On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 5:51 AM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> And, yeah, I've never enjoyed the work of Tolkien, or any adaptation > of said work, but that is more of a genre thing than anything else. > Fantasy doesn't appeal to me, with few exception (The Princess Bride). > It is always taken as a given that those who like science fiction must > also like fantasy, and I don't believe that to be true. > I am pretty content to recognize and accept the differing tastes people have in entertainment and art. I also like "hard" science fiction but not fantasy (I just got finished watching the two seasons of "Party Down" on Netflix, and one of my favorite parts was when the one character would rant on this). But TH & LOTR seems to me to transcend both the fantasy genre, and the respect usually given to individual differences in preferences. I first read those books when I was in 5th grade, and have read them all 4 or 5 times since, at different points in my life (including reading them aloud to my kids when they were very young), and I have to put them in the category of great literature. Like a dedicated missionary in a land of atheists, I have never been able to encounter a Tolkien-hater without encouraging them to try reading the books at least one more time (often, though of course far from always, Tolkien-haters were forced to read the books early in their reading careers, and developed a negative conditioned emotional response). While I have irritated lots of people, I have also found that not infrequently people who have not read the books since high school or college fall in love with them as adults. The films were a mixed blessing to Tolkien evangelists; they did introduce millions of people to the books who otherwise would never have thought of reading them, and that is a good thing, but they also confirmed the fears and prejudices of lots of people about the books. I like the films just fine, and am looking forward to seeing what they can do with The Hobbit, keeping in mind of course that popular films costing hundreds of millions of dollars are a different kind than novels. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
