Reviews

The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power by Jane Chance

josiahdegraaf's review

2.0

Meh. It wasn't a terrible read. But while it added some to my understanding of Lord of the Rings, it didn't add much. I think the main issue is that Chance is trying to push LotR into some Marxist/political paradigm when that really isn't the paradigm most natural to LotR. Yes, you can draw some parallels there, and Chance does that decently. But drawing parallels does not mean you've captured the essence of the story, and on that front, Chance overall failed. The best part of the book was the epilogue where Chance drew out all the repetition and parallels built into the work. I liked that a fair bit. But that was the only real useful part here.

Rating: 1.5-2 Stars (Poor).

kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review

2.0

My problem with this book is that while Chance has some very good points (like power structure), she tends to leave out details that can undermine her points (for instance, in her description of Biblo's birthday). I also do not understand how she reaches some of her conclusions. She writes how Boromir is racially aganist the Hobbits, but her only support is when Boromir yells at Frodo, a scene where you can say he was influenced by the Ring.