Christopher Tolkien at it again....

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by davem

I think anyone who has read my posts on this forum over the years will know how much Tolkien's work means to me, & how much time I've 'spent' in Middle-earth. I have shelves ful of books by & about Tolkien. I met my partner through this forum & our little boy is only here because of our shared love of Tolkien - we wouldn't have met otherwise. If anyone thinks I'm just on some petty minded vendetta against the Tolkien Estate - sorry, you're wrong. I do think we all owe a debt to Christopher Tolkien, but I also think that the recent behaviour of the Estate & its lawyers is unpleasant.

First, I don't recall questioning your appreciation of the books. I would not presume to do so, even if I saw reason for it, which I do not.

Second, I've already said I agree that the reaction to the children's camp was, to the extent of my limited knowledge of the situation, in my judgement unwarranted.

Here's where we diverge, though, apparently. Things like the children's camp story earn an eye-roll from me, maybe a head-shake. That's the end of it. The Estate's actions don't affect my enjoyment of anything Tolkien created. If Peter Jackson's ham-fisted treatment of LOTR, with head-scratching mis-characterizations of Elrond, Arwen, and most infuriatingly, Faramir, could not sour the works for me, that isn't going to be accomplished by the sometime knee-jerk reactions from a few old men at the Estate, especially when I don't see any intentional malice behind it all; just questionable judgement.

Originally Posted by davem

The kind of thing that this camp was doing was a perfect counterbalance to the simplistic movies & increasingly violent & dumb video games that Middle-earth is becoming in the popular imagination.

Perhaps it's things like those "violent and dumb video games" that have led to the hypersensitivity of the Estate, and they're now unable to see the sheep among the goats.

It seems we have a fundamental difference of opinion regarding how seriously matters such as the ones you introduce here should be taken. I believe I've said all I can really say about this, so I'm respectfully retiring from this thread.

Cheers.