[Crescent Moon Publishing]
Kategoria: Książki / Literatura obcojęzyczna
J.R.R. TOLKIEN: THE BOOKS, THE FILMS, THE WHOLE
CULTURAL PHENOMENON A book exploring the world of
J.R.R. Tolkien, Britain's premier fantasy
author,...
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J.R.R. TOLKIEN: THE BOOKS, THE FILMS, THE WHOLE CULTURAL PHENOMENON
A book exploring the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, Britain's premier
fantasy author, in over 800 pages. Part one of this book focusses
on J.R.R. Tolkien's texts, principally those dealing with his
'secondary world' of Middle-earth. Part two explores the 2001-03
Hollywood movies of The Lord of the Rings, with a scene-by-scene
analysis of the three films. Part of this book explores the
influence of the Tolkien industry, in areas like computer gaming,
pop music, merchandizing and cinema. EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION
Philip Toynbee declared, in 1961, that Tolkien's 'childish books
had passed into a merciful oblivion', a wonderful statement, just a
tad inaccurate. In 1997, The Lord of the Rings was voted the top
book of the 20th century by readers in a British bookstore's poll
(Waterstone's). 104 out of 105 stores and 25,000 readers put The
Lord of the Rings at the top (1984 was second). Around 100 million
copies of The Lord of the Rings had been sold by the end of the
twentieth century, and 60 million copies of The Hobbit, with sales
of around 3 million per year of the two books combined. Readers
just love reading Tolkien's books. It's that simple. You can't
force people to buy books or go see movies; there's isn't a magic
formula (or ruling ring) to hypnotize readers and consumers (if
there was, it'd be worth billions). And the Tolkien phenomenon
began with readers. Back in 1937, 1954 and 1955, the publishers
Allen & Unwin did their bit, of course, with reviews, blurbs,
advertizing and so on, promoting The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings, and the critics too, but it was readers who first started
the phenomenon that has become truly global. Tolkien's influence on
literature has been considerable, too, and not just in the realm of
fantasy, sci-fi, fairy tales and related genres. As fantasy author
Terry Brooks said, Tolkien 'was the premier fantasy writer of the
last century, and all of us writing today owe him a huge debt.' No
other writer W.H. Auden reckoned had 'created an imaginary world
and a history in such detail'. Colin Wilson agreed that only a few
writers have concocted a total universe, and that Tolkien's was
very impressive. Tolkien's mythological writings may be the
'largest body of invented mythology in the history of literature',
according to David Day. Invented, that is, by one person. It's also
'certainly the most complex and detailed invented world in all
literature'.
