Because there were so many delightful elements to love. Quirky things like the mute sewer-picker. So disgustingly filthy and callously mercenary, and yet his mute melodrama ("So little! My family will starve!") was no different than you'd see in any bazaar. And the monks' trials, so horrifyingly compassionate.
It was the ending that spoiled the story for me. Because when it came down to it, Richard could find *nothing* good in the world above. The picture of real life that Gaiman painted was so stultifying, so grimly, unendingly dull and depressing, that Richard decides its better to live in the hell below, where at least things are exciting??
Sam Gamgee also went through hell, but he did it so he could come home; so his home could remain healthy and sun-lit and alive. For the hero's quest to end in a rejection of home and everything it stood for just... ick. Not for me.
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momijizukamori and
SPOILERS IN REPLY
Date: 2009-02-04 05:30 pm (UTC)Because there were so many delightful elements to love. Quirky things like the mute sewer-picker. So disgustingly filthy and callously mercenary, and yet his mute melodrama ("So little! My family will starve!") was no different than you'd see in any bazaar. And the monks' trials, so horrifyingly compassionate.
It was the ending that spoiled the story for me. Because when it came down to it, Richard could find *nothing* good in the world above. The picture of real life that Gaiman painted was so stultifying, so grimly, unendingly dull and depressing, that Richard decides its better to live in the hell below, where at least things are exciting??
Sam Gamgee also went through hell, but he did it so he could come home; so his home could remain healthy and sun-lit and alive. For the hero's quest to end in a rejection of home and everything it stood for just... ick. Not for me.