#aplit14writingthework

Done, it's all done and it's so good, I had a small issue with intro to annotations, but I powered through and did it up real good. I loved the general intro as I found myself being interested as I typed it up. The novel I chose was beyond interesting and writing about it was a breeze. Great book, great author, interesting life, etc.

Ayyyy this is the 4th or 5th post I believe? Well anyways, I had the help of the lovely Piper Lehto and her help assisted me substantially. Without the willpower to finish off my paper I would have finished it the night before it was due like many others. I actually finished it on time and even went as far as editing it! I'm proud of the work I put it in and piper helped substantially

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/12/09/review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-is-better-without-being-good/

If this is really what a college assignment is like then I am grateful that I was able to experience it before hand. I have learned that setting short-term deadlines in vital and that waiting just makes it harder to start. I am nearing the end of writing my first drafts and I just want to be done, but I know I will have to read it through and correct it and then have Mr. Kreinbring look at if I want to do well. Finding the momentum at the end is the hardest, but I know I have to learn how to do it now so I can do well in years to come. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Hobbit; however, if I were to redo this project I would pick a different novel. I would choose a novel from a similar time period or theme as one of the other books we read this year, because the discussions and notes I have from those novels could have helped me. I would have been more keen to certain traits and styles of that time or theme.

Writing annotations for The Hobbit was difficult for me, because I felt that the style of Tolkien’s writing greatly differed from that of Wilde, Hurston, Silko and Chopin. Maybe it is because The Hobbit is an adventure fantasy novel or because it wasn’t written during a movement or renaissance of some sort; therefore, the themes and symbolism aren’t as profound. This lead me to analyze and reflect on the piece of criticism Michael Moorcock wrote Epic Pooh. At first I read it and got a little offended, because he was bashing on The Hobbit by saying, “ The sort of prose most often identified with “high” fantasy is the prose of the nursery-room” (4). From this I thought he was saying The Hobbit was like a nursery rhyme, which he is in a way, but he’s also saying that it is a happily-ever-after story with clearly defined protagonists and antagonists. The more I read and the more I went back and analyzed the book I realized this to be true.

As I am writing the critical file I run into road blocks, so looking up some questions I have online help me figure out what it is I want to say. For example, I wanted to understand why Tolkien includes poetry in his novels and the website http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/10/the-hobbit/ gave me insight on the effect the poetry has on the novel. This website was a reminder that poetry and songs are a historic way to tell a story. This website also compares The Hobbit to Beowulf and discusses how song is used in Beowulf in comparison to The Hobbit. In many criticisms The Hobbit is compared to Beowulf, because of its style and content. 

Enright, Nancy. “Tolkien’s Females and the Defining of Power.”J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Bloom's Literary Criticism. Bloom, Harold. New York NY: Infobase Publishing, 2008. 171-186. Print.