Outrage?

[Lalwendë]

And Farenheit 451 is also an interesting thread.

I am not aware of any such negative reception for The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings when they were originally published. This could be due to one of two things in my opinion.

It could be that they were not regarded as 'important' books, likely to reach a mass market or even to have a significant impact upon the lit-crit market. Harry Potter was an immensely popular series almost from the beginning (certainly much more so than Tolkien's work!) so naturally will attract more attention as we see kids (big and small) with their noses glued to them.

It could also be that today we live in a much more polarised society. Or at least, that the media encourage us to be polarised. Hatred is much more easily stirred up today, as evidenced in terrorist attacks, support for far Right politics, suspicion of certain types of people and so forth. It may have been different in the McCarthy era USA, but the UK was a more tolerant society when LotR was published - despite being before anti-discrimination legislation. Now we're always looking for the 'enemy'!

I think censorship arises as a result of two things, power and fear. Suddenly, all these children were clamouring for more Harry Potter, and this may have alarmed/puzzled some adults. The same thing has happened with Pokemon cards and video games. Adults soon forget that when they were young they too clamoured for things, whether Spitfire shrapnel, Tonka trucks or space hoppers (they also ignore their own crazes for the gospel of Jamie Oliver or the status symbol of the big shiny car ). Crazes leave them feeling out of control, so when something is seen that can be latched on to, whether it be intimations of witchcraft, violence or whatever else they do not understand, this is seen as sinister. Which is where fear comes in, as when we do not understand something we tend to fear it, and either run away or fight it by trying to control it.

Harry Potter, unfortunately, came out as a craze so it did instill fear in a lot of people, but in reality, kids for years have been playing games of fairies, wizards, witches and so on, inspired by traditional fairy tales and nursery rhymes. The difference is that the latter are not banned as they are multifarious, have been in existence for years, and do not constitute a craze. This why I think Tolkien's work has by and large got off lightly in comparison; it has been in existence for many years already and its influence has been relatively slow growing - as such, it does not constitute as much of a threat. I wonder how many of the instances of LotR being 'banned' occurred during the hype over the films, as that would make sense.