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I will be very surprised if this Tolkien biography is anything but rubbish.
 
...Tolkien biography...

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maximus otter
 
Why has Hollywood decided that overly melodramaticised biopics of historical or (worse) contemporary characters are what audiences really want? They used to be the preserve of low-budget daytime production companies.

I know this marks me out as a not-so-old fogey, but I simply refuse to view such films.

The same goes for superhero movies (a product and driver of societal infantilisation), all of the ones I've seem are risibly repetitive in terms of plot and characterisation. They were bad enough when they just looked like Michael Bay movies with 'fan service', but I have even less appetite for films with a clunky 'political' message crowbared in.

Get off my lawn!
 
Why has Hollywood decided that overly melodramaticised biopics of historical or (worse) contemporary characters are what audiences really want? They used to be the preserve of low-budget daytime production companies.

I know this marks me out as a not-so-old fogey, but I simply refuse to view such films.

The same goes for superhero movies (a product and driver of societal infantilisation), all of the ones I've seem are risibly repetitive in terms of plot and characterisation. They were bad enough when they just looked like Michael Bay movies with 'fan service', but I have even less appetite for films with a clunky 'political' message crowbared in.

Get off my lawn!
Wow superhero movies are just a fun escape for an hour or two and definitely don't turn people into permanent children and not every thing has to be taken seriously and for God sake man enjoy life a little.
 
Wow superhero movies are just a fun escape for an hour or two and definitely don't turn people into permanent children and not every thing has to be taken seriously and for God sake man enjoy life a little.

And I assure you that I do enjoy life--but not with superhero movies. I confess that I haven't seen one for a few years, but I always found them hackneyed and formulaic. Comic books needn't be, by the way, but the attempt to adapt, sweeten and distill them into a two-hour, sequel-friendly package tends to generate tripe.

Watchmen was filled with promising seeds, but ultimately it failed in the delivery.
 
Sundry Tolkien thoughts, or My Tolkien Journey...

My first experience of Tolkien was semi-mythical in that my dad owned 60s copies of LOTR and The Hobbit and said I'd like them, or LOTR at least, "when I was older"; I was in primary school at the time and loved anything fantastical. I accepted this at the time and it meant that the book acquired an almost Necronomicon-esque weight for a decade or so before I read it in my teens. I saw the Bakshi animation when I was maybe 9 or 10 and absolutely loved it and repeatedly watched it, to the point where I could probably quote along with it if I watched it now, despite not having seen it for 20ish years. I was put off by the orcs being film negatives whilst the main characters were animated, if rotoscoped but put up with this as I loved it so much. I still remember it fondly and would probably enjoy it if I watched it again now, though it's messy and rough around the edges.

Soon after I was given A Tolkien Bestiary by David Day, which lists places and events as well as creatures and people, essentially an encyclopedia with many, may illustrations. I devoured this obsessively the way you do in childhood, around the same time I was doing the same thing with the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Guidebook and supplements.

Due to listening to my dad, I didn't read The Hobbit until I was 11-12 and loved it, though should have read it sooner (was reading "adult" non-fiction much younger) and would probably have loved it more then. Didn't eventually read LOTR until I was 17, spent many a happy hour sat in the shade at the bottom of the garden, next yo our rabbit pen reading it one summer. Despite being a little "old" for first read of LOTR I absolutely loved it, cried at the end (wimp) and was devastated when I thought Shelob had killed Frodo. It essentially marked the end of my childhood reading, at least of fiction - a few weeks later I saw a documentary on Wilde, then bought the complete works and read them obsessively and for several years became a Literary Snob who refused to read "mere" genre fiction.

I initially didn't reread LOTR due to wanting to "give it some breathing room" before returning, I decided it was an exception above my snobbery, I also wanted to immerse myself in literary "classics" and do some catch up. After some time the delay became due the increasingly nagging doubts that if I returned to LOTR I wouldn't love it as much as I had done. I was young and you change quickly then and I;d just greatly widened my reading horizons. I delayed my reread until after the final Jackson film came out and attempted it again in my mid-20s whilst actually travelling around NZ, which seemed like the perfect time.

It turns out my instincts where correct, I found the book fine but dull, poorly paced and simultaneously over and underwritten. Tolkien is fond of often stilted archaisms and is in my opinion a functional prose writer. I forced myself to get halfway and then admitted defeat, this was done with some sadness but I think it was the best decision, I decided I'd rather retain my happy memories of reading it the first time than tarnish them. At this remove I don't regret the decision, at the point I still have far more potent memories of the initial read than of the second one, of which I can only recall mild boredom and disappointment. I had similar experience, albeit more muted attempted to reread The Hobbit just prior to the first film and likewise gave up, though this time much more quickly.

I still have enormous affection for both books The Bestiary and the Bakshi and will certainly return to the latter two but probably never the former. I loved and still love Bakshi's use of the archaic dialogue from the books, which Jackson excised to a greater degree; even if I found it harder to (re)read. If Tolkien is your thing in any way I'm not attempting to shit on it and the LOTR in particular has that almost indefinable "X Factor" that many great works of art have, however flawed they may be. I attempted The Silmarillion in a flurry of post LOTR enthusiam and gace up after three pages, to date I've read more of Finnegans Wake, the observation that it is "an Elvish telephone directory" ring true for me, never attempted Lost Tales as a result, despite buying it.

I've gone on longer than I meant to so will leave out further observations and will comment (no doubt at length) on the Jackson films.
 
Mmmm... whimsy. A much underrated art form. I think Oliver Postgate had mastery of it.

I read the book in my early teens, I seem to remember laughing out loud at the part when Chrysophylax Dives attacks the knights without waiting for them to finish their formal challenges.:mattack:
 
Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wooton Major - especially the latter. Also Tree and Leaf and the poems too.
 
With regard to his poetry I just found this recording of Tolkien himself murdering (in my humble opinion) one of my favourites of his.

 
You're going to like this:

Gollum as seen by Soviet artist Mikhail Belomlinsky (1976). He's best known for his astonishing illustrations for the Soviet edition of The Hobbit

View attachment 15436

See below for many examples:
https://mashable.com/2015/12/25/soviet-hobbit/#icz.bfITr8qq

Edit: this one is brilliant.

View attachment 15437

The only thing l didn’t see on the title page was Й.Р.Р. Толкиен.

Typical Russkies: file off the serial numbers and respray it...

maximus otter
 
The only thing l didn’t see on the title page was Й.Р.Р. Толкиен.

Typical Russkies: file off the serial numbers and respray it...

maximus otter
Tell me, Max, did CID ever tap you up? I couldn't help noticing this large image, unobtrusively located right at the top of the page Yith linked to:wp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F12%2Fhobbit-1.jpg%2Foriginal.jpg
The very first words, in a smaller font nestled under the dragon, are the ones you might be particularly interested in. The one thing that does surprise me is that they retain the initials, when very often Russians refer to Anglophone authors by first name, surname. There is, for example, a very famous translation by Boris Zakhoder of Alan Milne's best-known work...
 
On a different tack, for Tolkien inspired music I can recommend Blind Guardian's Nightfall on Middle Earth.

Wm.
 
I'm looking forward to the biopic, he looks like such a romantic warrior professor in the trailer!
 
There's no artwork in LOTR isn't there? Other than maybe a map and maybe a picture of the door to Moria?
Dunno? .. I thought Tolkien did some other doodles himself at some point but I could be wrong for these earliest editions.
 
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