LOTR aloud (was Re: Top Ten)

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy
Chin up, it's not all bad. Once you've gotten past the wretched Tom
Bombadil passage about two thirds of the way through FotR you've seen
the worst of it. Much thereafter is something more than charming. It's
pretty rich and you will probably enjoy the ride unless you are like my
wife, who always says "I just don't have the receptors."

Best news I can offer:
a) You can skip the appendices that make up most of the final volume.
(God knows you'll want to.)
b) The best part is the concluding "Cleansing of the Shire" section.
The moral payoff of the tale resides there.

Did it mean anything to Tolkien as allegory? It seems pretty obvious
that he wanted to be a Wagner for the Yorkshire Dales, assimilating
England into the mythology of the Norsemen who overran early Christian
England after the Romans withdrew. (Or is it vicy-versy?) 

I'd wager that Satan, alighted, walked the earth for Tolkien as he did
for Milton.

Have some fun
Mark

--- Will Layman <WillLayman at comcast.net> wrote:

> I'm not carping or attempting to flame here, just asking a sincere
> question.
> 
> I've seen LORD OF THE RINGS on a couple of lists now, and I'm
> wondering how
> folks on the list approach this work.  I've been reading the books
> (first
> THE HOBBIT, then LOTR -- now on the last book) aloud to my ten
> year-old son
> for the better part of a year (in small, bedtime increments), and I
> just
> want to kill myself just about every night -- with the endless
> allusions to
> other parts of the history of Middle Earth, long numbing asides
> exploring
> characters we'll never see again, etc.
> 
> Surely it's all an elaborate and brilliant metaphor for World War One
> or
> something, right?
> 
> How can I look at this differently to improve the coming months I
> will be
> spending, between 9:30 and 10:00 PM Eastern, in places like "Minus
> Morgel"?
> 
> He'p me!
> 
> Will "The Tolkien Wary" Layman
> 
> On 9/16/04 10:54 PM, "Tim Strzechowski" <Dedalus204 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > I missed what the criteria are for our respective lists, so let me
> focus
> > mine on 20th Century fiction.  These are my favorites at the moment
> (in no
> > particular order):
> > 
> * * *
> > 9.  J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 


		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail