"Many Meetings" - Jacob's Thoughts

Onward to Book II!  Maybe it's just cause it's finals week, or maybe it's the inevitable crash after the build up to Book I's finale, but I feel like I have less to say about "Many Meetings," despite its length, than I do about the past few chapters.  I hear tell that in the anime world, this is what's known as a "beach episode", AKA  the hang-out, the R&R, the necessary respite and de-escalation after several episodes of action, to prevent audience burn-out before proceeding with the narrative.  Eric I know is a big believer in the importance of the break, and I generally agree with him on that.

Nevertheless, I still felt this chapter a little slow--you can only have so many people express their happiness that Frodo pulled through so many times before you start skimming a bit (and the fifth long poem in as many chapters didn't help, either).

That's not to say this chapter is a slog or anything (certainly nothing after "The Old Forest" can feel like a slog, anyways) in fact, what keeps this chapter (mostly) lively for me in a way the Old Forest chapter trilogy did not is, as always, the sense of genuine stakes, even in their respite.  For amidst all these reveries is Frodo's barely detectable transparency that is a harbinger of the Gollumizing effects of the Ring to come; same with the shadow that crosses Bilbo's face at the sight of the Ring (can I say I actually prefer the jump-scare from the film?  Man, I have a really conflicted relationship with the films, don't I); and Gandalf's warning that Rivendell and even the Shire are rapidly becoming but islands in a sea of ever-encroaching darkness has a real urgency to it.  For once, I can even sympathize with mostly-useless Pippin, who just wants to enjoy this time here while he still can.  Knowing how the rest of the narrative goes, he'll need it.

And ah yes, Gandalf and Bilbo, kind of you to join us again!  There's an intriguing sense of symmetry between the first chapters of Book I and Book II, a feel that we are re-beginning where we started, that is, with Gandalf and Bilbo at a major feast setting up Frodo for perilous adventures soon to come.  I almost wonder if Tolkien here is training first-time readers to subconsciously assume that this sort of reset button will be hit at the start of every new Book, with the main principals once again gathered around a rousing party, that we will always return to some sort of status quo--that way, he can upend audience expectations all the more brutally by the time we get to The Two Towers.

In the meantime, can I just say that I kinda like how we've paced ourselves so slowly at one chapter a week (sometimes slower)?  It's made it feel like Frodo et al's 3-odd month journey to Rivendell has occurred in real-time, that we have actually felt the full epic scope and weight and exhaustion of this journey, which gets me excited for the next leg.