Corey Olsen's Silmarillion adaptation!

So following on from their "Riddles in the Dark" podcast, the good people over at the Mythgard Institute will soon embark on a giant, hypothetical Silmarillion adaptation. My understanding is that they will be hosting a new podcast and will discuss how each chapter or scenario could be brought to to life on the big screen. I wanted to let you guys know because I'm sure there are quite a few people here who might have some good ideas and who might like to contribute.

See here for more details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MV5wAxNIco

I liked Corey Olsen until he began to bend over backwards to defend the Hobbit Movies. but it's still a good idea.

Olsen's mental gymnastics could net him a gold medal at the Olympics.

or a job in my eel wrangling shoppe

Oh yes, I'm not a fan of Olsen's take on the hobbit movies; I just thought this could be a chance for purists to have their voice heard

I did attempt to contribute to a previous Mythgard purism discussion.  Olsen and one of his fellow Mythgard scholars were going to have a big purist vs revisionist debate (Olsen on the revisionist side of course), and his opponent posted on her blog asking for suggestions for strategies to use in the debate.  I left a really long comment but, as I expected, it was never approved to appear publicly.  I didn't listen to the actual debate but I'm pretty sure it was a lot of people talking past each other because the designated purist seemed utterly clueless based on her pre-debate comments.

In short, Corey argues that the Hobbit films are excellent adaptations.

I am going to argue that they are bad movies.

See, it’s important to know how to evaluate an adaptation. It won’t do to base its worth on how close it sticks to the original, because form changes content, medium changes message. I believe that any work must be judged on its own artistic merits.

https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/crowdsourcing-the-hobbit-smackdown/

PROTIP: saying that TH is a bad movie is not the same thing as saying it's a bad adaptation.  And how the fuck are you supposed to "evaluate an adaptation" if you don't compare it to the original?  But this is pretty much what I expected given that this person is an English professor.

I was trying to find the actual debate and I stumbled upon this post about Olsen that I heartily agree with (particularly point #2), although I stress that unlike this blogger I was never an Olsen fan.

https://aussierebel.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/why-corey-olsen-harms-tolkien-studies/

#rekt

That was amazing. I hope Olsen reads that.

Hahah...ummm about that blog which you linked to Eldo...

As for the debate...yeah it wasn't particularly good. Olsen's opponent was full of non-sequiturs and Olsen tends to speak over people in any case.

Haha, it's a small world after all.

Very impressive blog, THA.

Yah, who woulda thought...

thanks!

I still maintain that it isn't possible to adapt the sil, not least because the published version is only semi-canonical, it would in effect be an adaptation of an adaptation.

I'm not familiar with Corey Olsen's work, but from what I've heard about his podcast it seems more a case of jumping on the hype bandwagon about the films, than a serious attempt about 'Talking Tolkien', I could be wrong.

Olsen has been around for long enough that his stuff pre-dates The Hobbit's hype train. He writes more for a mass audience than for people already deep into Tolkien studies, but I think there is worth in that. His lack of references to other scholars (among other things) is worrying, though. As for his position on the movies, I have no reason to believe he isn't genuine, but his approach to analyzing the movies and his attitude towards those that disagree with him are both highly problematic.

I found his actual podcasts on The Hobbit book, chapter by chapter to be overall an enjoyable and engaging listen.
Which makes his approach to the films all the more baffling to me.

Eldorion wrote:Olsen has been around for long enough that his stuff pre-dates The Hobbit's hype train. He writes more for a mass audience than for people already deep into Tolkien studies, but I think there is worth in that. His lack of references to other scholars (among other things) is worrying, though. As for his position on the movies, I have no reason to believe he isn't genuine, but his approach to analyzing the movies and his attitude towards those that disagree with him are both highly problematic.

How can you call yourself a professor without citing sources from other scholars. It makes it look like you're trying to be the "be-all-end-all" if you don't.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I found his actual podcasts on The Hobbit book, chapter by chapter to be overall an enjoyable and engaging listen.
Which makes his approach to the films all the more baffling to me.

I found them enjoyable too. They were well produced and actually contained some insight. Nevertheless as Eldo says, his approach to the films (and to book-fans or "purists") is very condescending. As I wrote in that blog piece, his ego very much centres everything he does and he rarely entertains debate among his podcast co-hosts.

Hey guys, for those of you who would like to listen in or participate in this Silmarillion project:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/18943852485381378

It would be great to get some perspectives from people here on the podcast!

There is also a forum:

http://mythgard.org/forum/index.php?categories/the-silmfilm-project.5/

Interesting project- I haven't registered so could only look at the limited info in the forum- is it a fan project? A Kickstarter? Just for fun? What about copyright?

It's a fan project yep. Just for fun, they are discussing a completely hypothetical Silmarillion tv project.

I think it would be interesting to get some "purist" voices heard there - because I could see this as an interesting arena in which to challenge Olsen's view of adaptations, which is basically the revisionist one *1000. There are so many fascinating issues around adapting the Silmarillion (I don't ever think this could or should be done for real).

Thanks Trans- I may well register and bring some purism to the table

let us know how that pans out

TranshumanAngel wrote:Hey guys, for those of you who would like to listen in or participate in this Silmarillion project:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/18943852485381378

It would be great to get some perspectives from people here on the podcast!

Have you contributed to Olsen's podcasts before, THA? I'm curious how that would go given your disagreements with Olsen on certain issues.

Anyway, I've struggled to get into the whole world of podcasts, almost solely because the idea of just using my computer to listen to someone talk for an hour (or three ) is really off-putting to me. All the chat and asides don't interest me as a newcomer, and like most people I read faster than a normal rate of speech. Is there anywhere one can read about the Silmarillion TV idea instead of listening to it? I kinda feel like it's an idea that's doomed to fail before it even starts but if I'm trying to be fair I should learn more about it first.

TranshumanAngel wrote:There is also a forum:

http://mythgard.org/forum/index.php?categories/the-silmfilm-project.5/

I didn't know there was a Mythgard forum, although it looks like it was just started. How much more is there that's hidden to registered users only?

A short and (sorta) to the point summary of the project here, which appears to be condensed from the video on the first page.



Turns out this was less than an hour away from me. Was like $100 to get in, though.

Fair enough Eldo. I'll be keen to see what the come up with anyway. No doubt I'll disagree with a lot :p also, I have been in a couple of his mythgard classes and yes I've interacted a couple of times on the podcast. I pointed out the bizarre lengths he was going to make excuses for the DoS in his reaction podcast. I can't remember what he said, more or less that his theory of adaptation was correct and that purists shouldn't be so, well, pure.

Anyway in posting this I just thought some people might be interested. But you're right- it could get really tedious really fast.