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Re: Blogpost - The Tolkien Industry by Jack Ross

Subject: Re: Blogpost - The Tolkien Industry by Jack Ross
by Stu on 2009/6/21 22:59:34

I quite enjoyed reading that little article, and I think his points are all fairly sound. I must admit, I do despair when I see yet another book of Tolkien criticism show up on Amazon. I really think that everything worth saying has largely been said, and that examining anyone's life and works to the degree that seems to have been done for JRRT produces some fairly dull - and fundamentally rather pointless commentary (which often seems to say more about the author than anything else).

If half the effort was put into creating something new and original, rather than treading and re-treading paths that are worn very, very thin, the world would be a richer place, methinks.

I think he might be being a bit harsh on HoME, although I think perhaps 6 volumes would have been sufficient (with 3 dedicated to LoTR) to provide all of the information necessary for all but the most obsessed. It may be that I'm not really the target audience (and so I don't fully relate to it), or it may be that HoME just got a bit out of hand. Probably a bit of both.

I do think there is a danger in publishing every last word that Tolkien wrote, because some of it was undoubtedly rubbish that should have been left on the cutting-room floor, and I agree with author that we probably haven't seen the last of it...