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[Bevanron <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> > ...movies don't count, you have to read the books!!
>
>
> Now, Wonder Woman, that depends on whether you seek entertainment or
>  immersion into a writer's vision. Actually, having read a bit about
>  Tolkien, I doubt the books would keep my interest. I find fantasy 
> akin to spirituality; some speaks to me and some doesn't. Beyond 
> spirituality, Tolkien was religious. That url I referenced in my last
>  post included this: 'The Lord of the Rings' is of course a 
> fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first,
>  but consciously in the revision," Tolkien wrote in a letter in 1953
>  to Robert Murray, a Jesuit priest.

I agree that there is a lot of religious undercurrent to his work, but
it is written in a way that that aspect can be ignored and read with
emphasis on other aspects, like his love of nature and the conflicts of
man vs. man, etc.  You can read it on the 'surface' at face value as a
simple adventure story or you can start peeling back the layers.


> Should I ever choose to spend a couple days of my precious time to 
> read JRRT I have his books nearly at hand; nearby friends are as 
> enamored of him as you. They call their place Hobbitwoods. But they 
> have normal feet.

I still think you are missing out on a good read, but I won't push you
further.

> Sure was a lot of violence in the movie version. You are creating 
> your own Shire, far better than merely fantasizing.


Is this not the way of the present world we live in-violence, wars
everywhere, destruction of all that was good and simple?  Tolkien
abhored the violence he witnessed during WWII.  While I am creating my
own Shire, Tolkien looked around and saw commercialization and
development ruining the land of his birth.  He just took another route
to create his vision.

Bev
--
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W