[Knight of Gondor]

Folks, you know you do sound ever complaining . Some people annoy you as they are amateurs, the rest are hated for being experts. What are you after, than? The standard, the image of ideal Tolkien fan I crave for!

Not so, HerenIstarion! We’re talking about people of both breeds that are annoying in either their amateurity or their “expertise”. I don’t think anyone is annoyed (nor would be justified in being so!) because anyone is either learned in Tolkien, or ignorant of his works.

Middle aged, well-of, happily married and well employed, parent of two blondish blue-eyed infants and, of course, psychologically balanced?

Um...probably not exactly, since I’m young, poor, single, unemployed (I’m still a student), I don’t have any kids, and I’m sure one or two people could contest the claim of being psychologically balanced. (Any guy that spends three hours hitting the redial button in the hopes of getting on The Sean Hannity Show might be semi-insane...but I don’t know, because it worked!)

Don't you just hate those people who back up their assertions with quotes from Tolkien's Letters and thereby kill a thread?

Provided that letters confirm the assertion, can't see what goes wrong there

I suppose so, but I can understand where, in most cases, a definitive answer from Tolkien’s own hand kills the reason for discussion because it answers the point of debate completely. (Usually)

Can we say "Canonicity?"

Yes, but we can’t define it.

“Experts are never annoying, only interesting."

That’s just because no person who thought himself an expert came up and annoyed Mr. Tolkien.

I'm guilty of every variety of correcting people's pronuncations. Even though I'm by no means as much of an expert as, say...well, 99.95% of the experts on the Forum...I always correct how people say things - especially when they try to pronounce the Elvish names for things. Although my friends are just like me, so we can be annoying in pretentious as a unit at least.

You know, along the lines of defining the “typical” Tolkien fan, I would think that the “typical” fan would WANT to learn the different pronunciations, the correct ones, provided that they are not given in a manner that boarders on arrogance. And we should all keep in mind that we were all once bumbling amateurs too. I used to think it was “Sar-ROO-man”, not “SAR-uh-man.” And Galadriel’s husband was “Sel-a-born” before learning that C’s are hard in Elvish. (I got corrected on that Sar-roo-man pronunciation by my parents, who knew nothing of Tolkien, but knew that sar-roo-man, however the alternate spelling is, was actually a medical term for ear wax! :P)

The one that randomly pulls out The Sil references to go into everyday life without explaining them to the other people who haven't read The Silmarillion. Do any of you find yourself doing that?

Um...no.