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Apr. 11th, 2008 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nigeltdeSo ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
truepenny linked to this survey a guy is doing on people's relationships to Tolkien's work. It's a great chance to contribute to what one hopes would be a valuable oral history of Tolkien fandom. Go fill it out! And tell me what you said!
I really enjoyed filling it out because it gave me a chance to articulate some stuff that's been going through my mind about LotR etc since I reread The Silmarillion. The only downside is feeling inadequate about how much Tolkien I've actually read; I could only check like four out of a thousand ticky boxes! Why you taunt me, ticky boxes?
What do you enjoy about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien? Which books, scenes, and characters are your favorites?
The poetic richness and delicacy of the prose; the epic scope of the top-tier story and comprehensive depth of the history of the world that underlies it. The way it recalls some lost Old England to mind. The intratextual, "pieced together"-ness of the collected works (both within the fiction and in real life) and the inclusion of maps, songs and poetry. The majesty and terrible power of what is ancient and wise and beautiful. The horses. The characters. The places and races. The quest for greatness; the tragic downfall.
Favourite stories and characters include: the Valaquenta, for its simplicity and mythic quality; the story of Turin Turambar and his friend Beleg Strongbow, for its tragedy; The story of Luthien and Beren, for the love and the way it echoes throughout ME; "Riddles in the Dark," because it captivated and chilled me as a child; Galadriel, for her majesty and wisdom, and her early errors; Merry and Pippin, for their joy and their transformation; Gandalf, because duh; Boromir (movie only) for his tragedy and hotness.
Please share some of your experiences with Tolkien's work, such as the first time you read one of his books.
The edition of Lord of the Rings I first read -- and still read -- was the anniversary edition with illustrations by Alan Lee. As a three-volume-in-one book, is was astoundingly heavy for a ten-year-old and I remember having to lug it to school in a plastic bag. The pages were a beautiful, thin, semi-gloss that I loved to turn and Alan Lee's work was ethereal and magical and really opened up my mind to the world of Middle Earth. I only got halfway through that first time I tried, but since then Tolkien's work has always been associated for me with the act of reading, of imagining, of world-building, all those wonderful things. I can't pick up a hefty book without thinking of LotR; it is deeply interwoven with my experience of being literate.
When I was about fourteen I tried to read my battered copy of The Hobbit to my younger sister in an attempt to get her interested in reading. It didn't help at the time (Harry Potter eventually got her) but I will always remember sharing that story with her, trying to do the voices, trying to show how deeply awesome I thought it was.
What influence has Tolkien had in your life?
Aside from what I mentioned above, probably the biggest influence it has had for me is to do with connections with other people. In real life, the movies provided me and my friends with opportunities to spend hours at a time with each other in states of heightened excitement (waiting for the movies to come out); in hours of considered discussion, talking about the differences between the books and movies; and hours of chocolate-filled lethargy, in extended edition marathons. Online, I have made good friends with other Tolkein lovers and explored many of the corners of Tolkien fandom, which has in turn influenced the way I experience the books or the movies.
I'm sure it has also shaped my concepts of honour, dedication, friendship, fate, and beauty; not to mention my idea of a good read.
truepenny linked to this survey a guy is doing on people's relationships to Tolkien's work. It's a great chance to contribute to what one hopes would be a valuable oral history of Tolkien fandom. Go fill it out! And tell me what you said!I really enjoyed filling it out because it gave me a chance to articulate some stuff that's been going through my mind about LotR etc since I reread The Silmarillion. The only downside is feeling inadequate about how much Tolkien I've actually read; I could only check like four out of a thousand ticky boxes! Why you taunt me, ticky boxes?
What do you enjoy about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien? Which books, scenes, and characters are your favorites?
The poetic richness and delicacy of the prose; the epic scope of the top-tier story and comprehensive depth of the history of the world that underlies it. The way it recalls some lost Old England to mind. The intratextual, "pieced together"-ness of the collected works (both within the fiction and in real life) and the inclusion of maps, songs and poetry. The majesty and terrible power of what is ancient and wise and beautiful. The horses. The characters. The places and races. The quest for greatness; the tragic downfall.
Favourite stories and characters include: the Valaquenta, for its simplicity and mythic quality; the story of Turin Turambar and his friend Beleg Strongbow, for its tragedy; The story of Luthien and Beren, for the love and the way it echoes throughout ME; "Riddles in the Dark," because it captivated and chilled me as a child; Galadriel, for her majesty and wisdom, and her early errors; Merry and Pippin, for their joy and their transformation; Gandalf, because duh; Boromir (movie only) for his tragedy and hotness.
Please share some of your experiences with Tolkien's work, such as the first time you read one of his books.
The edition of Lord of the Rings I first read -- and still read -- was the anniversary edition with illustrations by Alan Lee. As a three-volume-in-one book, is was astoundingly heavy for a ten-year-old and I remember having to lug it to school in a plastic bag. The pages were a beautiful, thin, semi-gloss that I loved to turn and Alan Lee's work was ethereal and magical and really opened up my mind to the world of Middle Earth. I only got halfway through that first time I tried, but since then Tolkien's work has always been associated for me with the act of reading, of imagining, of world-building, all those wonderful things. I can't pick up a hefty book without thinking of LotR; it is deeply interwoven with my experience of being literate.
When I was about fourteen I tried to read my battered copy of The Hobbit to my younger sister in an attempt to get her interested in reading. It didn't help at the time (Harry Potter eventually got her) but I will always remember sharing that story with her, trying to do the voices, trying to show how deeply awesome I thought it was.
What influence has Tolkien had in your life?
Aside from what I mentioned above, probably the biggest influence it has had for me is to do with connections with other people. In real life, the movies provided me and my friends with opportunities to spend hours at a time with each other in states of heightened excitement (waiting for the movies to come out); in hours of considered discussion, talking about the differences between the books and movies; and hours of chocolate-filled lethargy, in extended edition marathons. Online, I have made good friends with other Tolkein lovers and explored many of the corners of Tolkien fandom, which has in turn influenced the way I experience the books or the movies.
I'm sure it has also shaped my concepts of honour, dedication, friendship, fate, and beauty; not to mention my idea of a good read.
