Has it all been said?

[davem]

Originally Posted by drigel

Most of the recent publications look to me like nothing more than money making ventures that are capitalizing on a recent upswing in popularity.

I think that's always been the case. There have always been attempts to cash in on Tolkien's name, but what we seem to be getting now is even the attempts at 'serious' investigation/analysis are obscure or simply irrelevant. I'm not saying that's the case with everything that's published. The recent book 'Ring of Words' analysing Tolkien's use of particular words & his time working on the OED was interesting. The forthcoming 'Companion & Guide' by Hammond & Scull & the 'Tolkien Encyclopedia' will, I'm sure, be as interesting as they are expensive. But I suspect that 95% of what they contain will be stuff that is already known, & simply gathered together in one place (a very Hobbitish thing to do, admittedly).