RIP Christopher Tolkien

[Allen ★]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/christopher-tolkien-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR3AgzbL_CS9RoKpRb_uw7HfmGrPLcodtnj_ieSpH8ZDjczOm0pYCTvHfBA
 

 

[Further]

I've spent a lot of hours in Middle Earth

[jsharr ★]

I bet Gandalf will shoot off some really spectacular fireworks in his honour.

[jsharr ★]

Here is a link you can read without a NY Times subscription.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr-tolkiens-son-christopher-dies-aged-95

[Razors Edge ★]

This is interesting:

He drew many of the original maps detailing the world of Middle-earth for his father’s The Lord of the Rings when the series was first published between 1954 and 55. He also edited much of his father’s posthumously published work following his death in 1973.

...however, this is also interesting:

Although he worked tirelessly to protect his father’s legacy, he was not impressed by what he saw as the commercialisation of his work. He was famously critical of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. In a 2012 interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he said: “They gutted the book, making an action film for 15-to-25-year-olds.”

He also said: “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed by the absurdity of our time,” and that “the commercialisation has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing”.

[Mr. Silly]

4 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

He also said: “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed by the absurdity of our time,” and that “the commercialisation has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing”.

Isn't that what happened to those who possessed the rings?

[jsharr ★]

5 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

This is interesting:

He drew many of the original maps detailing the world of Middle-earth for his father’s The Lord of the Rings when the series was first published between 1954 and 55. He also edited much of his father’s posthumously published work following his death in 1973.

...however, this is also interesting:

Although he worked tirelessly to protect his father’s legacy, he was not impressed by what he saw as the commercialisation of his work. He was famously critical of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. In a 2012 interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he said: “They gutted the book, making an action film for 15-to-25-year-olds.”

He also said: “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed by the absurdity of our time,” and that “the commercialisation has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing”.

I bet he was wearing a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows and drawing pensively on a burl wood pipe as he said those things.

[Razors Edge ★]

11 minutes ago, jsharr said:

I bet he was wearing a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows and drawing pensively on a burl wood pipe as he said those things.

I always found the LotR to be tedious. The Hobbit is a quick and easy read, but the LotR is a commitment that I will never make again. The movies distilled most of the "magic" of the series without getting too bogged down in the arcane and obtuse stuff. Some folks love that, some don't, but I thought the movies did a pretty good job honoring the books. 

On the other hand, the Hobbit movies were torture and I never watched them all.

[MickinMD ★]

I didn't know the son was involved in Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion.

When I was commuting to college, I read The Fellowship of the Ring. After I moved on to The Two Towers and The Return of the King, my father got interested and began skimming through The Fellowship of the Ring. He took a look at the picture of J.R.R. Tolkien on the back cover, smoking a pipe.

Before putting the book down, Dad said, "I wonder what he was smoking?"

[Ltdskilz]

Once a long, long time ago, I started to try to read The Silmarillion. I found it grueling. So I decided four books was enough.

[Razors Edge ★]

Just now, Ltdskilz said:

Once a long, long time ago, I started to try to read The Silmarillion. I found it grueling. So I decided four books was enough.

I remember The Silmarillion as being a relatively "skinny" book versus the LotR books, and made the mistake of buying it.  I didn't get far at all into it. The mythopoeic stuff probable killed my enthusiasm.

The Silmarillion is a collection of mythopoeic works by English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, edited and published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien, in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay.

Originally published: September 15, 1977  -  Author: J. R. R. Tolkien  -  Page count: 365

[BuffJim]

19 minutes ago, Ltdskilz said:

Once a long, long time ago, I started to try to read The Silmarillion. I found it grueling. So I decided four books was enough.

This.

I had a friend that read through and grasped it. I didn't have that kind of tenacity. My friend also had the LOTR memorized to the point that you could read any quote from the text and he knew what the response was and the context. He also couldn't pass a college course because you had to show up, do the assignments and take the tests,

His favorite LOTR word was Mathoms

 

[Razors Edge ★]

3 minutes ago, BuffJim said:

His favorite LOTR word was Mathoms

HA!  Seven billion humans, so some are gonna be pretty interesting

Mathoms was an old word of the hobbit-dialect, not recorded as being in use outside the Shire. It was used to refer to "trinkets" or any item that had no particular immediate use.