Signs of Geek-dom

Now of course, the merits of the signs it depend on what kind of geek you are. I am certainly an unrepentant LOTR geek, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that I spent Sunday afternoon, evening and well into the night a consecutive showing of the three films. This takes 10 to 10 1/2 hours, if you're counting, and we had a couple of intermissions as well. In this case you're a geek if:

• You think Peter Jackson skipped the entire Tom Bombadil episode (three chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring) because he wasn't up to the creative challenge.
  

• You think that while the film of The Two Towers succeeded visually with the Ents, it came rather close to slandering their commitment to the war. You also find it inexplicable that he didn't take on the Huorns.
  
  
• You can distinguish between original dialogue and film dialogue without having the books in your lap. I confess to having read LOTR 43 times including back matter.

Speaking of back matter, there's another, new test of literary geekishness. The first volume of The Autobiography of Mark Twain appeared last year in hard cover. This is a tome of over 700 pages plus index, of which about 250 pages are actual autobiography. The rest is a lengthy introduction and a body of notes quite as long as the autobiography. I approach introductions and footnotes with the bias of one who began life as an academic. I love this stuff, but I maintain that these notes make the autobiography more complete. They include more of Clemens own writing, but also contemporary views of the man. From the whole one sees why Clemens insisted on having this published 100 years after his death.

When I finish the notes, I'll read the autobiography again... and probably go back for LOTR 44.