/lit/ - Literature

>>18587786
Unironically a based and true quote. The kind of art you create reflects the sort of person you are, and your view of what the world is like. If you are an ugly person on the inside, with an ugly view of the world, you will create ugly art. On the other hand, if you believe that the world, the created order, flows from an origin that is good and beautiful, your art will reflect that, instead.

>>18247746
im not much into poetry but I appreciate Tolkien's poems, you can actually sing it unlike some of the modern english poems.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king

>>18068784
Tolkien did everything right

If you are going into it expecting something like some other fantasy novel you will probably not enjoy it. By the standards of modern fantasy and sci-fi, LOTR is quite strange. It's very melancholy, it's very slow and meandering, there is a lot of singing and poetry, and the action sequences do not take up a lot of the book.

Go into it like you are approaching a "normal" book. Don't expect it to hit beats. Expect to dwell in the world for a while. Enjoy it. You will like it.

>>17932535
Tolkien, because of middle earth

One thing I find myself realizing more and more is that people will read into the future, if the literature is good.

It's not that nobody reads any more. People have plenty of distractions. Millennials and Zoomers are distracted by the internet, and by mass culture more broadly.

But they'll read if the books are good. They will always read if the books are worth reading. Even if it's not millions and millions of people, there will always be an audience for good literature.

But I think the trouble is that there's kind of a lack of good books written of late. I've been gravitating to a few modern writers. Marlon James. George Saunders. A few others. Admittedly I found out about them because they won awards. But their books are actually good, and worth reading, and I find them compelling and actually captivating.

But what else is out there? These guys, plus a few others, are good. But it seems to me that the vast amount of "serious" literature published these days is actually pretty bad. Insufferable. Up its own asshole. Lacking in empathy. More concerned with signaling to an "in crowd" politically and culturally than it is with beauty and goodness and truth. It's not a matter of crafting great art any more, it's about ticking boxes off a list.

And in that light I can't blame Millennials and Zoomers from being turned off from literature. Look at what we're presenting them with. Look at the state of so much of modern literature, literature actually written in the 21st Century. How good is it? How much does it arrest the heart, and grab the eye? How much of it is true, good, and beautiful? Does it make you cry, or rage, or laugh with joy?

And since younger would-be readers are fed this sort of thing, maybe that's why they have a dim view of reading in general. Maybe it's not all their fault. Maybe they just are suspicious of books because books keep being shit, in their own time.

Was High-fantasy a mistake?

What did Tolkien think about race and was he a racist?

>oi, mate, is that a.tree? Lemme sit on it!

So this is the guy who founded Epic Fantasy?

Post only anglos with souls. I'll start: pic related and Blake.

>If he saw Warcraft, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter and the nerd culture around rip offs of his stories today

>>16442973
Tolkien was a wise man, he knew what mattered in life and in fantasy. That's not to say that he solved fantasy, or that it shouldn't grow and change as an art form, but it seems arrogant to talk down on Tolkien's work mostly because he inspired numerous imitators who cheapened his higher ideas.

>Not all those who wander are lost
-J.R.R. Tolkien

Damn bro, deep...

Is he responsible for the current state of fantasy?

>>15761465
an intriguing proposition? care to elucidate? a certain agency in question may have an assignment in mind for you.
>>15761466
ah, i wish it twere that simple.

Was Tolkien a net positive for the current state of fantasy?

>>14509754
End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it: white shores, and beyond, a far green country beneath a swift sunrise

"I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?"
- J.R.R. Tolkien
You guys can quit being pretentious now.

What is Isengard really supposed to represent in LotR?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcWVE8XZYY

>On Sept 19, Lewis and Tolkien had a legendary conversation with another colleague and future Inkling, Hugo Dyson. They spoke late into the night, arguing about faith and theology and history. When the topic turned to “myth,” Lewis evidently made the comment that myths were “lies breathed through silver.”

>While you or I may respond with a counter-argument, Tolkien went home and wrote 148 lines of heroic couplet from the Myth-Lover (Philomythus) to the Myth-Hater (Misomythus). The poem came to be known as “Mythopoiea” (Myth-Maker), and is an apology for the value of myths to tell the deepest truths of human experience.

C. S. Lewis BTFO