47. He’s Just A Gross Little Guy!

All about Gollum.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Gollum. For all
the high adventure, heroics great and small and world-shattering consequences
and much more that exists in Tolkien’s legendarium, arguably the most
fascinating character he created in the end is his most racked, ruined and
miserable, first encountered as a mysterious slimy creature living and lurking
in a subterranean lake with only one thing of particular value to his name.
Tolkien’s introduction of both Gollum and a magic ring into this world was, to
borrow a phrase from the narrator of The Hobbit, a turning point in his
career, the more when as he embarked on the writing that would result in The
Lord of the Rings he realized he needed to rethink and redo the original, much
more comically grotesque version of Gollum into a being living out any number
of emotional and physical extremities at once. Arguably both this
transformation and then the incorporation of this version of Gollum into his
grand story became something he never quite got over, based on his various
reactions over time as seen most clearly in his published letters on the
subject. Why might the strongest scene for the entire Lord of the Rings be the
simple gesture of Gollum tentatively reaching out to touch a sleeping Frodo on
the way to Cirith Ungol? What is it about Tolkien’s self retcon of what Gollum
is at heart that is fascinating still? Does the unspoken backstory of Sméagol
and Déagol’s relationship suggest deep waters indeed, and how did Tolkien
regard them both? And did Gollum really eat babies in the end or was that just
something dreamed up by dirtbag elves?

Jared’s
doodle – just
waiting on some fish as the endless, timeless years stretch on…

Was there rain? There was
rain.

The HarperCollins Union strike looks to be over! Here’s a press
announcement.

Like we said, rumors, no more, about
Embracer and Warner Bros. Who knows.

The BBC Repair Shop story is a treat.

Just hanging around Tolkien and
Gandalf in Warsaw.

Lord of the Bins! Well,
good luck.

Gollum’s touching of Frodo’s knee should be portrayed more in fan art, but
maybe we’re not looking hard enough. But there is this at
least.

All letters quoted taken from the standard Letters of J. R. R.
Tolkien
collection. The letter to Eileen Elgar quoted later in the episode can be
read in full here.

Our episodes on Sam Gamgee and
the Red Book of Westmarch.

Andy Serkis’s retelling on how he first considered the Gollum casting can be
found in both the movie documentaries and his own book on the
role.

Admittedly that Cat in the Hat
fish is a punk.

Grendel? Fascinating and monstrous
character…but not Gollum.

John D. Rateliff’s The History Of The
Hobbit breaks down
the history of the book from manuscript through its later editions, including
the abandoned early 1960s rewrite.

The Third Man is a great, great
film.

Were the elves spreading stories of atrocity
propaganda? Well…

Serkis himself sees
Gollum through the lens of addiction, but the evidence that Tolkien
himself had that in mind is scanty at best.

The David Foster Wallace
piece in question – one of several on tennis, his favorite sport – is “The
String Theory.” (The exact quote: “It’s the sort of love whose measure is
what it’s cost, what one’s given up for it.”)

Déagol, shadowy and still
crucial.

Yeah sure, Midsomer Murders,
but really it’s about Rosemary &
Thyme as we say. And we do
want that TV series we dream up.

Goofus and Gallant
forever. If you like.

How associated is the phrase ‘unstuck in time’ with Kurt Vonnegut? Quite a
bit.

And go go go Everything Everywhere All At
Once! Surely it
can win everything.

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