[The Saucepan Man]

To be honest, I thought that Ray Mears did a very good job. Much better than I was expecting. As Daisy said, it is impossible to deal with the merits of LotR in half an hour. There are so many themes to address, and so he chose that which means most to him and emphasised the connection with nature. There are themes in the book which mean more to me, but that is certainly one of the main themes and I can understand why he chose to emphasise it.

For similar reasons, I can understand why he concentrated on Frodo, his journey and his struggle with the Ring. After all, that is the central story, and there was not time to address all the related sub-plots. I did notice the absence of Aragorn, but it would, I think, have detracted from what he did say to have tried to cover Aragorn's story too, not to mention the many other characters that had no mention.

Although I disagreed when he said the Lord of the Rings was whoever held the Ring...

Yes, like the rest of you, I noticed that. But I wouldn't have noticed it had it not been for a discussion of the point on this very forum some months back. So I don't see it as a major criticism.

I was glad when he FINALLY said that Tolkien denied it was about WW2 etc...those shots of Hitler at the Nuremburg (sp?) rallies were beginning to get to me.

Again, I had much the same reaction, Elentári. But I think that this was more a problem with the programme-makers choosing these shots to trail the piece. Thankfully, Mears made the point that Tolkien denied any allegory with WW2, and also that WW1 probably had much more of an influence on Tolkien's writings. This, and some of the other things that he said, did reassure me that he does have an appreciation of Tolkien's works that derives from more than just reading LotR.

One excellent point which I thought that he made was that this is a book which cries out to be read, making the comparison in this regard with ancient epics. So, on this basis, I think that he was right to read extracts from it himself (and he did do a fairly good Gollum voice [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] ). Personally, I would not have chosen to recite a verse of Tom Bombadil's poetry if I was trying to persuade people to read the book, but maybe that's just me.

I do wonder, however, how much a piece like this will persuade people to read the book if they have not already read it. It appears that, from what the librarian they had on was saying, the whole Big Read thing has prompted people to read the books on the list (and LotR particularly so, it would seem). But I wonder if Ray Mears himself will have had much effect in this regard.

Personally, I have not been persuaded by anything that I have seen to read any of the books on the shortlist (or even in the top 100) that I have not already read. Although Alastair McGowan's excellent piece on Wuthering Heights has persuaded me that I ought to read it again. But then, it is already in my top 10.

Nevertheless, it does seem that the Big Read has had an effect in persuading people to read more books. Which can only be a good thing.

[ November 16, 2003: Message edited by: The Saucepan Man ]