Literary value and fan interaction - please help with my research!

[thinmanjones1983]

No: HPFGUIDX 162707

Hi Geoff, thanks for joining in!

>
> Geoff:
> I think you need to consider "The Hobbit" as being different from
> other "children's" literature. It was never originally intended for
> publication and was also probably aimed at a target age group
> lower than any Jo Rowling may have considered.
>
> It was a story written to be read to Tolkien's family and was not
> connected to the larger themes which had been taking shape in
> the "Silmarillion" which had then been in gestation for about twenty
> years by this time. There are nods in the direction of JRRT's
> mythology, as the author himself acknowledges in the foreword.
> It was only when work started on "The Lord of the Rings" that he
> began to tie the story in as part of the Third Age of Middle-earth.
>
> I believe that JKR had mapped out the general direction in which
> Harry would travel when she began her books. They are, as one
> contributor has pointed out, not in the same class as Tolkien,
> - who is anyway? - whose descriptive English paints such a clear
> picture of his story's surroundings but her books do delineate more
> of the structure of the Wizarding world when compared with C S Lewis'
> almost breathless rush through his world as depicted in the Narnia
> books which appeared at almost annual intervals although it should
> be remembered that these were written when he was still involved
> in lecturing.
>

klotjohan:
You're right of course, I never considered those factors since my
biographical knowledge of Tolkien is a bit spotty. Still, today the same
people that labels Narnia "children's literature" would probably do the
same with The Hobbit. The question of what defines literature written
for children is a difficult one, and fairly peripheral to my paper,
although fascinating. As for the comparison of Tolkien and Rowling, I
seem to recall him having only a generel idea of what path the story was
going to take in LOTR. Once finished, he had to rewrite all of his text
to make it all fit together. It reminds me of a wild animal in that way,
unpredictable and disobedient. I'm impressed with Rowling's ability to
keep everything reasonably consistent and coherent.

/Klotjohan