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	Subtopic	Started By	Posts
	Archive through Jul 15, 2003 Last Post: Feb 07, 2004, 08:26 am		20
	Archive through Dec 24, 2002 Last Post: Jan 31, 2003, 10:46 pm		20

Posted By: deejay Jul 19, 2003 - 11:17 pm

Shanko9,
[Mild flamebait removed. deejay took exception to something that has since been edited. Bmat]

Posted By: Bmat Jul 19, 2003 - 11:50 pm

[deejay, I know you mean well, but controlling flamebait is what I do. It is better to contact me about flames and flamebait that you notice than to comment on it on the thread and run the risk of starting up a flaming session. Alternately, you could email the member. Any further remarks on this matter should be emailed to me.Bmat]

bmat@speculativevision.com

Posted By: thegreentick Sep 24, 2003 - 12:11 pm

I rather liked the first book. It did take me a couple days to read because it digests more like a 4 course meal rather than a very tasty dessert.

I really liked the second book. There was a lot more "dessert" to it. The first book was more for introducing the world as they travelled through it. Almost like a beginner's guide through the eyes of the characters. The second was where I thought it picked up. The third was good as well. I really liked the books but in a different way that I like Jordan or Goodkind for example. Both are fantasy but they are different styles.

Posted By: Athalia Oct 02, 2003 - 08:16 am

I read 'em only because I wanted to know what would happen in the movies. Ended up liking them alot. They're kinda heavy-handed with the flowly language deparment though.

Posted By: Octavius Feb 07, 2004 - 08:26 am

It's very sad to hear you young punks trashing a book you have read after seeing the movie.
In May this year I will be 44 years old. I first read LOTR in 1974 then again in 1982 and then 4 more times over the next 22 years. At no stage was I bored or tempted to put this masterpiece down. With every reading I discover something new that I have missed or missunderstood on previous occasions. That's one of the beauties of an involved, complex and "YES" long novel. I will keep reading it again every 10 years or so because it deserves respect and dedication.
Then relatively recently, for me anyway, the movies were released. And yes they were great, I loved them all. But please don't write crap like,

"The movies were great but the book was a bore."

A great author like Tolkien deserves more than to be found wanting when compared to the cinematic version of his opus.
If you write on this forum, I presume it's because you enjoy reading. Please have more respect for the craftsmen of this most time honoured and well loved art.

Posted By: gypsychic Feb 07, 2004 - 01:41 pm

Octavius, people are entitled to like the movie better, and people are entitled to find the books boring while finding the movie enjoyable. That doesn't make their opinions "crap."

Tolkien was first and foremost a scholar. His trilogy was, among other things, an attempt to recapture a very old style of storytelling, similar to what you'd see in "The Green Knight" or even "Gilgamesh." In that style of literature, character exploration was of less importance that plot and moral, etc.

However, modern literature revolves far more around character development. The concept of the individual now holds greater importance. The movies reflect this trend. Does that make them "better"? Maybe, maybe not. But for someone that's more interested in character development, it's only natural to find the books boring and the movies interesting. That has very little to do with age, and quite a bit to do with personal taste. Time and education may breed appreciation for a classic, understanding of its value, etc. But only personal taste brings enjoyment.

And no authur, no matter how great or how respected, is immune to criticism. That is no lack of respect. Lack of respect would be to find his books not worth discussing at all.

Posted By: Octavius Feb 08, 2004 - 04:03 am

Yeah you're right. I was a bit drunk when I wrote that last night. It even seemed a bit harsh to me when I reread it today, lol.

Posted By: gypsychic Feb 08, 2004 - 06:27 am

lol - if I'd realized that I'd have just told you to sleep it off and left it at that.

Posted By: Nightblade Feb 16, 2004 - 10:08 pm

I remember being exposed to the Hobbit and LOTR etc by my dad at an early age. He's a big Tolkien fan as is my grandad who influenced him. Meh, I guess it's tradition. I didn't have any problems with it; in fact I thoroughly enjoyed reading them (took a while though ^^). At the time a lot of the words might have confused me but I thought Tolkien created a wonderful world filled with all sorts of characters, creatures, morals and such.

Posted By: Aldan Feb 17, 2004 - 07:13 am

Now I, on the other hand, was exposed to Tolkien by my adoptive father, who gave me the LOTR trilogy back when I was 10 1/2 yrs old (yes, way back then!). I started right at the beginning of FOTR and worked my way through it (tough though it was) because I was newly adopted and wanted to be able to have something to tie myself to my adopted dad. Luckily, I had a pretty large vocabulary and a good understanding of the language Tolkien used in Fellowship, and for that reason, I was able to continue through the VERY slow beginning. However, by the end of FOTR, I was totally hooked, and I then devoured TTT and ROTK (mmm... tasty!). It wasn't until another 6 months had passed that I finally got a copy of The Hobbit and read it. It filled in some serious questions I had, but I thought it was too "kiddie" for my oh, so mature 11 year old mind. *Aldan smirks in memory*

Posted By: Odrade Feb 17, 2004 - 09:26 am

I find both the LOTR books and movies enjoyable, but for different reasons. Character vs. story development might be some of it. But sometimes it is nice to see movies that aren't crappy reproductions of the books. i like the fact it didn't try to follow the book exactly, because it would have failed to follow it the way i imagine it in my head when i read it. the differences were not large, but large enough so i wasn't always comparing the movies to the books. i do wish they had tom bombadil in the movie though....i liked that guy and his lady love.

Posted By: Gnollslayer Sep 19, 2004 - 06:53 pm

I read LOTR when I was about ten, too. I liked the whole trilogy, I even memorized a lot of it. Up until third grade I'd considered fantasy to be stupid, but LOTR changed my mind. Actually, it reversed polarity on me. I read Chronicles of Narnia right afterwards and began playing Middle Earth: the Wizards, and Magic: the Gathering, thus securing my reputation as a nerd forever.

I'd like to thank Tolkien for making me a fantasy addict, because if it weren't for that my life would be a lot more boring.

Posted By: Timmy_K Nov 22, 2004 - 08:52 am

I wonder how many people can credit either Tolkien or C.S. Lewis for initially getting them into fantasy? I'm guessing it's as high as 75% of the people that now read fantasy.

Posted By: Bmat Nov 22, 2004 - 09:40 am

My first fantasy was in childhood as fairy tales.

Posted By: Nomad Nov 22, 2004 - 04:40 pm

I did not read true fantasy ntil I was in my late twenties

Posted By: Aldan Nov 22, 2004 - 08:02 pm

I was 11 yrs old. My father gave me his Tolkein books on that birthday (one of the most important birthday gifts ever, I might add!). I was exposed to fairy tales, but didn't get immersed in them (too critical, always picking apart plot devices), so I count J.R.R. as my first true fantasy author read, though I did read the Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis, shortly after I finished those.

Posted By: Magus Nov 27, 2004 - 06:14 am

I suppose I'd have to say that Fairy Tales were my first fantasy as well. But the first fantasy that I chose and read myself was J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. That was the only fantasy I read for years, rereading it over and over again. I eventually got into other fantasy, can The Devil's Donkey really be defined as fantasy.

The I read The Lord of the Rings and that just jump started everything. Since then I have become a fantasy nut, although I had definately enjoyed the genre in both book and film formats for some time prior.