Are you a better person?

[Lalwendë]

I've already answered Fordim's question: Is there a bit of Tolkien in all of us, or are we just rising to a challenge presented by the book in our own unique ways? But I have also been thinking about his other questions:

I am being improved by the book, or am I improving myself in response to the book?

I think that if you do indeed improve yourself in response to the book, then the book has already done its job in terms of improving you. Meaning, for example, if you go on to develop an interest in linguistics after reading LotR, then you are indeed improving in response to the book, and that response has been generated by the book itself in some way.

Is there a specific kind of Middle-earth improvement that I cannot gain from any other book, or is it merely one pathway among many to the same place?

I think the question here is whether there is one place which we can get to from reading the book. As the boards demonstrate, the results of reading Tolkien are disparate. Some of us find certainty in Tolkien, others, like myself, are often left with even more questions than when they started reading. I think this depends upon us as individuals. Tolkien has something to teach us, to show us, but we all interpret it in different ways. He is a teacher, but he is not didactic.

In terms of whether we could get this from any other book, I am not so sure. Possibly if we read all that Tolkien had read, e.g. The Eddas, Beowulf etc., then we might possibly get the same results, as the influence of these is immense on his work, but we must not forget that Tolkien's work is also unique. It is filled with his own interpretations, impressions and ideas.

There are a lot of pathways that look quite similar, but the signposts have been subtly altered, I find! And if we are talking of Middle-earth improvement then where else could we get that from but LotR?

Are those of us who are made better by the book, or who better ourselves in resonse to the book, better in the same way?

I think we all share one common trait and that is a keen sense of wonder. It is this that is stirred within us when we journey through Middle Earth. Possibly this is another 'bit of Tolkien' that we all share, as he certainly had this sense. But I don't think we will all be better in the same way, after all, LotR is just one influence on our lives (even if it is an overly large influence in my own case ) and as individuals we will respond in different ways. There will be certain traits that Downers share, as this is a community, and like all communities, it has its own culture, shared ideals, and broadly held beliefs; other sites would likely be very different. So, we may all share certain traits, but not all Tolkien fans will.

[Dragon Reborn]

I heard once that we are influenced by I think 10 000 people in our lifetime. I wonder by how many books...

[Durelin]

*shakes her head* Fordim's everywhere now, I see...and is that eight boxes I count? 'Tis astounding...though it's no real surprise.

Yet again you ask some mind-boggling questions. (I've always wanted to use that word, 'mind-boggling'...) So I'm going to answer some specific ones in a rather general way. First, the whole matter of improving yourself. It is my belief that self-improvement has the prefix 'self' for a reason. Making yourself a better person is entirely up to you. It's also completely an inward thing. The physical world has countless effects on all people, but they are merely stimuli for internal growth. In the end, no matter what happens in our physical world around us, our intellectual and spiritual world is ours to control. But on what plane is something like The Lord of the Rings located? For its physical properties, the story is simply a bunch -- a whole bunch! -- of words. The importance and meaning of words is arguable, but can any words really make you a better person?

But what do people do with words once they read them or hear them? They don't just recognize each word and what it means according to Webster, but they take it in as something that means something, and, needless to say, something beyond a man-made definition. It's almost like a word has a color. But of course it's hard to define colors, especially in all the various hues there can be, and everyone is going to see them differently. So truly, a person can paint a picture with words, and Tolkien most certainly does, but how easily can we dispute over his medium, his message, his tone, and his painting's impact when we hang it upon the wall and scrutinize it? And of course we all know what one does when he walks by a painting: he adjusts it so it hangs straight. But the next person that walks by might see it as crooked, and will adjust it again. They saw what the former person saw to be straight as crooked, and see what they see to be straight as straight, though they had to make what the other person saw as straight crooked in order for them to see it straight.

I love analogies.

The meaning we receive from something like The Lord of the Rings is personal. But meaning alone is nothing unless it is understood, and applied. And it can be applied anywhere, as long as it becomes a part of you. And undoubtedly it will, as we essentially have no where to apply it except to ourselves. So everything is relevant, and everything else irrelevant, as relevance is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe there is a 'Tolkien in all of us,' simply because we have all found our relevance in this man's life-work. But a 'Tolkien in all of us' does not define 'all of us' as anything more than of the same species!

You could say there is a Tolkien in me, just as there's a Yoda in me. And I could say that reading and re-reading The Lord of the Rings has made me a better person before. In a very basic way, it got me into reading when I first read it. Also, through that very first reading, it opened up my mind. It opened up a world of fantasy that I hadn't known before, and this began one big expansion in my brain and my known world. Windows were widened for me, so more light could come in. I still have a great many cobwebs to clean up still, and there's more windows and more doors that need to be opened to the light. But I took Tolkien's world and let it inspire me and enlighten me, used it as a guide down no certain path. I guess Frodo's journey inspired me to take on my own journey in life with a little more heart. In that way, I believe I have become a better person through my adventures in Middle-Earth, and beyond.

Now I can ask myself but one question: have I actually made a point in this post?

-Durelin

[Eothain Elfwine]

I do not know if I can say that reading Tolkien has made me better morally, made me kinder or more giving or more loving. But I know Tolkien has enriched me. I have a love of beauty and the natural world that is far beyond anything I had before I started to read Tolkien. I have a great appreciation now for the exquisite use of words. And Tolkien's writings taught me to respond more emotively to literature. I used to be ashamed of crying over books or movies, but now I am glad to be so moved. More than anything, the battle cries in TTT and RoTK and the great battles of RoTK make me cry--I don't know why, really. But if to be enriched is to become better, I have indeed.

