[Child of the 7th Age]

Bethberry --

Good thread. At this point, I'm going to address your question of what we gain by going back to the books more than once.

For me, there is the basic, unchanging emotional (dare I say spiritual?) refreshment of approaching a work which has profound things to say about who we are, where we should be going, and the values central to our lives. And that intrinsic meaning does not change from year-to-year or reading-to-reading.

Having said that, however, I think there is something else as well. For, while the writing stays the same, I keep changing. And I keep changing in different ways, and this affects how I perceive the books.

First, there is the intellectual component. As I learn more, I'm able to put more into the books and get more out of them. For example, I read Tolkien's Letters in 1981, and many ideas in the story fell into place. Similarly, in graduate school, I learned about epic literature and Anglo-Saxon world views and I was then able to apply these to Tolkien.

In January 2002, when I read LotR after seeing the movie, I kept making mental comparisons--what the movie left out, what PJ did well, and how my perceptions of the characters agreed or differed from the film.

Now, I'm reading LotR again (twice in one year--I'm in trouble!), and this time it's for a different reason. I've been on these boards since March and, as I said on "Hey, I finally get Silm", this is the first time I've had a handle on the Legendarium. This came from reading the posts of people who knew more than I, as well as spending time with HoMe. So now, I'm seeing and understanding the book's history and background, those "distant mountains" which Tolkien refers to in his Letters. Indeed, LotR has become part of a larger history, rather than a stand-alone piece of literature. And, because of that, my appreciation of what the hobbits managed to do has grown even larger.

But other "changes" in me are emotional rather than intellectual. And these also affect my reading. As a young person feeling I was a fish out of water, an academic kid in a loving, but nonacademic environment, I was looking both for escape and validation. I wanted to forge my own path based on my values and beliefs. And this is what I found in the books.

Later in life, my husband and I had the great sorrow to lose our seven-month old daughter to SIDS (crib death). At this point, the depictions of Frodo's grief and sadness were absolutely rivetting to me. For the first time, I truly understood that some griefs do not heal in this life. Her death changed many things in my life, including the way I viewed Frodo.

This is why I argue so vehemently against those who say despair and shock were the sole reasons that Frodo sailed West, and that this was a wholly negative response. I hated when people equated me with my grief, saying in effect that what I felt and thought before had no meaning. Frodo's longing for Elves and beauty did not go away simply because he was in deep grief. Maybe others couldn't see it, maybe he couldn't even see it, but it was still there.

Moreover, I know from personal experience that it is impossible for a person in acute grief to change their attitude just by willing it. The only thing to do is change behavior, and then the attitude change will follow. This is why Frodo's departure was one of the most positive things he could do, reaching out for help rather than sitting in the Shire bemoaning his fate. (Enough ranting!)

So for all those reasons, I read LotR again and again at different points in my life over the past thirty-five years. Sometimes I read once a year or twice a year, and sometimes not for several years, but it's always there on my bookstand waiting for me if I need it.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit