SimVig Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 As Jesugandalf said, most people who don't like the books think they are childish. They think that anything that is added to the world that doesn't exist is meant for children. My mom is like that, so I have experienced it first-hand. I think that the people who think like that should let their imagination work a little, and just enjoy the story and not constanly think that it's unrealistic. As for myself, I just loved the books (also read them after I saw the movie), and the movie is good, it did its job and that is bringing the books to the attention of the 'little ignorant fools' like myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesugandalf Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 I think the main problem of the people who don't like the books is that they don't find anything "substantial" to say against them, and so they say they're "childish". I even now a girl, twenty-somethings, who says Lord of the Rings is a book for children and doesn't like it (more than a thousand pages, and for children :bleh:), but nevertheless enjoys a lot reading the Harry Potter series... which of course she says aren't for children as much as LotR are... Well, I like Harry Potter as well, but I do recognise they're more books for children than The Lord of the Rings... although I may be wrong... :shifty: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darnoc Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 I think it is not a question of liking or disliking. Even when I dislike a classic I have to accept that it is a classic and therefore will have to read it, just for the sake of my education. LotR is one of those books, which you have to read, like the books of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Wilde, Goethe, Schiller, Victor Hugo, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Gottfried Keller etc. etc. I also don't like some books those people have written (Victor Hugo is just to depressing) but they are works of literature and in order to educate myself I'll read them. And to think that imagination is childish: Were all the people who told stories, ballades and sagas in earlier times childish? Stories were a part of every culture and a very important one. What do you call the "Nibelungenlied" then? Isn't this also a piece of literature? But it is full of imaginary beings like dragons and dwarves (called Nibelungen there). Or what is with all the Greek legends and the Saga of Gilgamesch? All these stories were teachings, they told the listeners something about the world. And that is still the purpose of stories and LotR also is in this tradition. I think someone who doesn't use his imagination is a very poor person and misses one of the most important aspects of life. Where would we be without people who use their imagination? Would we be so advanced as we are now? If everyone would think that way your mother does, SimVig, we still would live in the stone age!!! Visionary people are taking the first step into the future and the rest of the people, who are mostly too dull and too stupid to make this first step, will follow sooner or later, even when they first say "This is against tradition!" or "This is childish, no adult person should think about such things!". Sorry, I just hate people like that. I think such people are the more childish ones, because they try to force themselves into something (to be adult). What they don't understand that to be an adult means that you develope your mind and learn to use it and not to act in a certain way. When you achieved to use your mind on a certain level (of course this level depends on your abilities), then you are an adult. So therefore any person not using or training it's mind is not adult, even when he or she is has reached the age of adultness. And with this in mind I must say that I have seen young people who are more adult than some people who claim to be adult. In the Renaissance they said "Humans aren't born, they are educated". Even when this sounds harsh and brutal (every child would be not a human), it has some truth in it. I would just rephrase it into "You aren't adult when you reach a certain age and learn to act in a certain way, you are adult when you learn to use your abilities in a proper way". That is the difference between a child and an adult person. Don't bother my talking and let's get back to the topic :) I just really hate it to see such people who act like they are adults but in fact are just big children who like to play a little "I am an adult person". Sadly, a lot of people are like this today. So you guys just buy every book and read it, may it be fantasy, sciencefiction or whatever. It came never harm from reading a book (wasn't this sentence in "The Mumy"?), you can only learn from doing this. Worst thing that can happen is that you learn how bad someone can write a story and take an example of it (and never write a story as bad as the story you just read). By the way, I read the books years before the films. I learned about the film about in 2000 or so and was really excited to see my favorite book on the screen. I probably read it every half a year. And of course also the Silmarillion. And of course the Book of Lost Tales. But at the moment I have some problems with money and I can't buy more :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maquissar Posted February 5, 2004 Share Posted February 5, 2004 I loved the book, and I loved the movies... although in my opinion the book is by far superior. The movies were a wonderful - although at times questionable - adaptation, but the book is truly a masterpiece ;) My only regret is that I read the book AFTER having seen the Fellowship of the Ring... I haven't even heard of Tolkien before the Fellowship of the Ring, or rather... I had heard about the name but I didn't know who he was nor what he had written. I also remember playing "The Lord of the Rings - volume I" by Interplay on my Amiga back in my early teenage years, but after a while I got bored with it... only in 2001 did I find out that it actually was based on an existing novel :) Truly a wasted adolescence, wasn't it? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mojlnir Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 I, or course, voted for having loved the books. My family are Tolkien freaks, my parents (while they were dating) used to read to each other out of these books. Then, they became my bed time stories when I was a baby and again through early childhood. It is one of the first books I remember having read on my own, along with the Hobbit. I have read them now 13 times all told...and every time I read them again I find something new to marvel at. They are truly some of the greatest books ever written, and Tolkien will be remembered as one of histories greatest writers. The movies, as entities in their own right, were excellent and will stand as the definitive film version of Lord of the Rings for what I can only guess will be a VERY long time. They were, however, not the books and as such lacked the imaginitve quality that makes the books so wonderful. Needless to say, I love them both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmid Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 Well, so far, 20 votes and still at 100% loved. About right, in my opinion. ^_^ This book is superb, no doubt about it. After all, it was voted Britain's most loved book in that Big Read thing on the BBC. By the way, isn't this: I even now a girl, twenty-somethings, who says Lord of the Rings is a book for children and doesn't like it (more than a thousand pages, and for children :bleh: ), but nevertheless enjoys a lot reading the Harry Potter series... which of course she says aren't for children as much as LotR are... Well, I like Harry Potter as well, but I do recognise they're more books for children than The Lord of the Rings... although I may be wrong... :shifty: against the ToS? :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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