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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ezrael" data-source="post: 401189" data-attributes="member: 6262">I remember, back before the movie came out, being involved in a discussion of Tolkien on the boards when they were still over at the original Eric Noah-3E site. At that time, I believe I was one of a few people who came out and admitted that I don't like Tolkien's writing style, I wasn't an especially big fan of the novels and that in general my tastes in fantasy are more along the E.R. Eddison/ Robert E Howard axis. (Howard the writer of the Kull stories, with their unusual existential aspects, although I do love just about everything he ever wrote.) I like Dunsany, Lovecraft, Moorcock. I'm just not a big fan of Tolkien. I say this fully willing to concede the man's tremendous impact on modern fantasy, his large following, his ability to create a self-sustaining myth. I believe at the time I even said something to the effect that the books themselves have so established themselves culturally that they could now be called classics, and thus could survive any critical examination of them in a similar fashion to James Joyce's Ulysses or even The Iliad.However, he has always left me cold. I just don't like the books and I have not been able to despite repeated readings. I recently gave the first book in the series a rereading out of a desire to be fair...and I still just don't like it. I understand that many do, I don't mean to cast aspertions on other people's tastes, it's just not a series I can read and enjoy.All this to preface the fact that I loved the movie.Finally I got what people liked about this story. Finally someone came down and took away the one thing that prevented me from enjoying it...namely, Tolkien's voice as a writer. I was finally able to see the world he created, the one that got people so enthusiastically involved in his work in the first place, and I did very much enjoy the story as it unfolded. Finally.So yes, the movie helped me to appeciate Tolkien, the storyteller. I'm still not a big fan of his style, but I don't dig Herman Melville all that much, either. Doesn't mean that Moby Dick isn't a good story.</blockquote>

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