Hey Y'all.
I have been loving on the Hobbit some, and was set to thinking.
Of the Shire, namely. And I was sitting and suddenly my blogger sense started tingling and I thought, "Why do I love the Shire so much?" And I realized, as my sense tingled away, that it is because it feels like HOME.
This post is about home, and how it can be a fantastic plot device.
Home is something that we take lightly in our daily lives
Ahhhha Yes I see that look you are giving me. I am sure that you appreciate your home very much, and I acknowledge that. What I meant was on a moment-to-moment scale. We are more prone to come home after a long day of work to think about the shower we are going to take or the comfort food we are going to eat, instead of running home and going "Wow this is a great house. Wow it feels good outside. Wow I am just so pleased with my life right now."
However, there are many times that we sit down on our favorite windowsill, bed, or couch with something that we love to do, glance up and go, "MAN I love this house."
So why do we love it? Look up at that last sentence and realize that I said "favorite." It is because we are given the opportunities to do what we love. Because we do what we love in those spots, we grow to enjoy them, and create memories. Whether you like it or not, it grows on you. It becomes your favorite.
Now, how does this click in with the shire?
Plain and simple, home is just a place that we want to be. (I realize that this is not always the case, but if you can, think of somewhere else that you consider your second home.)
I love the Hobbit. I love the characters. I love Bilbo. Bilbo lives in the shire. The shire is Bilbo's home, and since I relate to him so much, I feel like it is MY home too.
In contrast, think of the bad guy's hold. Think for a moment, of Dol guldur:
Or the bad guy hold of Batman, Arkham Asylum:
If these pictures are comforting or soothing at all, call me, we need to talk.
Thing is, home is a place we want to be. Home is comforting, and enjoyable, and a place that we love, no matter what.
And home is a powerful plot device in the same ways. It's a little cliche, granted, but it gets the point across. If it's a place we love, a place that we want to be, and the threat is made that its comfort will be taken from us, it causes conflict and suspense and makes us root for the hero, who is out to save it and what it stands for.
It creates something to fight for, something we can rally against with others and have at the bad guys because that is our home, those are our memories, this is our place.
In conclusion, a place is a place and it's just kind of there. What makes it home are the people, and the memories, and the love that comes up and guerrilla attacks you into loving it.
I take the Shire, and I think that people that I love are there. Gandalf, Frodo, Bilbo, and Hobbits in general. I think of sunlight coming through the trees at dusk and I think of a warm summer night spent outside with my friends. I look at that picture and I breathe in deep and think that I just want to be there.
And thus it becomes a kind of fictional second home. And I am okay with that.
