Yes, Tolkien is Wonderful, but...

[davem]

Originally Posted by Iarwain

I know a lot of people will find it very hard to accept, perhaps because it's so nice to know who the greatest author is and devote your reading efforts toward achieving a full grasp of his writings. Or perhaps because ultimately we are escapists, and Tolkien has provided the alternate world we want. If it's the first, this thread is for you, to let you know that there are yet more delightful books to read. If the latter, don't let me bother you, keep on escaping. I'm pretty sure no one has created a more comprehensive and delightful alternate universe than Tolkien.

Thanks so much for sharing your insights with us. Its good to be told that there are other writers out there who are worth reading (though I suspect anyone over twelve would know that already).

Its also nice that you've told us that, in your opinion, there are 'much better books out there'.

I wish I knew what you want. Do you want us to agree? Or are you looking for an argument?

Actually, I realise there are other great writers. If I turn to my left I can see, besides four shelves full of books by or about Tolkien, a couple of dozen Icelandic Sagas, the Morte d'Arthur, The Mabinogion, The Kalevala, Beowulf, William's Taliesin poems & his study of Dante, Montaigne's Essays, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Don Quixote, The King James's Bible & Tyndale's New Testament. One floor up & there are two shelves of poetry, from Shakespeare & Spenser & Ariosto through Blake, Byron, Christina Rosetti, Emily Bronte & Emily Dickinson to David Jones & Wendy cope. On the floor above I have about four bookcases of theology (favouring English & German mystics admittedly), mythology (Norse & Celtic in the main, but Classical & Oriental too) a shelf full of Jung, another of general psychology, some philosophy, about three dozen novels by Philip K Dick, some Robert Anton Wilson, a couple of shelves of history books (again, mainly British, but some classical), & works of writers ranging from Homer, Thucydides & Ovid through the Brontes & George Elliot, Tolstoy & Dostoevsky to Joseph Heller & John Crowley. That doesn't include encylopedias & literary companions.

Those are the ones I can call to mind, without getting up. It doesn't include Lal's collection, which is at least as wide (though favouring more modern poets). I'd say we have a good three thousand plus books in the house, both fiction & non- fiction, & are both widely read, literate individuals. We've also both read just about everything Tolkien ever wrote.

You're wrong about Tolkien, & in my opinion you're being more than a little patronising. Do you really think that those of us who post on this site only consider Tolkien to be a great writer because we haven't read any 'proper' books? Or that the only attraction in his work is the chance to run away with the fairies for a few hours?