Will 'The Hobbit' Finally Happen?

After the spectacular achievement that is the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, I was expecting that Peter Jackson will start working on the 'Rings' prequel, 'The Hobbit'. However, another battle (very much unlike those fought at Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields) left the possibility of a Jackson-directed 'Hobbit' film as good as dead.

There has been a nasty legal scuffle raging for years between director Jackson and Robert Shaye, New Line Cinema's co-chairman, over unpaid profits and the denial of Jackson's request for auditing of the films' income (which isn't much, only $3 billion dollars - loose change. hehe) . The rift got so bad and too personal that the future of 'The Hobbit' became quite grim.

But if the latest news is true and the two parties are indeed moving towards a resolution, we might see hope for 'The Hobbit' after all. Personally, I'd like to see no other director to work on ‘Hobbit’ other than Peter Jackson. I am quite sure that the books’ millions of fans feel the same way. In fact there are several ongoing campaigns calling for a ‘Hobbit’ film with no other than Peter on the helm.

Peter Jackson has perfectly captured J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision and made it more real for us. I’d love to see Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and others, brought to life once again by Jackson and his team. For me, ‘The Hobbit’ was a more enjoyable and fun read compared to the trilogy, and I just can’t wait to see that thrilling story of adventure, bravery and loyalty realized on screen. I’m hoping that things will turn out great for ‘The Hobbit’ and Peter Jackson and he will indeed be directing this much-awaited prequel. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, I don’t have any idea on who might be the perfect actor to portray Bilbo, though. Ian McKellen has expressed interest in playing Gandalf once more and frankly I can’t think of any other actor for the role. The other LOTR stars have also professed their allegiance to Jackson and to whatever he is planning to do, although most of their roles don’t really have much significance in the story of ‘The Hobbit’. Who do you think can portray Bilbo best?

Bob Ong's Macarthur

I’ve just finished reading Bob Ong’s sixth opus, the poignant ‘Macarthur’. This is the first book by Bob Ong I’ve read, so I can’t review it within the context of his other books, although it certainly made me want to explore his earlier and more popular works.

Macarthur is a novella – Ong’s first stab at fiction, if my research is correct. It tells the story of four friends, their lost youth, and their struggles amidst the shocking world of poverty and corruption they are born into. As a work of gritty realism, Ong doesn’t mince words describing the filth and squalor of his characters' environment and the situations they find themselves in. The language is vulgar as vulgar can be, though peppered liberally with humor.

In case you don’t know, ‘macarthur’ is a street slang term that refers to feces that keeps bubbling up no matter how many times it is flushed, as if defiantly saying ‘I shall return’.

Macarthur unflinchingly reveals the ugly and sordid details of the ills of our society: poverty, drugs, corruption and abuse – and how these ills have polluted our youth. But the book also provides an intimate glimpse into the hearts and souls of the characters through the use of both humorous and tragic situations. And one can't help but empathize with them, vicariously feeling their laughter, pain, sadness, terror, remorse and hope.

No matter how society has seemingly hardened them outwardly, deep inside they are not unlike any other youth: weak, consumed with fear and uncertainty, desperately longing for anyone to care. And yet no matter how the ills of society has defiled and polluted them and molded them into 'monsters', there is still a faint glimmer of hope. Just like the proverbial ‘macarthur’, even the dregs of society can defiantly refuse to succumb to the cesspool they have been condemned into by the same society that corrupted and wasted them.

If only we start to care and try to correct our collective mistakes as a society. This seems to be a daunting task and it may be a long way before we can succeed. But like all journeys, everything begins with one small step. If we start with ourselves, with our families, with our immediate community, maybe little by little we can eventually change our society for the better. For the youth, there are a few lines in the book that underscores the importance of education. For the rest of us, the entire book reminds us of the realities that many of us choose to ignore.

Read Bob Ong's Macarthur. :-)

Photo credits: Ron Ryan Aviles and Sidney Snoeck
Thanks to my colleague Yona for lending me her copy

Is it the End of the Line for Harry Potter?

Well, technically it IS the end of Harry Potter, or so the author says. Deathly Hallows is the last book in the series and J.K. Rowling has no plans of writing about a middle-aged Harry. But as the world waits with bated breath for the launch of the seventh and the last book (tomorrow, July 21 to be exact) speculations on the boy wizard’s ultimate fate have reached fever pitch. Especially after J.K. hinted at the possibility of killing her main character.

Will Harry die in a climactic battle with Voldemort or will he finally triumph over his nemesis? Who are the two major characters who will meet their end in the hands of 'pure evil'?

Personally, I’d rather see Harry live. I mean it wouldn’t be worth all that trouble he went through from Book 1 to 7 just for him to die in the end. On the other hand, I actually wouldn’t mind if he dies, perhaps in an ultimate act of sacrifice for his friends. I think that would really make an impact. If it does happen, I just hope J.K. will handle his death in a way that will justify everything that the lightning-scarred, bespectacled hero suffered. I can just imagine millions of wide-eyed kids bursting into tears if that happens. lol

The best thing that can happen though is if he does triumph over Voldemort, finally vanquishing He-who-must-not-be-named in a spectacular battle, and then accidentally trips and falls over his wand which stabs him directly in the heart, thus leading to his demise. Haha. Kidding.

Anyway, as much as I want to know the fates of Harry, Hermione and Ron as soon as possible, I think I’ll skip the spoilers and stick to reading the books until the very last page of the very last book - even though I might get my hands on a copy of Deathly Hallows months after everyone in the world has read it 5 times over.

Art by Deanna Molinaro

Choose your own Adventure

Back in grade school, before the world ever knew Harry Potter, some of the most popular books in our library were the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ series. These books were probably on the list of the most read and borrowed books from the library right below Enid Blyton’s or the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys series.

I used to read these ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books. If you are unfamiliar with it, these were a series of children’s books where the reader assumes the role of the hero of the story and has to make choices that will determine his/her fate. The reader has to determine the hero’s next course of action by making decisions based on the choices given in the book.

The reader is asked to turn to a page in the book that corresponds to these choices. The plot then unfolds through these choices, leading to more choices and multiple possible endings. Sometimes, if the reader is a bit unlucky, the main character would encounter a rather unfortunate end (like death) because of the choices the reader made. Often, when the protagonist meets an untimely end in the book I was reading, I would cheat and ‘retrace my steps’ back to those ‘choices’ that led the character to his doom. I would then select the other choices, which turned out to be the best ones, and continue reading the story until I get to a satisfactory ending (or maybe until I get bored with the book). LOL.

That’s what I loved about these books. They were interactive even before the internet was as common as it is now.

More mature readers might scoff about this type of story format but, thinking about it now, those books really had some lessons to teach their readers, aside from the possible lessons found in the story itself.

Life is indeed a series of choices. These choices might either be easy or hard to make, but they always have consequences. In real life, as soon as you make a choice and consequences happen as a result of it, you cannot cheat and ‘retrace your steps’ or restart your life story somehow. You just have to suck it all in and have the courage to stand by your decision and face whatever consequences it will bring.

I have also made some decisions that I wish I did not do, or chose to do. Usually these decisions were made out of impulse. Some were made without thinking thoroughly about their consequences. I regret quite a lot of these decisions and spent stressful hours thinking about it. But ultimately, I just had to pick myself up and continue on to the next crossroad, the next set of choices and hope to make the right ones by then. As Eleanor Roosevelt said: One's philosophy is not best expressed in words, it is expressed in the choices one makes ... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility'