I used to love Tolkien, when I was a kid. But honestly, I can’t see the attraction as an adult. Piling centuries of backstory onto a character doesn’t make it three-dimensional. And while Tolkien’s short doggerel can be fun, his long poems are boring. I don’t know—I’m not a poet—but they’re probably technically excellent. That doesn’t save them.
I love his long poems—I once memorized the Lay of Earendil, and Erranty, and The Hoard, and The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, though I don’t remember all of them now. It’s nice to have something to recite to myself when waiting for the bus or something.
And I do find most poetry boring; I have a collection of American verse, but it seems that Poe is the only worthwhile poet of the lot—of course, as for Tolkien, others will certainly differ on this.
One person’s trash is the next person’s treasure, I guess.
So, when I first (tried to) read the Silmarillion in high school, I thought it was incredibly dry and boring. But when I came back to it a few years later in college I thought it was great, and still do (I now like it much better than LotR, in fact). Probably the sort of epic/mythological style it’s written in is something one either loves or can’t stand.
I used to love Tolkien, when I was a kid. But honestly, I can’t see the attraction as an adult. Piling centuries of backstory onto a character doesn’t make it three-dimensional. And while Tolkien’s short doggerel can be fun, his long poems are boring. I don’t know—I’m not a poet—but they’re probably technically excellent. That doesn’t save them.
I love his long poems—I once memorized the Lay of Earendil, and Erranty, and The Hoard, and The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, though I don’t remember all of them now. It’s nice to have something to recite to myself when waiting for the bus or something.
And I do find most poetry boring; I have a collection of American verse, but it seems that Poe is the only worthwhile poet of the lot—of course, as for Tolkien, others will certainly differ on this.
One person’s trash is the next person’s treasure, I guess.
So, when I first (tried to) read the Silmarillion in high school, I thought it was incredibly dry and boring. But when I came back to it a few years later in college I thought it was great, and still do (I now like it much better than LotR, in fact). Probably the sort of epic/mythological style it’s written in is something one either loves or can’t stand.