The Hobbit

I was born in New York and lived there until I was twelve. When I was born my mom got sick after birth and had to quit her job. My dad continued to work at the post office on long island but the strain of my older brother and myself and my mom’s unemployment forced us to live with my grandma and grandpa for the first 10 years of my life. We were a very close family in New York with relatives always stopping by for gatherings or just family dinners. I cant remember having any friends when I was younger that weren’t my cousins or siblings before I went to grade school, and even then I mostly stayed at home with my family. Our grandma was an artist and had a huge collection of illustrated books and books on paintings spanning from Norman Rockwell to Picasso. I remember she let us take down books to read or tapes to watch. At first I was to young to read the books so I was obsessed with the animated children’s movies. And of course one of those tapes was the Animated film The Hobbit. The Hobbit for me is one of those stories that is imprinted in my brain, along with other movies like my neighbor Totoro. I know growing up in that house has had a huge impact on my life, since I lived there I remember finding movies or books that my cousins didn’t know about and showing them grandmas library. I remember feeling like I was passing on the knowledge, like I could show them something they wouldn’t find anywhere else. It wasn’t really a big deal but when you’re a kid that age it sort of leaves an imprint on you as a person, And the hobbit was definitely the kind of story that never really leaves you especially when its introduced to you at an early age. At twelve my parents and my brother and I moved down to florida to get a house on our own and florida was cheap enough for us to manage. It was hard going to school and being away from my family and I remember coming back to the books I read back in New York, That’s something the fanatasy genre definitely has the sort of escape from reality. Being the new kid with no friends, middle school was definitely a harsh reality to escape from. Most of my middle school life was saturated with old books comics and then video games and I started to be enveloped in the subculture that most kids of my generation was aware or apart of. Then I went to high school and kept on playing the games and reading but also started to value a social life. I got a job joined the track team, didn’t try as hard in school but kept on drawing and knew I wanted to go to an art school because I wanted to be able to keep that feeling I got from those stories alive and the only way I got that sort of buzz was from drawing and creating.

When I think about book like the hobbit it makes me consider the sort of stories that new generation of kids are growing up with. Even though they do have access to older books like the hobbit doesn’t mean they’re exposed to or value them. I know computer animated films are taking the place of these kinds of stories but it seems like modern day kids movies are always just reworked version of older stories. I wonder if there will ever be a something as inventive as the hobbit or the lord of the rings which an entire sub-culture has been created from.