Re: OT: Tolkein Non-Fanism

Am 08/02 20:12  Boudewijn Rempt yscrifef:

> I read the books (all of them, including most of the posthumous ones)
> between 16 and 20, and then I thought I couldn't read them anymore. No
> interesting women, and having seen everything from the books repeated
> to death in derivative fantasy - and I thought they were plainly too
> long.
>
> However, A month or so I tried Lord of the Rings again - and I was
> captivated. I finished all three parts in two weeks of spare-time
> reading (evidently I've become better, at least faster, at reading
> English), and I noticed so many nuances, so many threads and so much
> complex interaction between the characters that I was astonished. Even
> seen without the persona of Tolkien, the conlanger, behind the book,
> it is a great work of literature.
>
You may wish to look at the recent book by Tom Shippey about Tolkien.
The exact title escapes me.  The first chapter is an amusing gesture at
the literati who cannot tolerate the fact that in this universe LoTR is
one of the top ten books of the century.  After this tirade Shippey
settles down to discussing Tolkien's folio: his use of language -
actually stylistically interesting; his relations with Catholicism and
Paganism; his reconstructions from hints in medieval texts; his status
among his contemporaries and how it affected his career; his legacy.  I
found it an interesting read.

I don't think Tolkien was a particularly great influence on my language
construction.  His resources he supplied for language guidelines were
too slim until well after his death.  Even now we don't have a complete
grammar, and that is a contraversial subject in itself best left to the
true believers.  When I started I looked more towards the teach yourself
books than Tolkien.  I will give him his due, his maps were very
influential on me.

I read an interview with Tad Williams recently in which he claimed that
Tolkien hearkens back to a golden age.  So he deliberately created a
series where his protagonists must discover that the golden age was a
false myth.  Now there's a writer whom I wish didn't write
marathon-length books!

As for the new Arda-Lang list I like that Aiden has named it for the
first popularly-acknowledged Art/Conlanger of the modern era.  I did
think about suggesting World-Lang, but decided that Arda was more
personal.

As for the movies, I'm especially waiting for the second one out next
year.  I want to see how many of my fellow Dunlendings burning a
Rohirrim village.


- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@griffler.co.nz
alias Mungo Foxburr of Loamsdown
http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/homepage.html

'That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout?  Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
O keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!'
                                       - The Waste Land, T.S. Elliot.

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