The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum


Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page

Go Back   The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum > Announcements and Obituaries > The Barrow-Downs
User Name
Password
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-17-2009, 06:54 PM   #1
Hakon
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
Hakon's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: The Twilight Zone
Posts: 747
Hakon is a guest of Tom Bombadil.
Tolkien Industry

I found this blog post and thought it would be something worth posting about. What is ironic is part of it overlaps with Alatar's thread on forms. Really just a few lines overlap with that. It is mostly about the Tolkien Industry. I am not sure if this is the right board to post it on so if this needs to be moved then so be it.

Blog Post on Tolkien Industry
__________________
Medicine for the soul. ~Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes
Hakon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-17-2009, 11:15 PM   #2
davem
Illustrious Ulair
 
davem's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,256
davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
I saw this, & agree with much of it. I used to be first in line for the many (many, many many) volumes of essays & analysis of Tolkien's creation, now I avoid them. As to the 're-issue' of Tolkien's books (eg http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Our_T...px?objid=41548) I am as annoyed as the blog writer. There certainly are too many 'academics' churning out volumes of stuff about Tolkien, & running university courses on his work, 'revealing' the 'real meaning', or focussing on the 'original sources' of his work (which they often get wrong anyway).And when you buy a book you don't want to find a 'new, revised version, with extra material' popping up a few years down the line. The 'extra material' in new editions is a major issue with me. Apparently we are expected to pay for a new edition of a work we already have in order to get half a dozen (or fewer) pages of an previously unpublished letter or essay by Tolkien (which for some reason cannot be gathered together in a handy single volume.

My greatest gripe in this context though is the '50th Anniversary' edition of LotR. As a collector of 'nice Tolkien stuff' (in a very minor way - nothing serious: if I see something Tolkien related which appeals to me I'll buy it) I have three copies of the '50th' - the Harper Collins 'deluxe', the HC three volume set with Tolkien's original covers, & the Houghton Mifflin deluxe. However, I don't read that edition - because it contains '300-400' changes (all authorised by Christopher Tolkien, admittedly), many 'minor', some perhaps not http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...54&postcount=1. The point is, when these 'authorised' changes were made JRRT was long dead, & we have no idea whether he would have authorised them - or made other changes entirely. I don't know what the motivation was behind these changes, which go far beyond fixing 'typos' (which would be entirely justified), in a work of fiction. The replacement of Tolkien's original index (a move on a far more significant scale than the revision of the Letters index, which is a non -fiction work) also rankles, as even the index in its original form was special, 'part of the package' of LotR - & it was authorised by JRRT. Altering any work of art after the artist's death is crossing a line which shouldn't be crossed. However, if you look at the copyright notice in the editions you will see that pre-50th anniversary the copyright was 'JRR Tolkien' after the changes it has become 'Copyright The Tolkien Trust'. If these changes/new index had been included in Hammond & Scull's Reader's Companion I would have welcomed them with open arms. As they are imposed on the text itself I do not.
davem is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:43 AM.



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.