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Anarion · 10-05-2002, 01:43 PM

There was a time when people suddenly rediscovered The Hobbit and The Trilogy in what was like a blaze of starlight and renewed interest(the books had actually been published earlier than that). I wasn't interested in such things because I considered them frivolous, and a little too childish or romantic. But the fact was that the books were sweeping a whole generation of people. Years later, a friend of mine told me that she had read some of these books during the Tolkien 'rennaisance', described above. After that, I was more interested and thought that I might like to try some "fantasy". I had never read a 'fantasy' book, ever. So I picked up The Hobbit. As soon as I was part way through it, I realized what a misconception I had been under all that time about Tolkien. I realized that he was no mere writer of fairy tales(like Lewis Carrol, for instance), but a master craftsmen of syntax, imagery and character. I quickly moved on to LOTR, in increasing awe and wonder. When I finished ROTK, and consequently the cycle, I felt that I knew some of what my friend had experienced in her reading of these stories, and perhaps why she had been interested in them and how they may have influenced her. But as a result of the process of all this, which initially had to do with someone else, I had entered what I felt was a gateway into a new world of literature. I had gained an understanding of a master's works and a huge increase in my own level of literary appreciation. Several years went by, and I attempted The Silmarillion, but put it down for a long time. Earlier this year, I picked it up again and went all the way through, this time mesmerized and in a greater reverie than during any of the previous works. These books have had a significant impact on me which is hard to describe, entirely. But I meditate upon it quite a bit. I enjoy talking about them, I'm glad for having discovered them and happy about the whole set of circumstances which led up to all this. I consider the phenomenon something fortunate which we all have in a 'real' world which can sometimes be viewed as a twisted evolutionary result of the confusion, mistakes and general undoing of 'modern' man. The idea of Middle Earth is actually beautiful, albeit fraught with all the danger and evil which we face here, but in different form..

10-05-2002, 01:43 PM	#12
Anarion Animated Skeleton Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: at sea Posts: 27	There was a time when people suddenly rediscovered The Hobbit and The Trilogy in what was like a blaze of starlight and renewed interest(the books had actually been published earlier than that). I wasn't interested in such things because I considered them frivolous, and a little too childish or romantic. But the fact was that the books were sweeping a whole generation of people. Years later, a friend of mine told me that she had read some of these books during the Tolkien 'rennaisance', described above. After that, I was more interested and thought that I might like to try some "fantasy". I had never read a 'fantasy' book, ever. So I picked up The Hobbit. As soon as I was part way through it, I realized what a misconception I had been under all that time about Tolkien. I realized that he was no mere writer of fairy tales(like Lewis Carrol, for instance), but a master craftsmen of syntax, imagery and character. I quickly moved on to LOTR, in increasing awe and wonder. When I finished ROTK, and consequently the cycle, I felt that I knew some of what my friend had experienced in her reading of these stories, and perhaps why she had been interested in them and how they may have influenced her. But as a result of the process of all this, which initially had to do with someone else, I had entered what I felt was a gateway into a new world of literature. I had gained an understanding of a master's works and a huge increase in my own level of literary appreciation. Several years went by, and I attempted The Silmarillion, but put it down for a long time. Earlier this year, I picked it up again and went all the way through, this time mesmerized and in a greater reverie than during any of the previous works. These books have had a significant impact on me which is hard to describe, entirely. But I meditate upon it quite a bit. I enjoy talking about them, I'm glad for having discovered them and happy about the whole set of circumstances which led up to all this. I consider the phenomenon something fortunate which we all have in a 'real' world which can sometimes be viewed as a twisted evolutionary result of the confusion, mistakes and general undoing of 'modern' man. The idea of Middle Earth is actually beautiful, albeit fraught with all the danger and evil which we face here, but in different form..