I remember your 2009 posting, but any discussion has long since faded from memory without looking it up again.
In many ways, my perception of the books has largely followed that of your first and now third readings. I suspect I'm still too much of an action junkie to appreciate the Frodo/Sam relationship to the same extent you did, but for me it really did come down to being the most relate-able points of the story.
What changed for me was having (finally) read the Silmarillion in 2007. Reading Lord of the Rings after that, just felt flat... like your comments throughout the review that it was the background history coming through far too strongly for what the nominal story was to be interesting in its own right.
I read the Silmarillion several years ago (one of my favorite books ever), and on this LotR reread, I was struck by how interesting it was (for me) to read one small part of something that I now know is much more massive. I didn't experience any lessening of LotR, because it was just like reading a section of interesting, familiar history. But I'm sure that varies from person to person, and I can say that it wasn't as epic as it was, and the language might not impress me as much, but it was definitely like coming back to an old friend. I really enjoyed it - in fact, I'm having trouble not rereading it again right now.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
12/12/2011 04:25:26 AM
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Thank you for reposting these.
12/12/2011 04:36:06 PM
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Interestingly enough
13/12/2011 12:10:08 AM
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Re: Interestingly enough
13/12/2011 12:42:10 PM
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I think
13/12/2011 01:21:41 PM
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Probably, yes, but still no excuse for allowing the worldbuilding to overpower the story being told.
13/12/2011 04:00:23 PM
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We'll have to disagree.
14/12/2011 12:46:23 AM
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Re-reads after a long period of time can lead to surprising results
13/12/2011 01:02:23 AM
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The speech patterns were intentional, but not meant to be "archaic".
14/12/2011 04:02:55 AM
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Oh, I know that
14/12/2011 08:25:53 AM
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I love the dialogue in LOTR. a more modern voice would be terrible *NM*
15/12/2011 06:09:18 PM
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