Thirteen Hours of Excellence

At VIU there are certain courses that complete nerds like me go crazy for. This semester, it's Fantasy Literature. The main work that we study is The Lord of the Rings, but why just read the book when there are those awesome movies available? That's what our class did on Saturday. We marathoned the trilogy (the extended editions, of course). It was thirteen hours of excellence, and here is the picture story.

Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Second breakfast (pre-Fellowship of the Ring munching, mainly on donuts) The lecture theater that we had for watching was fabulously beautiful (much newer than any classroom that English students normally see!). It would be pretty much perfect, for the purpose of classes—amazing chairs, perfect view of the front from every seat. But chairs that are amazing for a classroom setting do not translate well for thirteen hours of parked bums (are there any chairs that do?).


Luncheon, between Fellowship and Two Towers.

Bring on The Two Towers.

After The Two Towers ended, we had our dinner break. The call of cheesy-delicious pizza was so alluring, that the camera was promptly forgotten, and there is no pictorial evidence of the pizza carnage.

Return of the King intermission. Popcorn bowls require re-filling.

There comes a point in such a marathon where the fatigue starts to set in, but it’s not so much tiredness as restlessness. As someone who finds it near impossible to sit still for a single class, this was the ultimate challenge, especially given the chairs! The restlessness really dug in its claws about an hour into Return of the King. However, a fabulous solution was found: a written commentary. There are two kinds of movies that are worth making snarky comments on: the very awesome, and the very awful. I don't think I need to state which category LOTR falls under. So began the passing around of a battered notebook. Here's a small sample:

K: The Orcs could do the triathlon. Run. Boat. Ride those monstery things from the last movie.
G: Gimli can do long jump!
K: Legolas can do high jump. Merry and Pippin can do shot-put (Pippin can also light the torch at opening ceremonies)
G: Sauron can watch and be the judge. Tom Bombadil can too, but he won’t care enough to give scores.
K: That’s okay- wouldn’t want Merry and Pippin to be disqualified for drug use!
B: Pretty sure everyone is on drugs. Gandalf smokes a lot.


Post-movie clean up! Once the movies are over, the tiredness just fades away, segueing into post-marathon hyperactivity. It gets us through the food-tidying.


The nerds head for home...

...or not. Of course the day can't conclude without a little extra adventure, in this case, while carrying supplies out to the car, the building locked us out. We got our exercise running the perimeter trying all the doors. After twenty minutes and the prof calling security, we got back in the building. I retrieved such vital items as my wallet, and sweater (apparently it was more important to keep the camera with me than such essential things as ID, and money) and things ended Happily Ever After.

The moral of the story? Don't let the door shut behind you. Always prop it open.

Also, it's a good idea to question the origin of golden rings, should one come into your possession. Especially it it has magical disappearing properties.


Until next week,
Kaitlyn Till