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Originally Posted by TheLostPilgrim
Tolkien purists are upset at the way Jackson is enlarging The Hobbit's story, stretching it beyond it's natural boundaries, and even inserting characters who never existed in the original novel.
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Weren't the Tolkien purists upset at the Lord of the Rings movies too? I mean, I had problems with the movies, and I'm no where near a purist (just a devoted Faramir and Celeborn fan). The thing is, characters were always going to have to be inserted that didn't exist in the original novel, whether they were named or not - you can't have Mirkwood with 3 or 4 elves. And while Tauriel is controversial, I find that there's also people that support the Hobbit movie because she's been inserted.
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I mean very few modern day readers (of my age; I am 21), for example, have even HEARD of Gone with the Wind, the book; they only know of the film. And they base their perception of the book (it must be great, since the film was great) on the quality and reputation of the film.
I'm worried that as time goes by, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Tolkien in general may be forgotten, consigned to a little niche. Not many of my generation have any clue who George MacDonald was, for example. Right now, because of Jackson's LOTR films, a lot of my generation and those older know those books and love them...But I'm afraid The Hobbit film will do just the opposite with the younger members of my generation and the younger generation (kids now in that 8-12 year old group).
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I think comparing Tolkien to George MacDonald is a bit of a stress. MacDonald, however much I like
The Princess and the Goblin and
The Princess and Curdie, is dated. Most of his works are highly religious in nature, in the same way that Lewis' Narnia books are. There are plenty of people that can't stand those, but that love Tolkien's books.
While I can see where you're coming from, perhaps it will assure you if I tell you that when I was working in my school districts's middle school library two years ago, I remember checking Tolkien's books out to many a kid and that my little brother (currently in the age range you specified) is reading the Hobbit. Anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but I find that at least among the people I hang out with at college, most of us are Tolkien geeks to the extreme, with younger cousins, siblings, nephews, or nieces that are also growing up to read the books. I think that as long as there's some of us that love the books to introduce them to the younger generation, there's always going to be Tolkien fans.
They might come across it differently - my little brother saw me playing LOTRO and decided to join me in playing, before staring to read
The Hobbit and planning to see the movie this fall. But I don't think Tolkien's books are going to disappear.