On Mon, 20 Oct 1997, Luz Guerra wrote:
> I loved reading the Hobbit and Rings Trilogy when I was a child, and spent
> a some time reading these at night with my own son.
I've just finished rereading Lord of the Rings for the first time in about
15 years.
I turned back to it because I'd been reading Le Guin's non-fiction
(Language of the Night?) and she writes about Tolkien there. There were
two essays; one describing the impact the Rings had on her when she read
it for the first time, and the other discussing language and style in
fantasy writing.
Le Guin makes the point that fantasy as a genre barely existed before
Tolkien. She also managed to explain why the writing was so wonderful.
[Someone said convoluted - I'd disagree, I love the style]
What struck me on rereading was the intensely visualised landscape and
geography of Middle Earth - I was imagining Tolkien with handmade maps
which probably covered the entire floor of his house. At every point you
are told exactly where the characters are, and what mountains, rivers,
plains, forests lie to the north, south, east and west.
The introduction to my edition said the book was written over a period of
11 years, and was originally started because Tolkien has invented a
language and wanted a world and a history to go with it.
But I have always found the adventures of Aragon-the-hero and friends a
struggle. As a child I skipped half the book as a child to get away from
him, and I'm still unable to take any interest in him.
-- Bronwen Reid, Mailbase, Computing Service, University of Newcastle, NE1 7RU Tel: (0191) 222-8214 Email: B.A.Reid@newcastle.ac.uk
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