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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
For how much it defined the mold for the fantasy genre, it's interesting to read again with fresh eyes and see how atypical for a fantasy novel The Fellowship of the Ring actually is. The action scenes are sparse and short, with most conflict occurring more through the opposition of the essential natures of things. Tolkien himself would say he disliked allegory, but everything in Middle-earth exists a step beyond the literal. People, landscapes, creatures fair and fell, they all embody some essential nature in themselves and this is what tests the protagonists, or aids them. What in a fantasy book today might be written as a heavy storm blocking the Fellowship's way through a mountain pass, and what in the movie gets adapted as Saruman magically controlling the weather and battling Gandalf across the distance of the plains of Rohan is here heard as the distant rumbling voice of Caradhras, the mountain itself, looking down unkindly on the travelers and trying to make their path treacherous. I do often make a note that much of the fantasy which uses the tropes and trappings Tolkien codified here does so in a literalist, or materialist way. In Dungeons & Dragons, which ever exists as the averaged value of the current moment's takes on the sword & sorcery genre, spells and monsters are consistent and definable things. The current propensity for "hard magic systems" is another example, where magic becomes something understandable and just another part of physics, the way the world works.
I'm not drawing the comparison to say this is always a bad thing, but to say that while modern fantasy is mostly deeply imitative of this trilogy, the genre as written today is also mostly inseparable from a modern, materialist worldview. Tolkien was a scholar before he became a fantasy writer- a philologist, something I don't even know if you can be anymore. Through a lot of work, and familiarity with ancient literature and mythology, he was able to convincingly emulate an ancient worldview, one where things possess agency beyond their physical nature and the power of stories is not in what makes the most sense but what best captures the truths to be found in the opposition of the natures of things. Which yes, means the Lord of the Rings is dated today, but is also the reason it has stood consistently and almost matchlessly for decades, while the mark for the "best" fantasy otherwise shifts every decade or so. In emulating and channeling an ancient worldview, it makes the Lord of the Rings seem like something that could have been told around the fire in past centuries, each new generation of tellers making their own mark so that it comes to us today with its talk of fish and chips, but that's layered on top of how everything to do with the Rohirrim is emulative of Old English sagas (though I'm getting ahead of myself for just this book.) Tolkien also does this by absolutely loving poems and songs. For how much the tropes of Lord of the Rings have been inspirational, why hasn't it become a staple for other authors to include a bunch of poems and songs? Too afraid of vulnerability, I say.
More later, I suppose, by which I mean more thoughts on these books as I continue to review them.
I'm not drawing the comparison to say this is always a bad thing, but to say that while modern fantasy is mostly deeply imitative of this trilogy, the genre as written today is also mostly inseparable from a modern, materialist worldview. Tolkien was a scholar before he became a fantasy writer- a philologist, something I don't even know if you can be anymore. Through a lot of work, and familiarity with ancient literature and mythology, he was able to convincingly emulate an ancient worldview, one where things possess agency beyond their physical nature and the power of stories is not in what makes the most sense but what best captures the truths to be found in the opposition of the natures of things. Which yes, means the Lord of the Rings is dated today, but is also the reason it has stood consistently and almost matchlessly for decades, while the mark for the "best" fantasy otherwise shifts every decade or so. In emulating and channeling an ancient worldview, it makes the Lord of the Rings seem like something that could have been told around the fire in past centuries, each new generation of tellers making their own mark so that it comes to us today with its talk of fish and chips, but that's layered on top of how everything to do with the Rohirrim is emulative of Old English sagas (though I'm getting ahead of myself for just this book.) Tolkien also does this by absolutely loving poems and songs. For how much the tropes of Lord of the Rings have been inspirational, why hasn't it become a staple for other authors to include a bunch of poems and songs? Too afraid of vulnerability, I say.
More later, I suppose, by which I mean more thoughts on these books as I continue to review them.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Aragorn, son of Arathorn, ultimate book boyfriend since 1954
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
honestly one of the most boring books i have ever read, i literally dreaded reading this book every day, i do not get the hype
Ich war am Anfang sehr skeptisch. Wird mir die Welt in dem Buch gefallen? Sind die Charaktere nach meinem Geschmack?
Jaaa! Ich finde an einigen Stellen zieht sich zwar das Buch, aber man ist immer mitten drin. Es hat sich so angefühlt, als wäre ich eine 10 Person, von der noch nicht die Rede war. Das Buch hat mich zum Lachen und zum Weinen gebracht. Zum Schluss gibt es nur noch zu sagen "nimmt euch in acht vor den Orks" freu mich auf Teil 2.
Jaaa! Ich finde an einigen Stellen zieht sich zwar das Buch, aber man ist immer mitten drin. Es hat sich so angefühlt, als wäre ich eine 10 Person, von der noch nicht die Rede war. Das Buch hat mich zum Lachen und zum Weinen gebracht. Zum Schluss gibt es nur noch zu sagen "nimmt euch in acht vor den Orks" freu mich auf Teil 2.