Here's my 2nd reading response about the Hobbit. It's kind of about my irritation about how the narrator breaks the story by telling you information and tell you about a situation's urgency, then cuts it off.
Joshua Barsody
Reading Response 2
"No time now!" said the hobbit. (p178)
I have noticed that the narrator has a habit of inserting things to point out that there is a hurry. Inserting offhand comments into the story to try and convey an extra sense of urgency of the situations in the part of the story being read. I find it to be frustrating and annoying- actually making me somewhat angry at the story for disrupting the flow to say something like:
"There is no need to tell you much of his adventures that night, for now we are drawing near the end of the eastward journey and coming to the last and greatest adventure, so we must hurry on." (p187)
Really? If it wasn't important, why even bother drawing our attention to something unnecessary? Why not just skip it? Get to the important and urgent parts we want to read. The same goes for the "as you will see." Like when Bombur doesn't want a safety rope, "Luckily for him that was not true, as you will see." (p207) We don't need to be told what to look for. Even young readers will pick things up- not all readers, but I feel this is a redundancy in the book. It would've been just as effective and just a bit less condescending to leave the "as you will see" off.
"That leaves you just ten minutes. You will have to run," said Gandalf.
"But-" said Bilbo.
"No time for it," said the wizard.
"But-"said Bilbo again.
"No time for that either! Off you go!" (chapter 2 online version)
They become speed bumps in the road and serve to knock one out of the story. It becomes such a pain. Here's a great example, and in fact the one I had the biggest issue with, "As a boy he used to practice throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and even birds, got out of his way as quick as lightning if they saw him stoop; and even grownup he had still spent a deal of his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand, bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort-indeed he could do lots of things, besides blowing smoke-rings, asking riddles and cooking, that I haven't had time to tell you about. There is no time now." (p158) If there wasn't time now you wouldn't have wasted an entire paragraph mentioning things that aren't at least a bit necessary.
It feels like a cheap way to direct attention, but it is more of a distraction. Information that could've been threaded through the book in small spurts gets skimmed and shoved into a small note, and promptly written off. Hey here's a bunch of information I could've told you earlier, but I forgot- so here it is, oops wait- no time for that now!
"No time now!" cried the raftman. (p188)
The story should provide ample evidence of dire circumstances, we, as readers, shouldn't need to be reminded constantly. It deprives us of the discovery and experience that is occurring in the story. I mean really, what's that old advice? Show, don't tell.I would've liked to tell you about how I searched for the quotes, and how the class is discussing various things, but there's no time for that now.
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