Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

[Incandenza]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Bruno wrote:

But what, 3 pages and no mention of LOTR yet?

Please. I wouldn't be caught dead reading any Tolkien. Why not just give me a deck of Magic cards and some 12-sided dice to carry around, also?

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

You'll need more than 12-sided dice my friend. What if you've got a 1 in 5 chance of returning the basilisk's gaze, what good are 12 sides then? That's where 10 or 20 sides is the thing. I recommend carrying the complete set in a soft purse underneath your tunic.

[WOM]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

I finally read The Hobbit this year, having started it the first time in 1981. It wasn't bad. I think my Tolkien experience will end there, though.

[Guest]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

I'll admit to quite liking LOTR.

[San Bernardhinault]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

I loved LOTR when I was about 11. It's been rubbish since, and even at 11 I knew to skip over the poetry garbage, but liking it at 11 is enough, I think, to know I don't actually hate it. I just hate the monster it's become.

[San Bernardhinault]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

I'm actually amazed The Alchemist hasn't had more support on here. Or The Lovely Bones.

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

I think both the Hobbit and LOTR would be great books to read along with your kids at a certain age. They're great for the young imagination.

You can spin The Hobbit as the one to read if your prejudice is that Tolkien can only be tolerated in a small dose. But fairly speaking, his magnificent octopus, though far longer, is a much more interesting and richer vein of material (provided you 'can be doing with' the fantasy wizard-besotted subject matter).

Another way to appreciate Tolkien is to have a peek at just how awful so much of the subsequent D&D themed, LOTR-inspired fantasy lit is by comparison.

[San Bernardhinault]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Bruno wrote:

Another way to appreciate Tolkien is to have a peek at just how awful so much of the subsequent D&D themed, LOTR-inspired fantasy lit is by comparison.

Although that is also a reason to hate LOTR, given that it is singularly responsible for reams of utterly unreadable sword-and-sorcery tosh; for myriad childhoods destroyed with orc-related role-playihg; and for god knows how much risible norse/celtic myth revivalism.

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

La Lanterne Rouge wrote:

I loved LOTR when I was about 11. It's been rubbish since, and even at 11 I knew to skip over the poetry garbage, but liking it at 11 is enough, I think, to know I don't actually hate it. I just hate the monster it's become.

As books to like when you're 11 go, one could do far worse than Tolkien's.

Children's fiction is quite an important genre of literature, and there are both extremely good and extremely horrible exponents of it. The good kind of children's book is the one you ought not need to be a child to appreciate and admire. (To any who think LOTR is bad for children, or has nothing to admire in it, I've got nothing to say.)

Just because you've outgrown something shouldn't mean it has turned into rubbish. The years when one's literary imagination is first awakened are special never-to-be-revisited ones. Nostalgia, people. Childlike wonder. I'm man enough to admit to wishing I could recapture it, are you?

(Oh, and of course you skip over the poetry. The point of the poetry is atmosphere, not poetry.)

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

La Lanterne Rouge wrote:

Although that is also a reason to hate LOTR, given that it is singularly responsible for reams of utterly unreadable sword-and-sorcery tosh; for myriad childhoods destroyed with orc-related role-playihg; and for god knows how much risible norse/celtic myth revivalism.

That's silly though. There's loads of unreadable tosh in every genre, from romance to sci-fi to 'serious lit'. You don't blame the better examples for the worser. As for D&D destroying childhoods, it was possibly time better spent than sitting around watching reruns of Three's Company and Different Strokes, or playing Galaxians at the arcade.

Also, Renaissance fairs are cool.

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Hopefully everyone here has seen Role Models.

[Wyatt Earp]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Bruno wrote:

As for D&D destroying childhoods, it was possibly time better spent than ... playing Galaxians at the arcade.

Justify this bizarre claim.

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

That playing D&D could potentially be more constructive time than playing a mindless video game? Doesn't strike me as all that bizarre.

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

But to quickly try and justify, D&D is a social event for one. For two, it can be quite literary, by teenage standards at least. It involves reading, writing, and creativity, for three. And how much fun you have at it is dependent on the limits of your imagination, which it encourages, nay requires, you to develop. You can't say any of that about manning the gun of a spaceship and firing at other spaceships.

The drawback of course being the huge time commitment involved in playing it properly.

[Wyatt Earp]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Bruno wrote:

You can't say any of that about manning the gun of a spaceship and firing at other spaceships.

To be honest, I was never much of a Galaxians fan. Battlezone, now that was an arcade game.

I never heard of D&D till I went to uni, at which point arcade games seemed to me far preferable, on the grounds that I could play them in the bar, with a pint by my side (our bar did fantastic Guinness) and my lovely brainy gf at a nearby table talking to her posh literary friends.

I could have happily done that all my life. I wish I was doing it now, to be honest.

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

I was coming at it from the child development angle. Clearly, by the time you'd arrived at uni with your girlfriend and your Battlezone and your Guinness, you were already fully mentally developed.

[Incandenza]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Bruno wrote:

But to quickly try and justify, D&D is a social event for one.

A social event comprised entirely of D&D fans. It's self-restraining.

[Bruno]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

You're forgetting I was a D&D fan at one time. And I'm cool (though never fashionable).

It's not anti-social at any rate. Well, as far as that goes.

[Gangster Octopus]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Bruno wrote:

Hopefully everyone here has seen Role Models.

None whatsoever. That's why I still don't know how to run my life...

[WOM]

Judge OFT by the books it collectively hates

Shit...and I'd been hoping to live vicariously through you.