On Fri, 13 Jun 2003 12:14:57 -0700 (PDT) Cinnabari 
writes:
> 
> > 
> > Heh.  One wonders why the dwarves chose a hobbit to be their 
> thief, no?  A
> > middle-class, well-to-do hobbit, a bunch of 
> poor-but-noble-descended
> > dwarves
> > (at least Thorin was, but I thought the rest might have been, 
> too)... hmm. 
> >  I
> > feel a classist reading of Tolkien coming on.  
> > 
> > darkelf, probably will make me unpopular
> > 
> > ===========================================================
> > 
> > Yep.  Interestingly, to me at least, is that the dwarves rather 
> looked down
> > on Bilbo (weak, middle class, and not really an adventurer) and he 
> rather
> > looks down upon them (not of the Shire, don't you know?).  Neither 
> group was
> > quite the equal of the other, in their own opinions.
> > 
> 
> Ah, the tension between aristocracy and middle class... 
> (oversimplified, maybe,
> but good enough).  And then we have the servant, Sam, in LoTR... 
> complete with
> a 'lower class' accent, to further complicate the mess.  

Nah, that's what every Kindergartener recognizes as "the buddy system"

The convention is straight out of Shakespeare -- who was probably using
an older convention, but I've not studied the older conventions, e.g.
        Lear has his York
        Hamlet his Horatio
        Prospero his Ariel
        Romeo his Mercutio (sp)
        MacBeth had his Banquo (until he off'd him)

and so on.... 
        Crosby had his Hope, too.... =g=
                And cried, don't stop, I want Lamore!

> darkelf, who just loves Tolkien

Sam's my favorite character -- in the books and the movies, 

(and I'm mostly tweaking at chu with this reply -- which is a lot more
fun than dealing with lawyer committee politics) tygress

====
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