Re: TTT EE is a fantastic improvement

In rec.arts.books.tolkien Bruce Tucker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote

:> Why were they a stone?  That is my question.  They did not tell
:> the Ents anything they did not know before.  Why would the
:> appearance of two Hobbits suddenly motivate them to go to war?

: Talking to Merry and Pippin got Treebeard thinking about things in ways
: he hadn't before. Each party grew, so to speak, from the encounter.

I honestly do not see that in the book.  Treebeard is thousands and
thousands of years old.  A brief encounter with two hobbits is
not going to change him.

: It wasn't that the Ents needed someone to tell them what was happening
: or what needed to be done, they just needed something to wake them up,
: someone to prod them into being a bit hasty for once in their lives -
: but to be polite enough about it so as not to offend. Patience and
: politeness in such matters weren't exactly Gandalf's strong suit, so the
: hobbits were a better choice in that regard.

It was not a hasty resolve, according to Treebeard.  The hobbits
did not "prod" Treebeard.  They just asked questions, and were
not trying to convince Treebeard of anything.  As written,
the book really does not make a convincing case for why the
Ents decided to go to war just then.

Stephen