"The Hobbit shouldn’t work by modern standards. The protagonist doesn’t defeat the antagonist."
I think he does, because the real antagonist is not Smaug. The dragon is a powerful agent of Morgoth and potentially a devastating weapon for Sauron. But the real enemy is pretty much what later Galadriel and Gandalf faced in LotR. They passed the test. And so did Bilbo.
Against all odds, Bilbo survived the adventure fit for the 1st Age of Middle-Earth, remained a hobbit and did not give into temptation, greed, ambition, pride and malice. His nature and faith in the simple life and eternal values outlasted all the evils thrown at him, even those slowly taking root among his friends, and he used all the simple goodness in him to drag back others from the precipice. He defeated a great antagonist indeed!
But it's true that in the current day and age, this would have been a much more up-hill battle with publishers than 90 years ago. Thankfully, Tolkien's publisher was wise enough to entrust his private review to his young son. Something that more publishers should do these days!
Incidentally, "elves" had a similar problem for Tolkien as "goblins". In the first versions of his mythos, Noldor Elves were called gnomes. And it actually was philologically correct!
THE HOBBIT is the perfect entry point into the grand spectacle of the world Tolkien created; written in a time when stories were not necessarily "dumbed down" for children--if today's generation can appreciate it, it is a perfect setup for the timeless themes of THE LORD OF THE RINGS-- much like Twain's TOM SAWYER draws the reader in to experience the later complexities of HUCKLEBERRY FINN...
The Hobbit was the first full length book/novel that I ever read when I was in 4th grade in the year 19-something-something... and then I read Fellowship of the Ring... and then, IIRC, Silmarillion... Why, in that odd order you all ask? Well, our local library did not have Two Towers and Return of the King, and it was I think a couple years before my parents got me the last two books for Christmas. (parenthetically I'm quite sure with decades of hindsight that the main library downtown would have had what I sought, but this was before my Great Awakening of the Book). After Tolkien got the ball rolling, I read far more after that, to include the Conan stories with their Glorious Frazetta covers, Lovecraft, and much more.
And to think it all started with a hobbit that lived in a hole in the ground....
"The Hobbit shouldn’t work by modern standards. The protagonist doesn’t defeat the antagonist."
I think he does, because the real antagonist is not Smaug. The dragon is a powerful agent of Morgoth and potentially a devastating weapon for Sauron. But the real enemy is pretty much what later Galadriel and Gandalf faced in LotR. They passed the test. And so did Bilbo.
Against all odds, Bilbo survived the adventure fit for the 1st Age of Middle-Earth, remained a hobbit and did not give into temptation, greed, ambition, pride and malice. His nature and faith in the simple life and eternal values outlasted all the evils thrown at him, even those slowly taking root among his friends, and he used all the simple goodness in him to drag back others from the precipice. He defeated a great antagonist indeed!
But it's true that in the current day and age, this would have been a much more up-hill battle with publishers than 90 years ago. Thankfully, Tolkien's publisher was wise enough to entrust his private review to his young son. Something that more publishers should do these days!
Incidentally, "elves" had a similar problem for Tolkien as "goblins". In the first versions of his mythos, Noldor Elves were called gnomes. And it actually was philologically correct!
THE HOBBIT is the perfect entry point into the grand spectacle of the world Tolkien created; written in a time when stories were not necessarily "dumbed down" for children--if today's generation can appreciate it, it is a perfect setup for the timeless themes of THE LORD OF THE RINGS-- much like Twain's TOM SAWYER draws the reader in to experience the later complexities of HUCKLEBERRY FINN...
If you haven’t read The Hobbit, you won’t understand “A Long-expected Party.” That’s all.
The Hobbit was the first full length book/novel that I ever read when I was in 4th grade in the year 19-something-something... and then I read Fellowship of the Ring... and then, IIRC, Silmarillion... Why, in that odd order you all ask? Well, our local library did not have Two Towers and Return of the King, and it was I think a couple years before my parents got me the last two books for Christmas. (parenthetically I'm quite sure with decades of hindsight that the main library downtown would have had what I sought, but this was before my Great Awakening of the Book). After Tolkien got the ball rolling, I read far more after that, to include the Conan stories with their Glorious Frazetta covers, Lovecraft, and much more.
And to think it all started with a hobbit that lived in a hole in the ground....