This is too short — try expanding your ideas a bit. Lydia Fish October 16, 2008, at 08:48 AM
I was shocked and surprised to find out that one of the biggest critics of Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings had never read the Hobbit or any of the trilogy. I guess this kind of behavior can be seen in today’s society; Parent’s reaction to Harry Potter. Parents all over the country protest and fight for the banning of Harry Potter because they believe it conflicts with their morals and values. This is absurd in most cases because almost all of the people that protest have never read any of the books. They just get their information from what others tell them. I believe the same thing can be said for the Lord of the Rings and Tolkien.
I was aware that Tolkien inadvertently created the fantasy genre but was unaware that other authors admitted to actually basing their work off of his. It is because of Tolkien that the fantasy genre had expanded so much. He is basically the pioneer of the fantasy genre. It is curious to wonder where the genre would be today without Tolkien’s influence.
From watching the videos about the Lord of the Rings, I got the impression that Tolkien wrote the stories for the language, characters, and places that he created. Although Tolkien may not have been the keenest on structure and form, he was a literary genius for the “sideline” stories he created for his main passions. The fact that Tolkien created the books for his languages and characters may explain the slight disconnectedness one may see from time to time.
I was very surprised to see that The Lord of the Rings ranked number two on popular literature; second to the Bible. Although I knew Lord of the Rings was very popular, I did not imagine it was this widely read. It seems to be that the Lord of the Rings is a universal fantasy classic that can be enjoyed by all.
Steven Wilser? October 08, 2008, at 11:38 PM
