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/lit/ - Literature

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630895 No.630895 [Reply] [Original]

Let's talk about Tom Bombadil and another annoying and useless characters in /lit/

>> No.630911

Tom, Tom, Tom Bombadillo,
He thinks OP is a faggot, dip boom billo.

>> No.630915
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630915

>>630911

>> No.630917

Listen to 'On Wingless Balrogs and Tom Bombadil '.
The man clears everything up.

http://www.tolkienprofessor.com/lectures/podcast1.html

>> No.630923

>Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!/ Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

How can you not love him?

>> No.630933

Tom Bombadil refuses to "take sides" in the coming conflict of LotR. When history is occurring around him, he sticks to his little forest, refusing to care about society and anything temporal. This makes him irrelevant.

Tired of hearing he should've been thrown into the movies. He shouldn't have; it would have just made them even more "gay." :P

>> No.630944

>>630933
Because Bombadil is a metaphor for America in WW2. Just sitting around being a massive faggot rather than helping.

>> No.630951

>>630944
What part of America do his songs represent?

>> No.630960

>>630951

the army

>> No.630975

>>630944
But they saved the world almost single-handedly...

>> No.630976

>>630951
His songs represent the carefree attitude of America not giving a shit while millions die.

>> No.630980

>>630975
'erewego.wgh

>> No.630992

Tolkien didn't believe in allegory being applied to his work, so Bombadil's not America. But he IS annoying and useless.

>> No.631004

>>630992
Tolkien claimed it wasn't an allegory and maybe he didn't consciously intend for it to be one, but it's impossible to ignore the obvious similarities to WW2. Lord of the Rings is an allegory whether Tolkien would admit it or not.

>> No.631010

>>631004
You're everything I hate about high-school level literary analysis. Wrap your head around the brave new world of adult-level reading. Just because a person can draw a parallel to some real-life event doesn't mean you have to.

>> No.631026

>>631010
A smart person is always making connections. Just because you read at a 4th grade level and aren't capable of analysis, doesn't mean the rest of us should behave as if we were as dumb as you, just to make you more comfortable.

>> No.631030

>>631010
exactly, you could find an event in history that is that loosely relevant to almost every character in every book ever.

plus, i dont think a character can be truly allegorical unless that was the author's intentions, then its just a coincidence

>> No.631050

>>630992
He called attention to the difference between allegory and metaphor -- the difference being specific authorial intent. He did not dismiss interpretations of LotR. He was pissed at people using the term "allegory" incorrectly.

If the critique had written, "LotR is a metaphor for World War II," Tolkien would have conceded the point.

>> No.631053

I think that Tom Bombadil is a very merry fellow.

I felt like saying that in a sing-songy voice, so it must be true.

>> No.631068

>>631030

It depends on the author. I bet every author, though, has that wonderful moment when you realize where your story has been headed, much to your surprise or the even wilder moment when you look back and say, "Holy shit, this thing has *themes*! When the hell did that happen?"

>> No.631078

>>631050

Would he, now? From his foreword:

>As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical... It was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point the story would have developed along essentially the same lines, if that disaster had been averted.

>The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dur would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.

>> No.631114

he did save merry and pippin from that mean tree....

>> No.631612

Tom Bombadil should have been drowned at birth to save the world from his presence.

>> No.631623

Raskolnikov's mom.

>> No.631628

>>631612

Tom is immortal.
He can't drown.

>> No.631641

>>631628
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

I think if I lived in middle Earth I'd hate life for that reason. I'd probably kill myself the moment I saw that faggot.

>> No.631647

THE EAGLES THAT SAVE SAM AND FRODO AT THE END IS AMERICA.

>> No.631825

>>631078

Yes he would. You skipped the part where he defines "metaphor" versus "allegorical."

Take a look-see.

>> No.631839

I don't like the picture the OP used. Didn't Bom Tombadillo have a yellow hat?

>> No.631840

Tom is immune to the effects of the Ring.
Dude's obviously some kind of god.

>> No.631858

>>631840
Based on the Council conversation regarding him, I'd assumed him to be an anthropomorphic representation of Middle Earth itself.

>> No.631861

>>631840

Listen to this.
>>630917

>> No.632044

>>631840
He's not immune. He just doesn't give a shit.