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What is your worst experience with a book about Tolkien?

Plato to MacDonald to Chesterton, Tolkien and the Boys in the Pub.
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What is your worst experience with a book about Tolkien?

Postby Adam Linton » December 3rd, 2005, 7:40 pm

I thought that I would ask folks here for their least favorite book or recent major article about Tolkien, and why?

My answer would be Frodo's Quest: Living the Myth The Lord of the Rings, by Robert Ellwood. With a title like that I was sure that I would have enjoyed it. However, I found it a real disappointment. Ellwood's treatment seemed thoroughly allegorical. This itself seemed to me contrary to Tolkien's material. And, rather than an exploration of mythic roots in TLotR, it used elements of the story to set forth an introduction to theosophy. It came across as almost catechetical in style. The reader is frequently addressed in the second person.

I suppose that those who are of a theosophical bent might quite appreciate it -- and it certainly was an attractively produced volume. But I have to say that it didn't do much for me.
we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream
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re: What is your worst experience with a book about Tolkien?

Postby A#minor » December 3rd, 2005, 8:08 pm

"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
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Re: What is your worst experience with a book about Tolkien?

Postby PurplePen » December 7th, 2005, 10:04 pm

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re: What is your worst experience with a book about Tolkien?

Postby Glorfindel of Gondolin » December 13th, 2005, 3:17 am

I dislike anything that claims that Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling are incredibly similar. Yes, they have their similarities, but I don't like it when people assume that they are all nearly the same in style.

I also dislike anything that is false that is written about Tolkien or his works, such as him "hating all technology" or that elves are "magical little creatures." Usually it's out of ignorance, but then people don't know this and believe what they read. I can't name any specific articles, but I usually bump into them in newpapers or non-affiliated magazines.
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re: What is your worst experience with a book about Tolkien?

Postby carol » December 29th, 2005, 2:45 am

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