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May 25·edited May 25Liked by J. Daniel Sawyer

I was unfamiliar with the cult of the child before reading this. It adds to my understanding of why adults are handing over authority to children in academia, medicine etc. I recently found myself annoyed by the self-depricating jokes one of my professors would make (and he was one of my better ones). And it's a great reminder to parents to try to raise not Jackson's but Tolkien's men, not an easy task today given the way we applaud those who clamber over one another in contrition. Thank you for another great essay!

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I'm pleased that you found it so useful! :-)

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I’ve always hated how Faromir was portrayed in the films! He was just as heroic and selfless as Aragorn in the books but got such a weak treatment in the films. He really was the best hero in the books as far as I’m concerned.

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Yeah. One of about four occasions in The Two Towers (film) when my date has to physically restrain me feom walking out of the theater.

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Faramir was the worst, but it's a general rule: whenever Jackson alters a character from the source material, it is always in the direction of greater shallowness, weakness, and venality. ALWAYS.

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