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Grex Ing Item 73: Lord of the rINGs
Entered by scott on Sat Mar 21 00:19:04 UTC 1998:

Wow, this is a deep book (OK, set of books, but who actually owns just one
of the 3?).

I usually pick up one or another of the volumes after the normal pair of
library books is finished, but I haven't been to the library yet.  Just
happened again, obviously.  Got a lot easier after I finally broke down and
bought my own set.  :)

Interesting themes, anyway.  What I noticed a reading or two ago was the theme
of falling from technological grace.  By this I mean all the references to
ancient objects that influence the story, almost always with the attached note
that "nobody can make anything like this anymore".  Fer instance:  The
palantir stones, the Rings of Power, the sword Narsil reforged (best they
could do in current age), and a number of other things.  Are we in a golden
age of technology, perhaps to be followed by a collapse or decline?  I've got
a foot on each side of the line here, personally.  Hard to imagine losing most
of our current capabilities, but... can you imagine starting with the
technology of maybe 50 years ago and trying to make use of a Pentium chip?
Or perhaps we might end up with the ability to use such things, but not to
replace them when they fail ("Mad Max":  'It's the last of the V8s'), so
gradually computers and devices of a similar high technology become magical
in nature.

This time around I'm noticing how the action is broken up by these exquisite
little descriptive paragraphs.  Sort of like "Sometimes a Great Notion" by
Ken Kesey, these describe the scenery or the setting, but (to me, at least)
seem to be little independant nuggets attached to the story.

(please don't link this until after year 2000... I'm curious who we have in
the ING conf these days)

8 responses total.

#1 of 8 by keesan on Sat Mar 21 01:48:47 1998:

Hi Scott, this reminds me of 'there were giants in those days', meaning that
in the dark ages, when technology had been lost, it was assumed that large
building projects were built by larger beings.  WOnder who the original
biblical giants were.
        Sorry not to respond directly to Lord of the Rings, but I was much
younger when I read it, it was really exciting to a 10 year old.
But I could not bring myself to read it again recently.

#2 of 8 by orinoco on Sat Mar 21 05:10:54 1998:

Well, the Lord of the Rings series always struck me as fairly dark anyway,
even though it is heroic, and technically has a 'happy' ending.  The
background for the whole book is the descent from the golden ages at the dawn
of time to the later ages of all-too-ordinary humans.  
Personally, I've never really been struck by Tolkien's writing style - if he
wrote mundane fiction, or even fantasy in a less well-crafted world, I would
have hated his books.  As is, I fell in love with the setting, and I can stand
the dull moments in the plot for the sake of exploring that world.

#3 of 8 by scott on Sat Mar 21 12:10:57 1998:

Another interesting "fall from tech" theme is that with the One Ring they are
almost in the "toxic waste" problem... only one place to put it, but dangerous
to take it there.

#4 of 8 by kami on Mon Jul 20 02:54:08 1998:

I like how Tolkien seemed to use the process of myth/folklore- The Hobbit is
a lovely folk tale, Lord of the Rings is an heroic saga and the Silmarilian
is the "Bible"- the core myths underlying the culture.  I love the fact that,
while the main characters and those whose viewpoint is give are the hobbits,
we do meet and get to know a bunch of races.  It's not *just* what some
hobbits did, but shows their biases.  Humans were pretty foreign to them, but
by bringing us to a hint of the "later ages", Tolkien makes it almost
plausibly relevant to us- so we get to keep that heroic past, along with the
myths and sagas we already have.

#5 of 8 by orinoco on Sat Aug 8 16:14:32 1998:

I really need to re-read this stuff. 

Does anyone know what the deal is with these 'extra' lord of the rings books?
I keep seeing them in bookstores, shelved next to J.R.R's stuff that I
recognize, but they don't get listed in any of the lists of "works by this
author" in the back of his books. I don't remember titles, tho - but does
anyone else know what I'm talking about, or am I raving?

#6 of 8 by scott on Sat Aug 8 19:35:59 1998:

Well, "The Hobbit" ought to be obvious enough, as the setup book for the
trilogy.  "The Silmarillion" is a book of stories that sets up the history
of the whole thing, back to creation.  Vaguely interesting in that it fleshes
out some of the stories referred to in the trilogy, but a bit of a chore to
read overall since there isn't much of a story going on overall.  Check it
out from the library if you are curious.

#7 of 8 by orinoco on Mon Aug 10 03:32:19 1998:

Oop, no, didn't mean those. I've read both of those.

I think the ones I'm talking about may actually be Christopher Tolkien, and
not JRR

#8 of 8 by scott on Mon Aug 10 10:48:35 1998:

I'll have to look when I'm in the library next, I guess.

big money in fantasy these days, of course; even more money if you can
leverage a series together.

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