Re-reads after a long period of time can lead to surprising results
Larry Send a noteboard - 13/12/2011 01:02:23 AM
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.
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 am reminded of a comment that Borges said about how every book is an unfinished edition. I think he was referencing more to how writers want to re-read what they have written even long after the story has been published, but the same can apply to what we read and when we re-read it.
The problem I've run into reading (and of course, re-reading) the majority of the epic fantasies that I've read the past few years is that the mechanics of the story (the created setting, the presumed "need" to explain that setting and its "history," the types of characters and how they are introduced) feel more and more alike. Yes, this is a characteristic of genre writing in that there is supposed to be a built in sort of familiarity, but if there are no true inventions that are introduced (having characters swear, shit, and die all over the place aren't inventions to me), then the story begins to feel predictable (insert character snide remark here, witty repartee there, culminating with a graphically-described climax over there) and I am left wanting more. Tolkien's works suffer upon a re-read in part because of the sketchiness of the imitators and even those who write in reaction to it: the setting feels too intrusive, especially when one had to endure infodump after infodump in imitative works; the dialogue feels stilted in comparison to both the source material and more "modern" works that are read; and the characterizations, because of the copy-cat works, can feel a bit trite at times.
I wish I could find the full text of preeminent American literary critic Edmund Wilson's scathing review of LotR, as I recall there were some relevant points for those who aren't (as) captivated by the invented setting or its close relationship to Anglo-Saxon and Norse legends and eddas. While I don't dismiss LotR out of hand, I do think it is rather telling that the subgenre of books "inspired" by it are on the whole rather forgettable, empty works that rarely hold up well when read again after an interval of a decade or two.
As for Tolkien's best fiction, I think the heavily-edited The Children of Húrin is a superior work in regards to character, theme, and (invented) setting. Yet in regards to character voice, those sometimes damnable hobbits do have their better qualities.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
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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