Queue on 18/2/2009 at 18:49
From that point of view, HG, I'd like to see it, too. The only thing I'm saying is that it's been thirty-five years since his death, and over seventy years since he wrote it; why dig it up now? If it is something of genuine interest, then it shouldn't have taken thirty-five years to publish--especially with such a famous and beloved namesake.
...to me, this is just more marketing. I hope I'm wrong.
doctorfrog on 18/2/2009 at 19:35
Whether or not it's being done for the money, is it really a bad thing that the furthest writings of an influential author are being preserved? Get over it.
Herr_Garrett on 18/2/2009 at 19:48
Quote Posted by Queue
If it is something of genuine interest, then it shouldn't have taken thirty-five years to publish--especially with such a famous and beloved namesake.
...to me, this is just more marketing. I hope I'm wrong.
Have you read any the
History of Middle-earth series? In those books Christopher Tolkien always rather wearily comments (I understand him) that 'this bit of the story I found on the back of a folded-up napkin,
this on the margins of a university paper and
that enveloped and numbered, with precise title, ordered pages, typewritten, behind the back of an extremely old cupboard which apparently hasn't been moved since 1942, since my father put this there, and it was behind a pile of furniture, too'. Three hundred thousand pages of manuscript, I say again.
It can be for commercial reasons, yes. But I feel that Christopher is really enthusiastic about this, and very neat and precise. If the whole posthumus-publication was entirely for 'let's print some money' reasons, then the text that brought (to my mind) the greatest change into Tolkien's mythology, namely
Myths Transformed, would have been published with the greatest flourish, commotion and divers alarums. Not almost entirely hidden in the back of the volume
Morgoth's Ring, as it actually was.
Queue on 18/2/2009 at 20:12
Quote Posted by Herr_Garrett
Have you read any the
History of Middle-earth series? In those books Christopher Tolkien always rather wearily comments (I understand him) that 'this bit of the story I found on the back of a folded-up napkin,
this on the margins of a university paper and
that enveloped and numbered, with precise title, ordered pages, typewritten, behind the back of an extremely old cupboard which apparently hasn't been moved since 1942, since my father put this there, and it was behind a pile of furniture, too'. Three hundred thousand pages of manuscript, I say again.
No I haven't, but now I feel I must.
...at 300,000 pages it wasn't a manuscript, it was chest-of-drawers.
jtr7 on 18/2/2009 at 20:13
Christopher was one of the very first fans of his father's stories. There's a real fascination with the material separate from the money.
Stitch on 19/2/2009 at 00:44
I will not read this book and the reason I won't is called The Children of Húrin.
Queue on 19/2/2009 at 00:48
What the hell was that, Stitch?
I could google, but I'm lazy.
[EDIT] Take that back, now I remember it. Came out, what, a year or two ago, right? It didn't exactly get good reviews, from what I remember.
Obviously, I've never read it.
Queue on 19/2/2009 at 01:05
15,864 different elves....
Jesus Christ! Hasn't anyone ever suggested that Tolkien might actually have been utterly insane?
The facts are all there: hairy-footed little people, elves, rings, manuscripts the size of Buicks stuffed behind the dresser.
Mingan on 19/2/2009 at 03:33
The main problem is not the quantity of elves (although there's probably a hundred or so), it's that everyone has about 5 different names, depending on who they're talking to and/or where they're standing.
