The Perils of Pedantry

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

That attitude, if the title did not give it away, is pedantry.

Now, the Tolkien fandom has a long and noble tradition of pedantry. I was quite a vociferous pedant myself, back in the First Age, and there is something good that it bespeaks: a kinship of sorts between the readers and Tolkien himself: we match his devotion to all the details in his creation by treating each of those details with the same love and care that he did.

But...

It can also be really toxic.

Not necessarily for the pedant themself, all the time (though I do think that acting ignobly does corrupt the soul, even if that might be over-stating the case ever so slightly), but I don't think it's possible to argue that pedantry is, at best, tolerably amusing to those not doing it and, at worst, the mortar shells of violent gate-keeping in which the trueness of one's fandom is determined by the breadth and length of one's knowledge of the footnotes in the HoME.

ped·ant·ry
/ˈped(ə)ntrē/
noun
excessive concern with minor details and rules.


I recall seeing Disney's The Sword in the Stone when I was a child. I enjoyed it at 5 years old. It was captivating as a kid. But when I was old enough to read T.H. White's The Once and Future King (from which the Disney cartoon is "loosely" adapted), I was angry, heartbroken and sick to my stomach all at once.

That such a grave, often uproariously funny, and at the same time infinitely sad, novel could be turned into an animated dung heap of cliches, misrepresentations and out-and-out fabrication became detestable to me. I haven't seen the cartoon since, but I read the novel every decade or so because it means as much to me from a literary fantasy point of view as Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Believing an adaptation to be egregious fan-fiction cod-swallow would not, in my estimation, be considered pedantry. I made it through the roller coaster ride of Peter Jackson's LOTR films, finding solace in the occassional bright sun peering through the clouds of CGI inanity -- that is until that rollercoster ride left the rails altogether during The Hobbit films faster than Arrakis sandworms could tunnel through the roots of Mount Erebor.

I've read the spoilers regarding the Amazon adaptation The Rings of Power. I've seen the presentations of the various characters with bad haircuts, read reviews, and followed the commentary here. I find I am not desperate enough for a film variation of Tolkien to want to watch it and try my patience, because any of you who have known me over the years know I have no patience for nonsense. I've already done that with Peter Jackson's ever-mounting pompously fan-fictionary rewriting of LOTR and The Hobbit.

Based on comments I've read here and on the BD Facebook page, it would seem any commentary I would provide would not be welcome. Evidently, to point out that numerous items (both minor and major) in the first few espisodes are simply absurd, unsettling or just plain dumb will ruin the immersive effects of this Tolkien-lite for the rest of you.

Therefore, I will not add any further comments regarding this piece of...art. Sorry for being "pedantic", but I have too much respect for Middle-earth to settle.