I found it awfully interesting how highly Tolkien’s books (The Lord of the Rings, obviously) ranked in reader polls. There were two major polls taken in 1996. 20% of voters in one of them rated The Lord of the Rings as number one on their list. 20%, again, of the other poll reported the very same thing. That’s VERY impressive to me — considering that Tolkien published these books in the MID-50′s!!! To be honest, I didn’t know that polls like these were actually conducted, and to see The Lord of the Rings’ success in them was really neat!
And there are two things that I never knew…and would have never guessed, quite frankly — is how negatively the “literati” viewed the trilogy. I think it’s quite pompous, actually, and in tune with the stereotypical professional writer/journalist to hate the Lord of the Rings. But it’s terribly short-sighted.
Additionally, I mentioned above there were two things I learned; the second was that The Lord of the Rings isn’t popularly sought out in schools as assigned texts. It’s understandable, really, when you stop to consider how long this mammoth of a story is. But it was surprising to me, nonetheless, to think that here I am reading it for class but in most other places The Lord of the Rings is passed over.
Joseph Bella? October 08, 2008, at 11:24 PM
