Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Tolkien's Middle-Earth: He was just Beorn this way
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Blue Raider
Sep 2, 2006

Levitate posted:

I think plenty of people would not call LoTR literature, but I'm not really sure what the definition of literature really is.

It's something you can certainly deconstruct and study, and its impact on the fantasy genre is undeniable, and personally I like the writing and story, but I suspect the subject matter wouldn't meet the literature bar for many people. Not a call I'm going to make...I just enjoy reading it and appreciating the results of all the effort Tolkien put into it

The best definition I ever heard for literature is "any (written) work that speaks to the human condition." I'll leave the debate open on LotR, but Tolkien's mythology fits in a very long tradition of English pastoral poetry and prose. Just look at Milton's earlier works such as "Lycidas," and you'll see something thematically similar to the early shire parts.

* # ¿ Oct 28, 2013 07:09
  • Quote
Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 5, 2024 17:50
  • Quote
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Tolkien's Middle-Earth: He was just Beorn this way