valley of ...
jameslafond.blogspot.com
Wyman Park Dell Parts 2 & 3 James LaFond and Mescaline Franklin continue their observations of Wyman Park Dell in Baltimore. See the Par...
American Empire and the Valley of... James and Mescaline continue their Platonic exploration of the Wyman Park Dell Civil War Monument.
More audio and video pieces await my post-bedtime editing, rendering and uploading, so readers should stay tuned.
Thanks, James,
Lynn
Oi, you, Lynn!
I heard that! In the interview, you made a bit of a comment about people complaining in the blog about the Tolkien movies not "matching" the Tolkien books, as if they are out of their "comfortable" world of geekism and are worried about what color robes people are wearing in the books vs. the movies.
Well I'll have you know that I'm a proud critic of Peter Jackson's cinematic work, and it doesn't have much to do with the color of robes or needing a comfortable space.
Jackson CHANGED THE STORY to match HIS worldview, and it lessened it! For example, he makes Arwen into a Warrior Princess that can ambush Aragorn from behind, and riding Glorfindel's horse like a maniac, when she was never anything more than a quiet, half-elven daughter of Elrond. Jackson couldn't STAND that women don't appear to be as good at combat arts as men, so he "upgraded" the story so that they are, like women training to be Marine Recon. Just stupid.
AND, because the Men of the West are the last manly men in Middle Earth (as opposed to the flaxen-haired, lissome Elves), he had to turn Faramir into a Neanderthal like Boromir, even though the WHOLE POINT of Faramir was that he had the willpower to NOT be overcome by the power of the Ring.
These things change the whole story, and change it to match Jackson's "progressive" worldview.
I'll bet someone would be a bit pissed if Conan turned out to be bisexual in one of Howard's stories ....
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it ....
LaMano, I concede all your points! I just can't be made to care that much about movies. I do think the original trilogy is as close as you will ever get to a faithful depiction.
Lynn, LaMano,
I noticed these points of unfortunate divergence from the original work.
While staying more faithful to the literary parent story than most film adaptations of literature [For instance, the Conan movies are complete fabrications with very little basis in anything Howard wrote], The Lord of the Rings trilogy does demonstrate the PC culture creep of the time. Another example I would give is The Hunted, with Tommy Lee Jones, from about the same period, that although a story directed against modernity in many ways had some major PC inserts that are glaring today, but were not back when it came out.
To pinpoint the period when Lord of the Rings was filmed as a transitional time in media, just look at The Hobbit "Trilogy" which reeks of materialism by its bloated form and is dominated by such feminist and racial inclusion that I found myself rooting for the orks, cheering them on every time a dwarf bit the dust.