>"Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time," Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. "The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away."
>"They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25," Christopher says regretfully. "And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film."
Are you patrician enough to have the same opinions?
I'm patrician enough to think LOTR is just shit in the first place.
haven't read them. i will say the hobbit movies are pretty bad and dumb
Tom Bombadil is weeping somewhere in a forest :(
>>7837894
The Lord of the Rings is a children's film but an adult novel. I think it's possible to appreciate both the film and the novel nonetheless. Jackson and Tolkien had different goals, and both succeeded. The commercial fandom that surrounds the Lord of the Rings is just an extension of the inevitable capitalist excess which accompanies anything popular in Western society. I agree that it's sad that the poetry and thought of Tolkien tends to be ignored by his supposed admirers, but I know for a fact that he's generated an enormous amount of literary study and some of it is really quite serious, erudite, and passionate.
>>7837894
He's right but he also needs to come to terms with the fact that only a minority's of humans are even capable of properly appreciating his father's work. Lovecraft understood this intuitively, probably because he was an outcast.
That being said this guy did phenomenal work preserving and elaborating his father's legacy and he shouldn't be hard on either himself or the unwashed pleb masses. Even if Jackson's movies lacked the sublime character of JRR's vision they're still good and that really goes to demonstrate the generative depth of the Legendarium.
Also frankly I don't think Chris Tolkien understands how hard it is to make a movie. For Jackson to do what he did with the LOTR movies *and* capture the deep spirit of the originals is just too much to ask. Had Jackson been capable of doing so he wouldn't have likely been content to hew to someone else's vision and we would have gotten 2001 Third Age: A Middle Earth Odyssey.
That being said The Hobbit series was clearly a pandering cash grab.
>>7838459
I googled this to see which reddit thread you got it from. Turns out it's original - you wrote it. At loss for words.
The books are boring as fuck. Nothing but pseudo philosophy with shitty psychological development of characters. Atleast the movies managed to be entertaining something the books clearly lacked.
>>7837894
he didn't seem to have a problem cashing those checks though
>>7837894
>referring to his father by his last name
What did he mean by this?
>>7837894
The LOTR films are fine, they deviate from the book as films should do. Leaving a different (and usually altogether more fulfilling experience) of the book. As films they're great pastiches to the epics of the 1980s, well-shot, well acted and generally a pure project of passion.
The Hobbit films unfortunately feel like products built off the popularity of the previous trilogy.
>>7837894
fyi the tolkien foundation was against the hobbit movies.
then someone donated 5 million dollars to them
now we have he hobbit movies.
fuck greed
>>7838459
I agree with you, I just think LOTR was also a pandering cash grab. If you're not going to stick to recreating the vision, or at least creating something different but just as amazing (like American Psycho did), then don't do it at all. If it's too hard, don't do it.
The LOTR movies have fucking ruined one of the most beautiful literary experiences ever, especially for young people. Millions and millions of people will never get to enter Tolkien's vision, because the movie's cheap cardboard knockoff is in the way. Tolkien's world has been criticised for being lifeless but it was still ensouled. Go look at any half-decent Tolkien concept art from the 70s and it'll tap into that soul without even trying. Jackson is factory-produced cardboard schlock. Fucking awful.
Tolkien was always shit
The prose boring, the dialogue wooden, the story obsessed with asinine obscure details, the plot murky at best
>>7838592
i still thank my parents every day for letting me read lotr when i was 8
>>7838592
Why was it a cash grab. It follows plot to a t, adds no characters, has the same relevance given to scenery, and it's exceptionally long for a hollywood trilogy. The only thing you could criticize is that it doesnt include too much lore but thatd look horrible in film anyways.
Tom Bombadil was a fag
glad they cut him
>>7838802
you are a fag
glad you cut yourself
>>7837894
While I did like the lotr movies, I can agree with him.
Tolkien has become a meme with a massive fan base that doesn't actually read into or even doesn't read his novels at all.
I was surprised by many vapid women who are huge Tolkien fans who never read past Fellowship because it was hard to read.
>>7838814
I don't get it. What are you supposed to read into and get out of Tolkien? Aren't they just fantasy novels?
The Lord of the Rings triology will go down as one of the greatest movie franchises of all time, and were a landmark in film making, but I get the impression that this guy had made up his mind before watching them. The Hobbit was dogshit, though.
>>7838817
their language is fantastic
i only have a pleb tier education in latin and almost failed my finals bc of it, but even i was able to feel how fucking poetic and linguistically great his prose is.
>>7838821
>The Lord of the Rings triology will go down as one of the greatest movie franchises of all time, and were a landmark in film making
what a sad era
>>7838817
Depends on the work. Silmarillion is a recreation of a mythology and it's a fantastic work of imagination and linguistics and Children of Hurin... Well the same you would take from a Greek tragedy.
On Lotr, honestly I've read it such a long time ago it was just fantasy, but I'll return to it sooner or later.
>>7838814
Oh vey yes
Or atheists ignoring the clearly Christian strands that are throughout the book.
>>7837894
Chris is an idiot. He's an old man that doesn't understand movies whatsoever.
>>7837894
It's not an opinion, it's the truth.
Just a classic case of commercial prostitution.. whoring out works of art to casual masses who want to be endlessly entertained, without having the culture to appreciate and preserve art. The new generations will sooner know Tolkien through some actor than, say, the Silmarillion. Sure, his name has been exalted in part by movie makers, merchandisers, videogame developers, etc. but to what end? Profit. To what purpose? Profit.
There is deep, folkoric legacy in Tolkien's work, borrowed from older fonts. The modern myth in a secular age.
>>7837912
ey ohh bomba dee ayyy lmao *sniff*
