Wonder if I'm alone in this...

[Joshua Randall]

Music hath charms...

Another great thing about FotR (the movie) is the music. I find myself humming snatches of it to myself all day.

I particularly like the heroic music that plays during the Moria scenes - "A Journey in the Dark" and "The Bridge of Khazad Dum". Kudos to Howard Shore on a great job - this ranks up there with the soundtrack to Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars in my mind.

Man, I've gotta get the CD!

 

[Wolf72]

like the CD a lot, but there a few parts that seem kinda campy ... particulary the piece that was also played on tv for the burger king comercials? (otherwise it's fine)

 

[Henry]

Paul, I'm in the same boat with ya. I couldn't, and still can't (I tried early this year) read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I loved the movie, it entered my personal top 10 movies of all time list. I await the extended DVD, to add it to my collection in November.

But, sacrilege that it is, I cannot complete Tolkien's work. I bomb out before they even reach the Inn of the Prancing Pony. The songs, the travelling tales, the bewildering scene of the Barrow Wight, it feels like I walk though a Peat Bog trying to get to the other side.

The movie I can watch until I'm quoting characters verbatim. But the book is just too - something - long/complex/long-winded/involved - I don't know what - for me to enjoy.

Perhaps I need to try a new tactic, such as starting further into the book, and see if the action there involves me more thoroughly. I may indeed try again closer to Decmber.

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

Henry...

As someone who has read the LotR books many, many times, I'll let you in on a little secret.

Nobody'll know if you skip some parts of the books.

For instance, in FotR:

1. if he irritates you and you can't find any purpose for his existence, skip the entire Tom Bombadil section.

2. if a song is too long for you, skip it.

3. if the description gets too heady, skip ahead to dialogue.

After having committed yourself to reading significant parts of the book, you'll find that you suddenly no longer have as much trouble reading Tolkiens' style, and the subsequent books will be more accessible to you.

-F

 

[Lady Starhawk]

I wholehwaeredly agree. I had tried to read the Hobbit many times, and had to give up. I couldn't follow the characters or what was going on or why.

Then I saw FOTR and I HAD to know what happens to the charactrers. I bought the Cliff's Notes and that helped a lot, there's information about the world, the cahracters, and the races in addition to a walk through of the HObbit and LOTR. Once I got to TTT I bought the a-z giude to middle earth and that filled in the information the cliff's notes left behind.

I sat down with a good idea about each character and the idea behind the story from the movie and kept the cliff's notes by my side. I skipped over most of the songs, and when I would get bogged down in a description I would skip forward. (Having seen the movie, and having the guides, I could eventually get a picture of more or less where they were, or have a good guess). If I ever got confused about who someone was, I would look it up in teh cliff's notes or the giude.

I am very proud to say I made it. I finished all 3 in a few weeks and retained more information than I lost. I still know how to pronunce most of the names (the ones not in the movie anyway) but no matter

I still don't think TOlkien was a very good writer. He was an incredibly intelligent and creative person, but his writings at times seemed more like a textbook than a story. But it's all in what you like.

Oh well, I suppose that was a lot of words for a "Me Too" post, but I don't care

Lady Starhawk

 

[Holy Bovine]

I still don't think TOlkien was a very good writer. He was an incredibly intelligent and creative person, but his writings at times seemed more like a textbook than a story.

Well, Tolkien was first and foremost a teacher and student of langage. He invented the evlish language and felt he needed a world in which it could have developed.

I remember an article on Tolkien where he is quoted as telling his publisher that he didn't feel there would be any market for Lord of the Rings. Tolkien would have been the last person to describe himself as a novelist and I would think that this is the reason so many have trouble reading his works. The Silmarillion may have a great deal of history of Middle Earth but that does not make it a 'good read'. I have countless dry, boring history texts in my library (including the Silmarillion ).

Tolkien's breadth of vision is what compels me to read and re-read LotR and the Hobbit (and watch the movie 10 times). He paints a grand scale adventure with song and language. That is what makes Tolkien unique. That is what makes me a fan.