An Interview With Michael Martinez March 23, 2002 As webmaster of Lord of the Rings Movie / Hobbit Movie Fact/Rumor Roundup, writer for Suite101.com, and author of Visualizing Middle-earth, Michael Martinez is one of the leading Tolkien scholars. He has been featured in magazines and newspapers throughout the world, and his work has been described at theonering.net as having "a chatty, opinionated and engaging style that makes you feel like you’ve pulled up a chair to his table at a pub, and got to listen in on his conversation." Today I'm privelaged to be able to ask him a few questions. JW: Happy fifth birthday to the Lord of the Rings Movie Fact/Rumor Roundup! Why did you decide to create this site, and how rewarding has the experience been? Michael: The site was originally designed to be a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, not a news page. So many people were wandering around the Net asking about a rumored movie that I felt there was a need for one. It became a news page a few months later as I realized I had started reporting new information on an almost daily basis. JW: How are theonering.net and Tolkien Online to work with? Michael: They've both been great. Despite the intense spirit of competition which exists among Tolkien news sites, I've established a good rapport with people at both sites. And when I asked them for a way to carry their headlines, they worked with me on those projects. Of course, anyone can pick up their headlines, but Xenite.Org seems to be the only site doing that. Both sites were also instrumental in making our first Tolkien and Middle-earth track at Dragoncon a huge success. To be honest, Xenite.Org would have had to drop out of the Tolkien movie news business a long time ago if it hadn't been for Tolkien Online and TheOneRing.Net. Although we still post our own stories from time to time, and we carry other headlines, we depend on those two sites to keep the bulk of our news fresh. The Xenite.Org network demands too much of my time for me to concentrate on the movie news. JW: What did you think about the first movie? Michael: I enjoyed it as a movie. I have always regretted the fact that Peter Jackson could not be faithful to the book. I enjoyed "Harry Potter" immensely and feel it deserves high marks for staying faithful to the book. But "The Fellowship of the Ring" is simply too long to be told in one movie. As a Tolkien purist I can easily find myself nitpicking the movie to death, but I have made a conscious effort to not do that. There is no point. But I've been back to see "Fellowship" several times and plan on buying the DvD when it finally comes out. JW: You've been critical of the tobacco use in Fellowship, and I agree with your feelings completely. Why is tobacco so frequently gratuitously glorified in motion pictures? Michael: It appears that the tobacco industry became very cozy with the film and television industry decades ago. Actors never had a problem with buying cigarettes, as the tobacco companies always provided them for free. So, basically, old habits are hard to break. Many of the actors who smoke in movies are themselves addicted to tobacco. Of course, people are quick to point out that there are no cigarettes in "The Fellowship of the Ring". That's true, but pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff are also very dangerous and addictive products. There is no safe way to use tobacco. JW: In addition to your website, you also lend your Tolkien expertise to Suite101.com. How did you begin doing this? Michael: Actually, I was approached a few years ago to write a column about Hercules and Xena for Suite101. After doing that for a year, I decided I'd enjoy doing a Tolkien and Middle-earth column more, so I asked for a change in topics. Suite101 liked the idea and agreed. JW: How do you choose your topics for these articles? Michael: Sometimes it's the last minute before a deadline and I'll just sit down at the keyboard and start writing. There are usually false starts and I'll have to come back and clean up the article. Sometimes people will suggest interesting topics for which I've already done some research. I'll spend a few days making notes and then write an essay. Sometimes I'll get a really interesting question which simply demands to be answered. "Shhh! It's a secret Ring!" came about when someone asked me who actually knew about the Rings of Power and when. I didn't know, but I immediately wanted to see what I could turn up. Sometimes I might write an essay just to be a bit corny. "Life in an Elven fishing town" resulted from my thinking of a 1980s song over and over again. I was so sick and tired of hearing the refrain from "Life in a northern town" in my mind, I decided I had to write something to get it out of