Quote:
|
There is nothing wrong with discovering the tales of Middle Earth through seeing the films. I discovered one of my favorite authors after watching "I, Claudius" on PBS many years ago.
|
Precisely. How someone comes to be interested in something has no significance whatsoever. In fact I'm finding this "mainstreaming" quite convenient in completing my set of the Histories. I must admit that I really can't stand to see LoTR figurines being given away by McDonald's, which to my mind is to treat Tolkien like the cultural junk food that Disney traditionally turn out. Not only that, but corporate marketing is so antithetical to JRRT's attitude that it's insulting to his memory to do so, but if people really appreciate what they're reading I consider it the worst kind of snobbery to begrudge them their discovery just because it was made a little easier for them by popular culture (one of the few instances where the term isn't oxymoronic).
Incidentally, it's nice to see a Robert Graves fan in the forum. "The Greek Myths": what a textbook. That adaptation of "I, Claudius" with Derek Jacobi, John Hurt et al was excellent in its own right (the cast list was like a who's who of British acting talent at the time). Graves is contemporary with Tolkien as well, if I'm not much mistaken. I believe that they were both infantry officers on the Western Front, although I don't think that they met.
Anyway, I digress; nice topic.