Would Tolkien have accepted the films?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

The question would seem to be whether Tolkien envisioned other adaptations in the process of writing, and of that I have my doubts.

I don't think he did, either. But then this tends to be something entirely limited to writers over the past ten years, when it seems anything committed to paper can be, and usually is, turned into a film, even a newspaper column.

Again, to me it goes back to how the author views the source work. Was Tolkien writing to live, or living to write?

He was a hobby writer. He never set out to write a blockbusting novel, never even set out to write novels. However, that wouldn't stop him from enjoying the proceeds! It's quite a dismal prospect, but Lord of the Rings could easily never have been completed due to the demands of his academic career. Tolkien did many other things in order to bring in extra cash to fund a large family - marking exam papers, recording a Linguaphone course, I think he also wrote exam papers for prisoners. That The Hobbit had made some money, both from the novel and from selling performance rights, we ought to be grateful as otherwise he'd have been even deeper in the mire of checking whether 16 year olds from Grimsby had correct spelling on their exam papers.

I think the films do flounder in imparting the meaning of the story, but that's apparently because you and I have differing opinions of just what that meaning is.
Opinions are all we have, though.

Well I argue that they don't have a 'meaning' at all, so make of that what you will If someone wants to find out for themselves what they think the meaning is, they can go and buy the books and read them - if they are that daft they think a film will convey it to them it's not in my heart to feel sorry for them