my system. Somehow, I moved on from that song to thinking about the movie "Dolores Claiborne" and Earnest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea". Eventually, I realized there might be stories in Middle-earth fishing communities which were never told. And I remembered discussing what Cirdan's mariners must have done for a living with people on the Internet. There was never really a satisfying answer. So, to purge my thoughts of that endless refrain, I came up with a corny title and wrote an essay to go with it. I occasionally try to be funny. That was how "Snoopy versus the Lord of the Nazgul" came about. It's just a goofy sendup of how a lot of newspaper comic characters might behave if they were the characters in The Lord of the Rings. I read that one for a couple of audiences and they liked it, so I'm glad I wrote it. JW: What kind of articles can we look forward to in the future? Michael: Deep, cosmic, soul-searching perhaps? I have no idea. I know I'll have to write about Peter Jackson's "The Two Towers". I wish I could write about Legolas all the time. The two most popular essays have proven to be "Speaking of Legolas..." and "Legolas, you're just so darn...CUTE!" But it will really depend on what mood I am in, and whether someone asks a question which really piques my interest. If someone challenges me sufficiently on a point, I may try to back it up. On the other hand, I once used Suite101 to post a major retraction on a long-running debate. Is there feudalism in Middle-earth? "Of thegns and kings and rangers and things" reconsidered the whole issue from a new perspective (for me). I decided to go back to basics. Most people argue there must be feudalism because they associate certain words with feudalism. But Tolkien usually took archaic or obsolete words and used them in new ways. I wondered to myself, what if he was using feudalism in a new way? It started to make sense, and I found a great deal of convincing linguistic evidence to support his use of a form of feudalism in Middle-earth. I don't anticipate conceding any more ground on old debates, but one never knows what the future will bring. JW: You've also written a book, Visualizing Middle-earth, which is available now. The book has received great reviews such as, "Martinez lives the fantasy, which is what we all want to do when we read the book. He walks into Tolkien's imagination and unlocks door after door, leaving no hallway unexplored." What do you think about the book? Michael: It's too short. I've had requests for a sequel, but I don't know when that will happen. So, in retrospect, I wish I had included more essays in it. But it was also a learning experience. I wanted to put together something I thought people would be interested in reading, and which wouldn't simply replicate all the endless "Tolkien really meant this" sort of literary criticism. Critics get so wrapped up in deconstructing Middle-earth that they forget there is a great deal to it which barely rises to the surface of the writing. I find that people are more curious about what Tolkien put into Middle-earth than where it came from. However, Visualizing Middle-earth isn't as thorough an examination of Middle-earth as I would like it to be. It demands a sequel, as there is so much more to Middle-earth than I covered in those essays. JW: What's it like to be prominently featured in TV GUIDE? Michael: I'm not sure that having a 1-hour interview condensed to a 1-sentence quote in a sidebar qualifies as "prominently featured", but it was a kick nonetheless. One of my co-workers photocopied all the magazine covers and the sidebar and posted them on bulletin boards at work. That story may have gotten me a couple of radio interviews, too. Considering that millions of people around the US read that story, it was cool. JW: Why weren't you mentioned in the premiere issue of The Lord of the Rings Fan Club Official Movie Magazine when TORN, Tolkien-Online, and ringbearer.org were? For goodness sake, they all turn to you for your expertise! Michael: You'd have to ask writers of the article. We certainly don't lack for Tolkien content at Xenite.Org or Suite101. And I'm the only Webmaster who can claim to have helped with the movies in terms of research. But I occasionally get snubbed. You know what? They weren't all mentioned in TV GUIDE. That's life. I'm not going to worry about it. It's still a good movie. JW: Finally, what are you looking forward to in The Two Towers? Michael: Seeing Brad Dourif's outfit (he plays Grima Wormtongue). Finally learning whether Arwen goes to Rohan or not. Seeing Treebeard. Seeing Karl Urban play a role somewhat more significant than "third spear carrier from the right". And just generally having a good time. Back to Interview Index Page