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stoneandbloodandwater:
“ rachelraaaaage:
“ fangorn-f0rest:
“ “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time,” Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. “The chasm between the beauty and seriousness...

stoneandbloodandwater:

rachelraaaaage:

fangorn-f0rest:

“Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time,” Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. “The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away.”

It is hard to say who has won this silent battle between popularity and respect for the text. Nor who, finally, has the Ring. One thing is certain: from father to son, a great part of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien has now emerged from its boxes, thanks to the infinite perseverance of his son.

Ok, seriously? You’re going to be that stuck-up about it? “Oh, TOO MANY people have been exposed to, and love his work today (probably because of the movies, when many people may not have *ever* been exposed to it otherwise). Now it means nothing because the mainstream has accepted it and dissected every bit of it to find meaning for themselves, when before it would’ve been something only studied in a literature class. It has lost it’s elitism.”

Nope, sorry. I don’t buy that Tolkien wouldn’t have loved his work being immortalized over and over again because of how great and complex his world is.

No, I don’t think that’s what he’s saying at all. In fact, I kind of agree with him. Not that I think it’s wrong to make film adaptations with merchandising options and push that stuff commercially as much as possible. But is that the whole of Tolkien’s work? Absolutely not and it insults his memory and his work every time people insinuate that. It’s some large part of Tolkien’s work as interpreted by Peter Jackson and it is a very specific interpretation. There are parts he skips (most specifically, imo, The Rape of the Shire and a large part of Faramir and Eowyn’s arc) and themes he does not emphasize or even actively de-emphasizes. They are beautiful films with many layers, layers that often correspond to those in the books, but they do not encompass the whole of the books themselves, nor do they take into account the other books. Tolkien had personal philosophical, religious, and literary beliefs that he wrote about extensively - they don’t enter into the movies much. Part of the reason for this is because those philosophies can’t really ever figure into a commercial, Hollywood enterprise - they are distinctly anti-industrial, anti-commercial I don’t think it’s elitist to say that Tolkien would be horrified that you can buy Anduril in SkyMall. It’s just a fact extrapolated from what he wrote. I don’t think it’s elitist to say that he would be upset that his work is always, always connected to a whole genre of that while similar in content is often thematically opposed to Tolkien’s body of work (think about how many fantasy books glorify the military and violence) and this connection is made for the academic and commercial benefit of those works and has frankly tarnished Tolkien’s reputation because the quality of those books is not up to his standard at all. Well, maybe that’s elitist, to say that most fantasy isn’t as complex, academically sound, or well-thought out as Tolkien, but I think that’s true. And, frankly, the juggernaut of the film franchise encourages the misconception that Tolkien is just D&D on steroids. I agree with Christopher Tolkien that this is an extreme disservice to his father’s work, which had academic and philosophical aspects which are just not touched on in this modern iterations.

 
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