TIW: [Letter responding to Entmoot #1 and Entmoot #2, discussing movie treatment of the books and musical instruments in LoTR with in-line commentary by Greg Shaw]

[page 6] Felice Rolfe, 1360 Emerson, Palo Alto, Calif. 94301 Dear Dave and Greg; Having just gotten and read ENTMOOTS 1 and 2, I'll have to gegin @begin@ commenting almost in the middle of a sentence, as it were; so please bear with my disorganization. On #1: My only "pronounced idea" about the movie treatment of LotR is, for heaven's sake don't let Hollywood do it -- and especially, keep it away from Uncle Walt. Disney knows that schmalts @schmaltz@ sells. -/I still stick to my opinion that Disnew @Disney@ could, if he wanted, do an excellent job of it. I can think of much worse alternatives: what if some hip modern, producer decided it was "camp" and that since it is so in with the college kids and "intellectual" types, a movie version similar to the Batman TV show would be a big success? And what if it were? Or, have you seen those stf kiddie TV shows done with marionettes? That process could be used to make LotR too. Oh, there are far worse villains in Hollywood than Disney./- On #2 Your discussion of Tolkien music is quite interesting. I think the hobbit songs would go nicely with English or Irish folksongs, and so would the songs of Men. The Elvish songs might fillow @follow@ the pattern of 15th century and earlier lute music, perhaps? (I tend to have great respect for the musical opinions of Fred Hollander. He plays the cello. If he is at all good with it, and I suspect he is, he knows music.) There are several instruments mentioned as Dwarvish; on p.28 of the Ballantine _Hobbit_ are listed fiddles, flutes, a drum, viols, clarinets (!) and a harp. It is most unlikely that the Dwarves would be more advanced in musicology ( I hate that word) than the Elves, since their talents seem to run more along what we would call engineering lines. -/But they might have been masters in the manufacture of the instruments themselves./- Greg, when you say that you've translated English songs into Elvish, do you mean "transliterated", or do you actually use Elvish words and Grammar? You should distinguish between them. -/I've done both, as readers of Apa L have seen./- I like ENTMOOT. It's less ambitious and less pretentious than I PALANTIR, and therefore more likely to succeed. I may not have much to contribute to the discussions, but would like at least to watch them.