21st Century Tolkien

[Lalwendë]

What is the future of Tolkien and Tolkien fandom?

Tolkien's creation has now spawned films, fan fiction, graphic novels, computer games, toys, enough books to fill a small library, many websites, a musical, maybe an entire sub-culture? To me, there now seems to be a whole Tolkien industry.

Of course, there must be the enormous profits made by manufacturers of toys, posters, pens, PlayStation games, mugs, keyrings etc generated by the films. But it is not only the films which generated profit. I know a lot of us eagerly snap up the book-based board games, and there are also book-based toys (even a Barrow-Wight!) and large amounts of paraphernalia such as Tolkien art posters, cards and figurines to collect.

People are making small fortunes on sites like e-bay selling everything from first editions of The Hobbit to plastic cups with film promo pictures on. Even first editions of HoME and copies of Amon Hen (Tolkien Society journal) are now seriously expensive and rare.

There are the conventions which have grown to epic proportions in terms of size (and cost). The Tolkien Society Oxonmoot used to meet in a pub, so I understand. Last year they had five days of it in Birmingham with people from all over the world attending and I'm sure I wasn't the only one overawed by it all.

But this new industry even includes the enormous associated fame of academics such as Verlyn Flieger, who attracted a huge queue of people wanting her autograph at Tolkien 2005, and Tom Shippey who was indeed listened to with reverential awe as one of the newspapers reported. Books signed by the academics reach high prices on e-bay, never mind books signed by Tolkien himself!

I thought that the machine might have stopped rolling once the films had passed into memory, but it seems to have taken new forms. Games Workshop might now be losing money on their LOTR gaming figures, but go into Forbidden Planet in London and they have an entire separate section devoted to Tolkien books; they had more of these than they had of Star Wars books.

Can all this continue?

For those of us who remember the years before the films, being a Tolkien fan back then was a strange experience. This was also pre-Internet. I did not know of the Tolkien Society, I only occasionally met other Tolkien fans. Yet now I am on the Downs, and we have this large community (just one community amongst many others), and we even seem to have factions in this community, e.g. Non-Wingers, Pro-Pointy-Ears etc. Not only can I now find fellow fans, but certain types of fan. This was just not possible a few years ago.

What do you think? Has the nature of fandom changed? If so, has it been a good change? Have the numbers of fans increased? Will we all still be rabid fans in 10 years time? 20 years?

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Has the nature of fandom changed? I don't think the book fans have changed radically, though I only knew a handful before finding the Downs.

If so, has it been a good change? It is a bit of frighteningly diverse and large crowd these days!

Have the numbers of fans increased? In view of the movies, I think so.

Will we all still be rabid fans in 10 years time? 20 years? Speaking for myself, I know I'm still the same fan I was 20+ years ago, and plan to be for 20+ more.

The internet has been a wonderful tool for finding information and so forth, but I'm not fond of the commercialism that has been introduced in RL.

[Rhod the Red]

I think it can continue, perhaps expanded by a movie for The Hobbit.

[Thinlómien]

I think there will never be a time when there weren't Tolkien fans. Some of us have been fans for decades, some have been fans for half of their lifetime. I can't believe such people would never drop Arda or LotR from their lives. I (belonging to the second category I mentioned) wouldn't, for one. Of course there are surely some (movie) fans who may have read the book that will forgot it in near future, if they already haven't.

After all we devoted fans of this time lie peacefully in our graves, there is a new generation walking on Earth. But surely some of them have found Tolkien and taken his books into their hearts.

Tolkien's works have such an ability to alllure readers, that as long as there exists copies of them in some form, and someone reads them, there will be people who love them and become fans.

[goldfinger]

I don't think the fans will die off. I didn't even know anything about LotR or Tolkien until the movies came and there was a huge amount of fans before those movies even came out.

I think that no matter what kind of fangirl we are we are still all Lord of the Rings fans and that should be respected.
Though I sometimes do get annoyed when someone misspells the names or laughs at me for reading Tolkien's original.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Originally Posted by frodoHarrypotter

Though I sometimes do get annoyed when someone misspells the names

Watch that tong, there are dyslexics present.

The future of Tolkien may be interesting. I am looking forward to film versions of his other works, imagine a Roverandom film! Of course, films aside, the books themselves always have and we would hope always will spark an interest and spark the imagination of the world.
Even those who are not particularly fans of his work admit that he is a significant author who deserves respect amongst scholars of mythology and Anglo-Saxon. His essay on Feairy tales is remarkable and many have taken deep interest in feairy after reading it (I know I certainly did).

The more dedicated fans of Tolkien will most certainly continue! I know that the lecturer I will have the pleaser of being taught by next year at University is a Tolkien fan and scholar. I shall first have to discover his opinion on wings...
When one looks at the dramatisations of Tolkien's work: The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, Tales from the Perilous realm and others have been done by the BBC in particular. I like to imagine some of these becoming Television dramatisations at the least. (I say this because I once had a dream that BBC One was going to show a dramatization of Leaf by Niggle ).

Of course, if Malbeth the Seer were here, we might know all the better.

[ninja91]

As long as there are people like us who keep the fire alive, Tolkien and his works will never fade. Fans will come and go, but the flow of topics, mysteries, and excitement of Middle-Earth will never run dry.