LOTR ( was Who really killed DD - The real story)

[justcarol67]

Neri:
> I suspect LotR is one of those books you need to read at the right
age. I discovered it at 14, which was just perfect. I count myself a 
*huge* LotR fan but the truth is I haven't reread it for at least ten
years now. Also, LotR indeed has a very slow beginning, and I remember
myself skipping lines and paragraphs for 100 or 200 pages before I
really got hooked.
 
Sherry:
> 
> I too read LOTR for the first time when I was around 14.  I read it
every year or so, even now, over 30 years later.  There are parts that
drag too much for me still, but I'm so familiar with the story, I know
what chapters to skip!  But overall, I actually love the words, the
way Tolkien creates a whole world and various peoples.  There is a lot
of humor, joy, sorrow and great adventure.  hmmm, it's always hard to
explain why I like a book, so ok, I just like it.  

Carol responds:
What a surprise to find myself in perfect agreement with both Neri and
Sherry! (Actually, Sherry and I agree on many things--just not Snape :-) )

I was fifteen when I first read LOTR, mostly because I had spent my
own money on it to help out American Field Service, the club that
sponsored foreign exchange students. (They were selling the trilogy
plus "The Hobbit" as a fund-raising project.) 

I found the first few chapters very slow going (except the part about
the ring and Gandalf, which I found intriguing but confusing), but
once I got to "Fog on the Barrow Downs," which was downright scary, I
knew this book was more than just a sequel to "The Hobbit." And the
scene on Weathertop was both terrifying and moving. At that point I
was hooked. I would talk about my reaction to Moria and subsequent
events, but I don't want to spoil anything for those few who haven't
read the books yet. 

The terror of some scenes and the searing beauty of others more than
make up for the places where Tolkien is either too easy-going and
Hobbitish for modern readers, who are always in a hurry to get to the
action, or too pedantically formal when he's trying to present "high"
matters, as in the Council of Elrond. (I do cringe when I read the
descriptions of Glorfindel, Elrond, and Gandalf, but I know that he'll
slip out of that style when he starts presenting the story from the
Hobbits' point of view again.) I also really like some of the
characters, including Frodo, Pippin, Boromir, Faramir, Eowyn, and
Legolas, few of whom (especially Faramir) should be judged by their
movie versions. (Well, okay; I liked Sean Bean as Boromir even though
he should have been black-haired rather than blond. But Denethor is
altogether ruined by the film, both in the casting and the writing,
IMO.) And I love what Tolkien does with Lobelia Sackville-Baggins at
the end. (Go, Lobelia! You must be related to Mrs. Figg.)

I highly recommend giving LOTR another try if you've given up on it,
Tonks! You may need to skim the part about the rustic hobbits in the
Green Dragon (though I wouldn't--even that segment has its purpose)
and grit your teeth when you get to Tom Bombadil, who fortunately only
appears in about two chapters, but the payoff in chapters like "A
Knife in the Dark," "The Bridge of Khazad-dum," "The Breaking of the
Fellowhip," "The Pyre of Denethor," and "Mount Doom" is just
astounding. I had to read the books through a second time immediately
trying to recreate that experience and understand all the implications
I missed the first time through (rather like Pippin, one of my
favorite characters). 

Tolkien had a gift, perhaps a unique gift, for creating a world that
both is and isn't ours in an imaginary time with imaginary beings that
owe something to Norse mythology and Icelandic saga yet are completely
his own--or were till they were so widely copied.

Sure, the books have flaws, the overly detailed description being one
and the stereotyping of certain "races" (species?) so that only a few
characters representing those groups are individualized. (Once we get
to Shagrat and Gorbag, tough, we find that even Orcs can have
recognizable personalities. Too bad Orcishness triumphs over
individuality.)

There's no guarantee that you'll like the books if you read them
through, but there's no way to find out if you don't attempt it.

Carol, who used to read the books once a year as a treat before the
films came out but is now addicted to HP instead