When is LotR bad for you? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Melilot Brandybuck · 10-08-2007, 03:47 AM

My mother-in-law once said to me, when I told her I enjoyed reading Tolkien, that only "hippies and weird people read THOSE silly books."

Well, I'm not a hippy (that era was before my time) so I guess that means i'm *weird.*

In my MIL's mind, well-brought-up English middle-class ladies do not read THOSE types of silly books. I couldn't help thinking, after that exchange, that had MIL ever met Tolkien, she probably would have very much approved of him as a person and a scholar.

I'm sure she thinks of him as a funny little bearded man sat in a cave with flowers in his hair and old typewriter, whose inspiration comes as the result of a drug-induced dream.

10-08-2007, 03:47 AM	#5
Melilot Brandybuck Animated Skeleton Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 35	My mother-in-law thought she should discourage me My mother-in-law once said to me, when I told her I enjoyed reading Tolkien, that only "hippies and weird people read THOSE silly books." Well, I'm not a hippy (that era was before my time) so I guess that means i'm weird. In my MIL's mind, well-brought-up English middle-class ladies do not read THOSE types of silly books. I couldn't help thinking, after that exchange, that had MIL ever met Tolkien, she probably would have very much approved of him as a person and a scholar. I'm sure she thinks of him as a funny little bearded man sat in a cave with flowers in his hair and old typewriter, whose inspiration comes as the result of a drug-induced dream. __________________ The original and best Mel B