Lord of the Rings (fan.)

LoLth

An old favourite argument of mine to get started.

In my opinion LotR is not a good piece of work.

Yes the ideas were good I would say original but Elves, Dwarves and Wraiths have existed for centuries in myths and legends as well as in short stories and fairy tales, for some reason J.R.R was given credit for their 'creation'. I think that he should rather be given credit for their ascension into popular literature.

The big fall of the Books is Tolkien's writing style. It is unnecessarily long winded. It is almost as if he didn't know what to say next so he stuck with one point until he thought of a tangent he could flog to death. Borromir (??) dies one or two scenes after we read a 600 year history of his family and pets!! Useless. Yes it sets up a character but it does not involve the reader. It bores him and leads him to think 'WTF, he's dead!'. Herbert has perfected this art of non-important-character background [see Domain] characters who you are convinced will be the hero/heroine are killed swiftly or grisly (sometimes both) and it is all the more effective because we have been told enough about the character to see it as an individual. BUT, the background pieces in Herbert's novels are about two or three pages long, whereas, in LotR the background is 50 or 60 pages of meticulous detail.

The story continuity itself left a lot to be desired. How else could there be enough holes in the books to fill three more volumes? Why did he feel the need to cover every minute detail of each race's history? It only left more questions.

No. In my opinion the Hobbit , a book for children as it was, was far superior in both writing style and creation. And since then, writers who have a skill and talent that far and away exceeds those of Tolkien are still being compared to him and called 'Almost' as good, or 'the prince' of fantasy where Tolkien is the King.

Well, that's my rant done with for now. I'll probably pick it up again later.

J.

DeViant

Hmmm....
I Dunno.
LotR was the book that shaped Fantasy as we see it now. I Mean, we wouldn't have AD&D and probably the rest of the RPGs that have sprouted over the years. The first in a genre is never as good as we thought it was when we look back from somthing like Dune(I know its sci-fi) or Wheel of time.
But I think without the Lord of the Rings, Fantasy Fiction might not be what it is today.
B.

mayordenis

he wasnt given credit for inventing "mystical creatures" just making the most in-depth worth-reading story based upon them and that my two cents.

NotWormBoy

It is almost as if he didn't know what to say next so he stuck with one point until he thought of a tangent he could flog to death. Borromir (??) dies one or two scenes after we read a 600 year history of his family and pets!! Useless. Yes it sets up a character but it does not involve the reader. It bores him and leads him to think 'WTF, he's dead!'.

One of the entire points of Tolkien's writing was that he created a world with intricate characters and an epic history. He said that, not me, by the way. Thats why the Silmarillion (better than LotR, in my opinion) was created. But his intent was to create an entire history behind all the peoples and events in Middle Earth.

Yeah, I know, its a matter of opinion. Personally, it didn't bore me, I enjoyed it. Except for the history of the hobbits, which was pure pants.

Buck Owens

Tolken was'nt a professionaly trained writer wasn't he? I need to read it again.

Tusky

Originally posted by bmarley
recently made into a trilogy on the big screen

no way ?

LoLth

That would be called trolling.

Check the date of the initial posts .. they were actually two of the first posts on this board.

Mr. Marley may be looking at a bit of chastisement if he does this again.