[Iris Alantiel]

I think what makes a work of literature really great is the effect it has on your life and your thinking even after you've set it down and walked away. I love Tolkien's work because it speaks to me and to my real experiences, and inspires aspects of my life even when I'm not in the middle of reading it. I can take lessons from the book and apply them to situations in my own life.

Here's an example: whenever I read The Lord of the Rings, I'm always struck by the ever-present hope demonstrated by the characters. So when I get blindsided by some unexpected and depressing event in life, it helps me to remember that the characters I most love in The Lord of the Rings (such as Sam, for instance, who is my number one favourite) didn't give up hope, and neither should I. So if I'm having a kind of despairing moment, sometimes it will help me to just turn to Sam's song in Mordor (the one quoted in my signature) and read it over to remind me not to give in.

And of course, like you said, when things are going badly, some strange and unexplained force usually comes to the rescue. I've seen that happen over and over in my life; whatever mess I get into, I usually end up landing on my feet. I attribute it to keeping hope and doing the best I can - and those are both things I first learned to do from reading The Lord of the Rings.

Now that's great literature. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]