J.R.R. Tolken

[readertim109]

What do you think of Tolken, author of the Lord of the Rings series? He's got quite an imagination, eh? Do you think he's a good writer?

[hobbit]

JRR Tolken was a fantastic author! I love the Lord of the Rings!

[awelker]

I tried reading these books and couldn't get into them. i don't know if it was me but tolken seemed to drag on and on about certain topics. i mean he would talk a page and a half about the meadow. it was just really boring.

[hisworldwaspossibility]

I read LOTR when I was in middle school and have been meaning to reread all the books. Tolkien is a very good author, and he's adept at creating depth in his characters and especially scenes. He was also an accomplished medieval scholar and literary critic; try his The Monsters and the Critics, about Beowulf, if you're interested in his nonfiction work.

[sleepydumpling]

I'm the same as you awelker, I tried hard to read Tolkein but just couldn't get hooked into them. I can see the skill in his writing, but they are very wordy and long. Maybe one day I'll get hooked but at this point it's too much for me.

[Lothlauren]

Tolkien was a very good author, and many authors have springboarded from his success.

There is hints of his elvish language in many other books along with the other languages he has concieved.

You see hints of his influence in writers like robert jordan and even terry goodkind. (You want to see an author go on about a single item for a long time read some of Robert Jordan's stuff)

Tolkiens more obscure writings would be the books of lost tales or the simillarion.

[Niphredil]

oooh Iv never been sure about Tolkein as a writer...

He clearly had a very powerful imagination. The images he magics up can be enthralling and its ery very easy to lose yourself in his words (as I did for the better part of four years...).

But as for technical writing abilty...he very often falls short. Which is why other writers such as Terry Brooks can get away with using basically the same plot and characters (The Sword of Shannara is very nearly Lord of the Rings), but with, to be honest, a more gripping style. I think part of the problem is that he writes in this very standard english, constructed style of long sentences and exact langauge, while his books are now put in the fantasy section. And really, how many fantasy book readers have that patience? Especially when there are so many writers now doing the same plot in "better" ways.

As for getting into his books...Lord of the Rings is difficult in that manner cause he started it as a childrens book, a sequel to the Hobbit. And you can tell as well, especially in the first half of Fellowship. Few people get past there.

Watching the films first can also ruin it, as I've found with some of my friends. I liked it before it was cool, dammit!

Still, even when your not looking at plot, character or wiriting style, you get the impression sometimes that the whole thing is an experiment from his langauge studies at Oxford. But then, is that such a bad thing?

[amsmith]

JRR Tolkien's abilities as a writer have been questioned from the very moment of The Lord of the Rings publication. Famous literary critic Edmund Wilson called Tolkien's writing style an entire host of nasty things, and the modern literary demi-god Harold Bloom has very little flattering to say of it either.

I believe they miss the point entirely. Tolkien did indeed write in a very archaic style, and it was a form of writing that he deliberately chose to tell what he saw as a very archaic, mythological, and heroic tale. He wrote in the diction he was more familiar awith, the heroic "heigh stile" as Tolkien called it that he knew from early Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Finnish literature. This "heigh stile" is far more apparent in his posthumously published writings of Middle-earth, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and the recently published Children of Hurin.

Tolkien was highly aware that his style would be panned by many as "outdated" and "affected". Yet he was anything but modern in taste. My personal standpoint is that Tolkien's style helped to make the books what they are, the most powerful fantasy novels of the twentieth century.

Others certainly have the right to disagree on this issue. Tolkien himself was fully aware that his archaic writing style would not appeal to many readers, particularly those who had become accustomed to more "modern" writing styles. In fact, both he and his publishers were exceedingly surprised by the incredible popularity of his writings.

[Dori]

I love J.R.R. Tolkien's books. My favorite book, in fact, is The Hobbit (as I've mentioned before). I haven't read The Return of the King yet (the movie sort of ruined it for me) but I am planning on it. I also am planning on reading his more obscure writings, such as The Book of Lost Tales, The Silmarillion, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-Earth, and The Lost Road and Other Stories. I own all of these, but I haven't actually sat down and read them.

I also want to buy the newly released Tolkien book, The Children of Hurin.

[Rebeca Darklight]

Read The Return of the King Dori! I think it's the best part of the book. I also liked The Hobbit a lot.

I like Tolkien, I really liked LOTR, but I understand why many can't get past the first volume, it drags a little (or a lot). Give it a chance girls, it gets better after the middle of Fellowship.

I have tried to read the other books you mention Dori, but I have to admit that those got me bored... hehehe, so I stopped every time and moved on to other books. I'll try it to read them again. I will, I always go back.

[Anna]

Yeah, I loved all of the LOTR movies but I haven't actually read the books - knowing the story line had kinda killed teh interest. I started to read 'The Shapping of Middle-Earth' ages ago but I got reeaally bored reading that so I I was never really interested in reading his other books. Maybe it was just that one particular book...

[Dori]

Read The Return of the King Dori! I think it's the best part of the book. I also liked The Hobbit a lot.

I plan on reading it this summer.

I have tried to read the other books you mention Dori, but I have to admit that those got me bored... hehehe, so I stopped every time and moved on to other books. I'll try it to read them again. I will, I always go back.

I started The Silmarillion once a few years ago and stopped. I don't plan on reading the rest page for page; I'd rather read the tales and stories that interest me.

[Rebeca Darklight]

That's also a good method. I did that with Unfinished tales, I read some I liked and then left the book for good. It was boring...

[Dori]

I hardly find Tolkien boring (which probably explains the three biographies I read on him). Voltaire once said: "The secret to being boring is to reveal everything" (I came across this quote today and thought I might use it). This is hardly the case with Tolkien. His ideas for Middle-earth are fantastic , but his writing may seem a little dull (from what I've seen). I started reading The Silmarillion when I was thirteen years old so I didn't quite understand it when I read it. The Hobbit was much more to my taste back then .

In the long run I'll probably end up reading most of what is contained in the aformentioned books.

[complimentarymatters]

What is The Silmarillion? Is it part of the LOTR series?