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To: Telepathic Intruder

“Except that Tolkien explicitly said that there were no hobbits mentioned in stories until several thousand years after the time that Amazon covers...their entire plot is contradictory to Tolkien’ actual histories. They are reinventing them in a more woke, multicultural, and politically correct context...it’s not Middle Earth anymore, it’s a bastardization. Would anyone do the same with Shakespeare?” [Telepathic Intruder, post 92]

You’re quite right, and I concede the point. Also the larger point, that this later “reinvention” is anything more than woke PC propaganda, which of course has no purpose beyond political indoctrination.

We might recall that the author himself quoted either Pippin or Merry in their first conversation with Treebeard, admitting that hobbits always seem to have gotten left out of the old lists. Lack of stories doesn’t equal nonexistence.

But we’re probably wasting our time, expecting any pushback from serious literary fans, academics, or the executors of the Tolkien Literary Estate (or whatever its name is). I’ve never heard of any court judgment in favor of a plaintiff who alleged lack of intellectual honesty, or failure to be true to what’s often called “canon” in various fandoms.

Hasn’t Shakespeare been done to death, in reworks and adaptations? And “modernizations”? I don’t imagine that any defender of a “Shakespearean purity” could clean up the mess now. And no professor of English and/or drama is going to make any such effort today. They’ve “grown” far beyond any such musings.


93 posted on 09/04/2022 5:09:33 PM PDT by schurmann ( )
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To: schurmann
Yes, there is a long tradition of adapting Shakespeare to other times or cultures, but the script and poetry typically remain unchanged. "Titus" with Anthony Hopkins is a good example. And I don't mind re-imaginings really, but not with renown authors who were experts in their field that no one today can even come close to matching. Making Tolkien's life work "multicultural" violates the very core principal it is based on: a unique English mythology based on Celtic folklore and Norse mythology. He also saw English culture fading due to industrialization and wanted to preserve it somewhat, if only in story.

But regardless, Hollywood directors (or Amazon in this case) will continue to make reinterpretations and adaptions, thinking they're being creative. And Tolkien's original books will never change, so there is that. The key problem I see is that people will not even bother to read the books, thinking they've already seen the movies and TV shows. Their loss, I guess. Anyway, your thoughts on this helped it make more sense to me.
94 posted on 09/04/2022 5:36:30 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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