What Would Tolkien Do?

[davem]

Having just re-read the letters, & his criticism of the proposed 1950's animated movie, I have to say that a lot of the things he criticised in that treatment - the focus on violence, the breking up of Frodo & Sam's story, which he felt should be depicted as in the book, a single continuous narrative, seem to apply to what we've been given in the current movies. Like Iarwain, I don't think he would have approved of the movies. He put so much work into the tales that to have them so simplified & reduced to what in my opinion, as I've said before, is a 'sub Dungeons & Dragons slash fest' would have simply reinforced his low opinion of modern culture. The other issue is that Tolkien didn't agree with the dramatisation of Fairy Tales/Fantasy (see On Fairy Stories)

He also seemed to be quite negative about fans, & fan groups. There's the account, in Carpenter's biography, I think, where he was told about a young man who loved LotR so much that as soon as he finished it he would start reading it all over again, & Tolkien is supposed to have said 'I've ruined their lives.'

Personally, I think he would have felt sad that there was so little else that could move & inspire people, & wished there was more of the kind of thing he loved & wrote by other writers.

There is the question though, would he have approved of all the unfinished work being published?