[elfearz1]

has reading (and/or re-reading, and re-reading…) The Lord of the Rings made you a “better person”?

In some ways, yes. I had a hard time liking to read before, because I was reading the wrong kind of books. When I discovered I liked fantasy I began to LOVE reading and can't get enough of it. Lord of the rings has inscreased my vocabulary and when teachers or youth pastors use illustrations from it, it helps me understand better. J.R.R. Tolkien also inspired me on a career path. I always loved writing and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but never before thought to put the two together! So, yes in ways it has, but morally I don't think so.


Oh, and I'm also doing the "walk to Rivendell" so you can say it's made me healthier!

[Mithalwen]

In one sense I am probably a worse person for Middle Earth since I spend so much time happily rereading Tolkien and on Tolkien related websites which I could devote to reading that huge pile of bought but unread books I posess or doing something career advancing.

Furthermore in my first Tolkien phase in my adolescence it encouraged an extant interest in languages which eventually led me to follow my heart rather than my exam grades when I chose my A-Levels ( however my grannie's wish that I should become a doctor was a non-starter as I knew it would involve cutting up dead people - this was before I learned that the living are much scarier!)

Anyway I don't think that I can entirely blame Tolkien for my poor career choices and I had blast for 4 years doing English and French Lit even though I hadn't a clue what I would do with it. At least it pleased my personal tutor that she had a charge who was positively ecstatic about the prospect of studying her own subject of linguistics. Strangely enough though it was at this point, I left Tolkien for a long time. Partly, I had little time to read anything of my own choice and partly, I perceived that I was expected to be interested in more serious stuff.
Also I had exhausted the supply other than the slowly emerging HoME which I really didn't have time to digest.

However while I might have had a different and more successful career without Tolkien, I don't want to be melodramatic but there is a distinct possibility that I would not be alive without Tolkien. When I first read it, I was having a particularly bad time at school and really wanted to die. I don't think I could have survived the real world if I had't had middle earth to escape to.

When I returned to Tolkien, it also had a therepeutic value. It was partly the films that brought me back - I had thought I wouldn't want to see them, having such a clear picture of them in my head but as soon as I saw a trailer my resolve melted. The FOTR came out a matter of weeks after my mother died. We knew her cancer was terminal from diagnosis, but she went through so much against the odds and won a little precious remission. I had long ago learnt by heart Sam's song in Cirith Ungol and I had copied it for her. And it really summed up her attitude - she kept on going in the face of what was logically a hopeless situation. I had put my life on hold to care for her and when she died - very suddenly in the end- I was absolutely bereft, emotionally and physically exhausted. Middle Earth was again a comfort - going back to the books may have been escapism and regression but it was also healing. Through Tolkien I have made some good friends, one in particular who was more help than any counsellor of priest could have been as I grieved. So on the scale of things I think I come out better because of Tolkien - as a person if not as an economic unit. I am not sure that another author could have had quite the same effect.. I mean I found the entire Forsyte Chronicles a distraction when I was ill between Tolkien phases but it hasn't had such a lasting or profound impact..

Now I worry that I should do something more constructive with my time and it slightly concerning that I am often keener to find out what is happening on the downs or my other board than what is going on in the lives of my "real" friends. However most of my real friends have children and are unable to talk about anything else which gets a bit tedious ..... arguing the toss about balrog wings and elf ears beats getting a far too detailed account of god-son's potty training believe me.

[Carlas]

Has reading LOTR made me a better person? I don't think reading something can make you a better person. It is up to the person to make themselves better, even though the reading of a certain book may have helped them want to be better, only they can change themselves.

For me personally though, LOTR has helped me look on the world around me differently and see that even when life seems to be at it's worse, it can get better. But I did not read the books to help change me or make me a better person, I read them so I could lose myself in another world. When life gets crazy, Middle-Earth is my escape.

[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

No. Actually, reading the Lord of the Rings made me worse.

Seriously ... let's see ... in grade school and middle school I was an A+ student. Then in 9th grade I read the Lord of the Rings, and in high school and college I was a lazy, chronically bored, always sleeping mess of a C student.

And to top it off, I spent my waking hours in school drawing characters from the Lord of the Rings.

The only class I ever had a 100 average in was Trilogy ... a class where we read the Lord of the Rings.

And also, for four years I never felt the need to read anything non-Tolkien. That can't be good for expanding my horizons, I'm sure I missed out on loads of good reads, and I KNOW I missed out on a lot of reading for classes I could have been doing, but wasn't, because if I was going to read anything, it had to be LOTR.

On the bright side, some of the topics on this forum helped teach me good debate skills for college, and through all that drawing, I got better at everything from drawing horses to human musculature, all sorts of texture and shadow, and architecture and weapons.

Which is good, I suppose.

That's not to say the Lord of the Rings isn't the greatest book ever written ... it's a thrill ride, with some of the best writing ever, especially the suggestive parts Tolkien stuck in between all the great descriptive parts. The Father of Modern Myth.

Anyway, I'm actually a worse person. But I'm a better artist ... so there's some good that came of this.