21st Century Tolkien - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lalwendë · 05-24-2006, 02:36 PM

What is the future of Tolkien and Tolkien fandom?

Tolkien's creation has now spawned films, fan fiction, graphic novels, computer games, toys, enough books to fill a small library, many websites, a musical, maybe an entire sub-culture? To me, there now seems to be a whole Tolkien industry.

Of course, there must be the enormous profits made by manufacturers of toys, posters, pens, PlayStation games, mugs, keyrings etc generated by the films. But it is not only the films which generated profit. I know a lot of us eagerly snap up the book-based board games, and there are also book-based toys (even a Barrow-Wight!) and large amounts of paraphernalia such as Tolkien art posters, cards and figurines to collect.

People are making small fortunes on sites like e-bay selling everything from first editions of The Hobbit to plastic cups with film promo pictures on. Even first editions of HoME and copies of Amon Hen (Tolkien Society journal) are now seriously expensive and rare.

There are the conventions which have grown to epic proportions in terms of size (and cost). The Tolkien Society Oxonmoot used to meet in a pub, so I understand. Last year they had five days of it in Birmingham with people from all over the world attending and I'm sure I wasn't the only one overawed by it all.

But this new industry even includes the enormous associated fame of academics such as Verlyn Flieger, who attracted a huge queue of people wanting her autograph at Tolkien 2005, and Tom Shippey who was indeed listened to with reverential awe as one of the newspapers reported. Books signed by the academics reach high prices on e-bay, never mind books signed by Tolkien himself!

I thought that the machine might have stopped rolling once the films had passed into memory, but it seems to have taken new forms. Games Workshop might now be losing money on their LOTR gaming figures, but go into Forbidden Planet in London and they have an entire separate section devoted to Tolkien books; they had more of these than they had of Star Wars books.

Can all this continue?

For those of us who remember the years before the films, being a Tolkien fan back then was a strange experience. This was also pre-Internet. I did not know of the Tolkien Society, I only occasionally met other Tolkien fans. Yet now I am on the Downs, and we have this large community (just one community amongst many others), and we even seem to have factions in this community, e.g. Non-Wingers, Pro-Pointy-Ears etc. Not only can I now find fellow fans, but certain types of fan. This was just not possible a few years ago.

What do you think? Has the nature of fandom changed? If so, has it been a good change? Have the numbers of fans increased? Will we all still be rabid fans in 10 years time? 20 years?

05-24-2006, 02:36 PM	#1
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	21st Century Tolkien What is the future of Tolkien and Tolkien fandom? Tolkien's creation has now spawned films, fan fiction, graphic novels, computer games, toys, enough books to fill a small library, many websites, a musical, maybe an entire sub-culture? To me, there now seems to be a whole Tolkien industry. Of course, there must be the enormous profits made by manufacturers of toys, posters, pens, PlayStation games, mugs, keyrings etc generated by the films. But it is not only the films which generated profit. I know a lot of us eagerly snap up the book-based board games, and there are also book-based toys (even a Barrow-Wight!) and large amounts of paraphernalia such as Tolkien art posters, cards and figurines to collect. People are making small fortunes on sites like e-bay selling everything from first editions of The Hobbit to plastic cups with film promo pictures on. Even first editions of HoME and copies of Amon Hen (Tolkien Society journal) are now seriously expensive and rare. There are the conventions which have grown to epic proportions in terms of size (and cost). The Tolkien Society Oxonmoot used to meet in a pub, so I understand. Last year they had five days of it in Birmingham with people from all over the world attending and I'm sure I wasn't the only one overawed by it all. But this new industry even includes the enormous associated fame of academics such as Verlyn Flieger, who attracted a huge queue of people wanting her autograph at Tolkien 2005, and Tom Shippey who was indeed listened to with reverential awe as one of the newspapers reported. Books signed by the academics reach high prices on e-bay, never mind books signed by Tolkien himself! I thought that the machine might have stopped rolling once the films had passed into memory, but it seems to have taken new forms. Games Workshop might now be losing money on their LOTR gaming figures, but go into Forbidden Planet in London and they have an entire separate section devoted to Tolkien books; they had more of these than they had of Star Wars books. Can all this continue? For those of us who remember the years before the films, being a Tolkien fan back then was a strange experience. This was also pre-Internet. I did not know of the Tolkien Society, I only occasionally met other Tolkien fans. Yet now I am on the Downs, and we have this large community (just one community amongst many others), and we even seem to have factions in this community, e.g. Non-Wingers, Pro-Pointy-Ears etc. Not only can I now find fellow fans, but certain types of fan. This was just not possible a few years ago. What do you think? Has the nature of fandom changed? If so, has it been a good change? Have the numbers of fans increased? Will we all still be rabid fans in 10 years time? 20 years? __________________ Gordon's alive!