Posted by Kevin Burdick on March 20, 19101 at 11:08:59:
In Reply to: Re: Why hasn't anyone written anything about Lord of The Rings??!! posted by cath on October 09, 1998 at 17:56:46:
The Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest works of literature of all time. It is about the conflict between good and evil. Even when Frodo detroys the ring and the Dark Lords power, evil still exists. His work is an allegory of the creation in the Bible. If one really studies the story, they will find life as it was, is and will be. I find Tolkien's Trilogy and J. F. Coopers, The Leatherstocking Tales the best source to teach good versus evil. However, many English teachers never use Tolkien because they do not understand the mythology. One must first read The Silmarilion to grasp the real importance of the ring and the identities of the major participants in the conflict.
Good reading and GO NAVY...BEAT army!
: : Lord of the Rings along with The Hobbit are two of the most undervalued books in English Literature. No effective critical work has ever been done on them to my knowledge, yet in its entirity, Lord of The Rings can be read as a social critique.
: : Even if you don't agree, then you must surely admit that there is more to them than being slighlty complicated fairytales.
: I agree that LOR is undervalued as literature. It seems to me that the intellectual community has a tendancy to class it as just mere sword and sorcery fantasy and not worthy of any serious critique (although they will throughly enjoy it in private!!)
: However, I do think this is changing. There is a bit of critical work emerging on Tolkien, and Iam embarking on an MA next year that hopes to seriously examine what LOR and Tolkien's network of works was doing in composing a mythology for the twentieth century. I would be interested in comments, possibilities, suggestions, critical opinions. Let's give this work the credit it deserves!
: : Talk.............