Gollum's folly

I've never read The Lord of the Rings. Couldn't be bothered to even browse the Hobbit, much less attempt to survive reading through the Silmarillion.
The fact is that I rarely read books. I've read the Dune series at least 7 times; the ones written by Frank Herbert, at least.

I've seen the Peter Jackson movie adaptations of The Lord of the Rings countless times however, falling prey to my own criticism on the effect they might have on the rapidly declining imagination of young minds. As a brief side note, my theory proposes that individuals whose first encounter with Tolkien's world is made via these movies will imagine Gandalf as Ian Mckellen's portrayal and by extension, this will inform their mind as to what a wizard should be. In contrast, someone who grew up with the books would have spent time imagining the gray wizard from the textual descriptions, using references like pinball cabinets, magazines and book covers to further focus his version of the character. The movies' popularity imposed a singular vision upon all its viewers across the world, in one fell swoop, cementing what a wizard "should" look like to legions of fans.

Gollum, then, is a character that I know only through Andy Serkis' pioneering motion-capture performance. Gollum's relationship with the One ring was always fascinating to me yet I always thought of it as a person obsessed with an object, as literal an interpretation as one could make.

Due to a recent personal experience, I've pondered upon the alternate thought where the One Ring would represent a person instead of a mere object. I've spent months pining for this person, shining my preciousss possession in the dark, closing the door which leads to my basement lair to be alone, free to contemplate this perfect being at my obsessive leisure. Obsession, I guess, does not make a distinction between objects and humans; in fact, acting in such a way towards someone could be described as objectifying them.

And the internal struggle, the self-effacement, the lengths of self-destruction which poor old Sméagol went through, just to spend all his time with his precious...That was me for the past few months. In the end, I would throw myself in the fires of Mount Doom, clutching my precious One to my chest.