/lit/ - Literature

So Tolkien was just a tree hugger?

talentless hack and papist

So Christopher Tolkien hates Peter Jackson's adaptations of Lord of the Rings. He says that PJ completely missed the point of the books, instead turning them into action/adventure movies for children.

So what was the point of the books that PJ missed? I always thought of the movies as a fairly faithful adaptation, the best that could be done with those books.

Would Lord of the Rings be better with ASoIaF-like sex scenes?

Yo /lit/

I've wondered a bit about the coining of new words, mostly in the context of literature and authors. We all know that guys like Shakespeare and Dickens coined a bazillion new words, but plenty of other authors make up new words for various reasons. Obvious guys like Lewis Caroll's Jabberwocky or Tolkien and Burgess in their world-creation. Less recognized ones like Pynchon, Gaddis, Wallace.

Anywho, my question goes: would anyone perchance know of any books or studies that deal with the activity and purpose of bending language and creating new words? Or perhaps some fictions that actively do it?

So far I'm armed with The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Words and some lectures on Tolkien's use of languages, but I can't say I find these entirely fulfilling.

Why is J.R.R. Tolkien so famous and respected? His books are extremely obscure, so that only academics, not common readers, can possibly appreciate them.

What does /lit/ think of The Lord of the Rings?

this man changed literature and his influence is felt from movies to video games.

why do you not like his works agan?

So I just read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" and have a few questions:

1.) He talks about the link between language and fairy stories which I didn't quite catch. I think it has something to do between the ability to use language to sort of create our own world, but again, not quite sure.

2.) He seemed to be against fairy stories as dramas. Something about visual representation of them. Do you think this was because theater/cinema was limited by its capabilities at the time? Do you think he would feel the same if he were to see the LotR film trilogy? Or even Star Wars?

3.) Going by his definition of fairy stories and how they could be for adults, I'm assuming that his own Lord of the Rings fits the definition of a fairy story for adults. Is that correct? How about Harry Potter?

I could use Google, but i trust /lit/'s opinion on literature.

What books are good for teaching "World-building"?

http://www.spearhead.com/0208-sg.html
>Candour was founded by A. K. Chesterton, a cousin of G. K. Chesterton, as a successor to Truth magazine, of which he had previously been Deputy Editor. Chesterton, a distinguished veteran of two world wars, had earlier edited Oswald Mosley's publications in the 'Thirties. In 1954 he established the League of Empire Loyalists, whose antics and interventions at Tory meetings proved to be a constant source of irritation and embarrassment to both Eden and Macmillan. In 1967 the League merged with the old British National Party (not to be confused with the present party of the same name) and the Racial Preservation Society to form the National Front, with the Greater Britain Movement joining the merger a short time later. Chesterton assumed the role of leader.

>In 1973, Tolkien's copies of Candour were sold out of his estate for £10. In 1997, I inherited these newsletters from Chesterton's secretary Moyna Traill-Smith. The quotations from Candour which follow have all been underlined by Tolkien with a red biro.

[...]

> ‘Africa is not peopled by Black Europeans, but it is a continent full of tribes mentally and morally at the dawn of history.

> ‘Self-government does not mean democracy - Liberia and Abyssinia are two warning lights. African hegemony would lead to the suicide of the White community in East and Central Africa and to the ruin of African hopes of sustained progress.’ (3/10 August 1956, page 44)

Why isn't "high fantasy" called "LoTR-clones"?

That would be much more fiting name for this lowly genre as it clearly demonstrates that all of it is derived from single book, just like early FPSs were callled "Doom-clones" as they stole all their ideas from Doom.

>Secret admission, this is my first post in /lit/.

What is /lit/'s opinion on Tolkein and his works?

>"The notion that motor-cars are more ‘alive’ than, say, centaurs or dragons is curious; that they are more ‘real’ than, say, horses is pathetically absurd. How real, how startlingly alive is a factory chimney compared with an elm-tree: poor obsolete thing, insubstantial dream of an escapist!" J. R. R. Tolkien

Which Tolkien should I read besides Hobbit and LOTR?

Was Tolkien a Christian philosopher like CS Lewis?

>98% on the most important paper of the year
>wrote it on Finnegans Wake
>actually read most of the Finnegans Wake and worked hard to interpret it
>top of the class
>feels good man