Subject:
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Re: Lord of the Rings is actually a drug turf war story!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 2 Sep 2003 04:19:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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271 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
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http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/04/22fellowship.html
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I have to assume that it is not serious because literary criticism is not
usually terribly serious. The ideas behind critical theory are serious, but not
often the uses to which they are put.
Plus, while some of the points are very valid, some of it is a stretch. I think
they have the political background more or less right -- do we today support
monarchies as the zenith of political evolution? At the heart of the story is a
political stance that most modern readers must ultimately abhor.
Anyway, it’s a just a semi-interesting children’s story, a minor fantasy
diversion. I don’t think it’s great literature -- it’s just a pastiche of
northern european mythology. It has that viking-like prescience of future doom,
but teaches one to make the best of it in the meanwhile. I read it while I’m in
the bathroom or if I have to go stand in line at the DMV or something. It’s
taking me forever because I find it the easiest thing in the world to put down.
It is absolutely not a page-turner. And is it just me, or are some of Tolkien’s
best ideas in the appendices where they are given short shrift? Yeah, that was
smart...
I dunno, I think the movies might be telling a better story overall. There’s
more emotional impact somehow -- MORE of the Aragorn and Arwen love story, AND
LESS Tom Bombadill or whatever (a character in the novels that I should have
loved but hated instead). Still, the movies have done three unforgivable things
so far: minimize the relationship between Legolas and Gimli, relegate Gimli to a
position of mere comedy relief, and then there’s that scene of Legolas “surfing”
down the stairway on a shield...Ugh! Yeah, that was visually lyrical...NOT!
-- Hop-Frog
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