Will The Hobbit do damage to the books?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

The real questions, for me, are, "How are the movies affecting the conversations I am having about Tolkien right now?" and with thoughts of my son in mind, "How will they affect those conversations going forward?"

My own observation is that in this world, with its relentless drive for 'efficiency' and technology, reading is fast becoming an anachronism.
Of course, there are still those who enjoy quiet time with a book (and I daresay this forum is rife with them), but especially with the millennial generation and beyond, my fear is that PJ's films will in time become what the majority thinks of when they hear 'hobbit'.
Those of us who would like to put on the brakes a bit, at least in our own lives, can do what we can to transmit our love of reading to our offspring. I think I've made some progress with mine, though I've yet to convince her to read any Tolkien. Then again, she's just 10, so there's hope.

At the core of it, I don't think it's the movies themselves I deplore, but the seeming idea that they and boring, old-fashioned, CGI-less books simply cannot share a stage indefinitely, and that one or the other will fall by the wayside. My money is not on the books to win out. But as Gandalf said, ours isn't to master the tides of the world, but to do our part in our own small way.