Olympics

[Elkhound]

Anyone see the opening last night, and what did you think?

[tenworld]

while I get that orphans and disadvantaged children are are big part of English lit, I didnt get what point they were making.  Leaving out Tolkien was disappointing altho they are comments elswhere that Christopher refused them permission. Or maybe they didnt want it to come across as an ad for a New Zealand movie.

I think they blew it big time by not having the torch eventually on top of the stadium visible everywhere.

I think they could have presented Paul differently, I like him but he is not bigger than the Beatles (the guys in Sgt Pepper costumes maybe could have returned)

[Elkhound]

while I get that orphans and disadvantaged children are are big part of English lit, I didnt get what point they were making.  Leaving out Tolkien was disappointing altho they are comments elswhere that Christopher refused them permission. Or maybe they didnt want it to come across as an ad for a New Zealand movie.

JRRT was NOT a children's author, primarily.  LOTR & SIL are not for children, although HOBBIT and FARMER GILES are.  Most of his poetry was not either. 

The British essentially invented children's literature as a separate genre.  Also, the British were about the first country to guarantee all citizens access to basic health care; for all the faults and problems of the National Health Service, the British are justifiably proud that nobody dies because they can't afford medical care, and that people don't have to go bankrupt to pay for catastrophic medical care (unlike the US).  That sequence highlighted those two aspects.

I loved the opening--the angelic boy soprano singing "Jerusalem", Kenneth Branaugh reciting Shakespeare, the model of Glastonbury Tor (where the Gospel was first proclaimed in Britain).  And I loved that rather than having some celebrity or washed-up jock lighting the torch, they gave it to a group of teenagers---representing the future, after all those homages to the past.

[tenworld]

Thanks.  Your explanation makes sense.  Too bad the NBC commentators did not use you as a consultant
Overall it was a very beautiful presentation (and I did think of Hobbiton when I saw the hill).

Deryni of course was represented since I saw gold lions rampant on red often, and there must have been handfire since the lighting was often unreal.

[Shiral]

I missed most of the good part, but I liked that they had "Glastonbury Tor" represented.  I thought the Olympic Rings as newly forged iron was rather cool.  I also got a laugh out of the Queen being a "Bond Girl" even to the point of appearing to jump out of the helicopter. Good for Her Majesty for having a sense of humor!

Sorry to have missed Kenneth Branagh reading Shakespeare. Think they might have done a little something with C. S. Lewis who wrote the Narnia books, as long as they were promoting British Children's Literature. I was raised having the Narnia Books, the Hobbit and LOTR read aloud to me. (Well okay, LOTR waited until I was around 12, or so.)

Melissa