Lazy, part 2. Also, we have our company Holiday Party tonight. It's a little late this year, but two years ago it was held in May.
For bedtime reading, I've been tackling The Hobbit with my seven year old . This is kind of a big deal, since we spent the first 5 or 6 years of her life reading indestructible cardboard books about colors, shapes and dogs.
Assuming anyone who cares has already read the book... we are near the end when Bilbo confronts Smaug. Elise was sure Bilbo would somehow defeat the dragon, which is what the narrative structure leads you to expect. The story is told in 3rd person, almost entirely following Bilbo around.
Tolkien's way of handling the dragon is kind of quirky, though. After his second conversation with Bilbo, Smaug flies off in a rage, torches the secret entrance the dwarves & hobbit found, then flies off (to Laketown it turns out). Bilbo and the dwarves are left hiding in the mountain for a couple days wondering where the dragon went. They eventually loot the treasure and walk out the front gate.
In the next chapter, the narrator basically says: "Well, I bet you wanted to know what happened to the dragon, right? Here goes...."
It's a neat chapter and beautifully written, but the fact that Smaug meets his demise far from Bilbo and the dwarves, and then the jump back in time to tell the story, add up to a pretty jarring resolution of one of the major questions in the book.
It stuck out because as an adult reading it, I kind of just plowed over those issues and followed the plot and didn't think much of it. But my daughter was kind of scandalized.
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