Discussion Forums

Re: CT 2012 French Language Article/Interview in Le Monde

Subject: Re: CT 2012 French Language Article/Interview in Le Monde
by Stu on 2012/7/15 15:40:48

Turbo wrote:
We should be careful not to put our own interpretations of the words as fact. What he says as I understand it is not that the movies will harm the books or make them dissapear, but that he doesn't consider the movies to be very accurate representations of the books. Either way the comments is about the movies.

The (translated) article that I read implies very strongly that CTs view is that the movies harm the books and Tolkien's Legacy.

For example, the following quote is attributed to CT: "The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has gone too far for me. Such commercialisation has reduced the esthetic and philosophical impact of this creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: turning my head away."

The above quote could indeed be taken as "The movies in and of themselves have no aesthetic or philosophical impact", but that certainly isn't how most people seem to have read it (judging by the various comments on various fora). It has widely been read as "The movies and commercialisation have reduced the value of the original work to nothing".

It may be that the article is ambiguous (or the translation is ambiguous), unfortunately. Readers can only go on the words that are written...