/lit/ - Literature

It's been almost 70 years since Fellowship of the Ring was first published, and if anything the trilogy is more beloved than ever. I'd say it has passed the required filter of time.

I once had a graduate school professor who said that The Lord Of The Rings was the only major work that was going to survive the 20th Century. She didn't think the other things we laud as great from the 20th Century would make it: not Joyce, not Faulkner, not Hemingway, not Pound. Only Tolkien would survive. She said that Lord of the Rings was the only work that was "big enough" to survive for centuries to come.

I feel like, for all that Tolkien is considered the father of modern fantasy, when you actually read his more serious stuff it's surprisingly grounded and concrete.

Like, The Lord of the Rings is heavily invested in very literary concepts: the inevitable decay of time, the seduction of power, the illusion of innocence, the virtue of showing mercy, the hidden power in small things. It doesn't feel like throwaway fantasy fiction. It doesn't feel like fast food, which a lot of fantasy fiction does. It has a great grimness and sadness to it that I think elevates it significantly.

I think if Frankenstein can technically be science fiction and still be considered great literature, then The Lord of the Rings, despite being technically fantasy, can be considered great literature.