unforum

[Lithp]

I'm not even going to pretend to be well-read, but I can't get into Lord of the Rings. I remember a part near the end of The Two Towers where it felt like he spent FOREVER describing a mountain. And not even an ecologically diverse mountain, one of those big, gray, craggly ones. In retrospect, I have no idea how I got through that whole book.

Yes, yes, it's cool that he's got such a detailed, diverse world. But that doesn't mean that the sequence of events IN that world is the same. A big problem I had was that it seemed to have a lot of plot holes. "The One Ring always finds its way back to Sauron," but spent 50 years chilling in a cave. "We can't fly there," because that would be too easy.

Actually, looking at his timeline, it seems like he chose the single most boring period of the history that he'd come up with to write novels about.

[Clairabel]

Fun fact, I pass the place that Tolkien based The Shire off on the way to work.

Second fun fact, an ex-boyfriend of mine got his phone robbed off him twice as he walked by there.

This has nothing to do with LOTR, I just find it funny. The books do seem full of descriptions that stop being necessary four sentences on.

[CraicIsMighty]

It's been almost two years since I last read LOTR, but i can still remember the two things that annoyed me most about the series were the allusions and the characters. I remember Tolkien would make these allusions and references to important figures and events in Middle Earth and I'd have no idea what he was talking about. He wrote the book like the readers were all from Middle Earth themselves and would be able to understand all the references he made to famous people and events. Some people think that's cool I suppose, but I find it annoying that I have to pull up the LOTR wiki just to figure out what the hell he's talking about.

Also, like I said before, most of the characters are pretty one dimensional. It can be pretty hard to get into the story when all the characters are like walking cardboard cutouts. Also, Tom Bombadil was the most pointless character ever. Seriously, I don't get what the point to him was.

Oh yeah, and I seem to remember him taking a really long time to describe Galadriel's dress or something.

[Zarggg]

Tom Bombadil was essentially author insertion and an excuse to use poetry Tolkien had written but was otherwise unassociated with the mythos.

[Kraehtot]

I don't know, I really like the LOTR series, and I have read the books more than twice, enjoying Tokien's style... well, I've not read the books in English (I will some day) so maybe the thing I like is the translator's style (or maybe I am just special?).

The only thing that I don't like is the first part of the first book, when he starts talking about the hobbits and their lives, but, once "the story begins" I like it so much *__*

[Zarggg]

Yeah, one of the biggest complaints we English speakers (especially American English speakers, who use a very relaxed form of English) have is the language style. It's written in a very dry, formal, matter-of-fact style of English, like you'd expect in a dissertation or essay. Tolkien was a life-long professor at Oxford University, so that form of writing was what he was used to.

[TheMoldyPudding]

I hated Lord of the Rings.
I mean, The Hobbit was fantastic! As I was reading Fellowship, I kept thinking to myself, "Wow. I FINALLY understand what people are talking about! These books are fantastic!"
But then I started Two Towers and hated it. I don't care about the lore of Middle Earth. I don't care about the description of one mountain. I also found out that I don't care about the actual Fellowship. The only characters I liked were Frodo, Sam, Gollum and Bilbo. (You guys may hate me for this, but I actually loved Tom Bombadil.... And hated Gandalf)

So I barely got through the first half of Two Towers. It took me like a month. Then I got to the second half and read it very fast. I thought it was so much better than the first half.
And Return of the King is honestly one of the most boring books I have ever read. Again, the first half was terrible. I didn't want to finish reading it, but decided that I had to if I ever wanted to fairly judge the series. I kept reading and didn't even enjoy the ending. It was the most unsatisfying ending I could have ever imagined.

So in short: The Hobbit and Fellowship were amazing. Two Towers and Return of the King were filled with pointless characters and descriptions that made my interest drop.

[Geneaux486]

I used to pass the time in high school by reading and re-reading the Middle Earth books (in lieu of interpersonal communication) and while I love the story that Tolkien told through his books, I don't particularly enjoy the way he told it. It's worth it to get to the end, though, 'cause it is a great story.

[Kraehtot]

[Lithp]

I'd be fine with that if the areas were interesting. But it was just a craggly mountain. And the descriptions don't matter to what goes on in the area. Like if he extensively describes the politics of an area (I don't know if he does or not), & this actually comes into play in the story, even if it's not all relevant, then cool. But it's really just a bunch of guys walking to a volcano.

[Grumplestiltskin]

[twistedpuppet]

[Zarggg]

[Marble Hornets]

So about those twitters/tumblers....

Unfiction should just get a chat box. Even in on-topic topics, things get sidetracked way too quickly on here

[Ztakk]

Why must you always post to stop our fun! Meanie head.