Why Tolkien is Still One of My Favourites (21.08.14 by Francisco Brannan) - Comments

I was never a book reader and like many other holly wood movie buffs like me, I was introduced into the world of Tolkien by the Hollywood movie trilogy on The Lord of the Rings. I have never been impressed by movies that were based on books as they never do justice to the actual book. But I was quite impressed by the movies themselves and I decided that the world created by Tolkien would be exponentially better and guess what, it was. I have read those books so many times and every time I find something exceptional in the book.

The movies in my opinion were teasers for the actual book reading experience. The world of Tolkien is so vast and incredible that the medium of celluloid despite all the graphics can only bring to life part of the experience that Tolkien brings between his pages.
Why Tolkien is Still One of My Favourites

I could just go on and on about why Tolkien is my favorite but here are a few reasons. There have been many authors that have created characters but Tolkien created a universe that he called Middle-earth. It is one of those places that you want to visit but it also is a scary place. It is a fantastic world of hobbits, wizards, kings and of course Sauron and Saruman. Tolkien, no wonder, is now considered the Father of the high fantasy genre. The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954. The movie was released in 2001, nearly 50 years later and still it made a terrific impact on the viewer. That is the timelessness of Tolkien’s vision and I am sure it inspired people like me to pick up the book and read it.

Tolkien not only created a universe he even created languages for the different people in his world. The talent that it takes to create a language is remarkable. Many people may not appreciate his long winding prose. But as far as I am concerned every word he writes recreates the Middle-earth for me. I can visualize everything that he writes and I don’t care about the number of words that he uses. It is pathetic that in this word of fast food people are also looking for ‘fast fiction’. As far as books and authors go, Tolkien is the real deal. The names create avatars in your mind and the words build visions.

There is probably not another author who has created a world of such magnitude like Tolkien. But he never stops to explain the world. He has already created a world and he has created a story within. For example, in the Harry Potter series, the author J.K Rowling frequently pauses between narratives to explain the world. This is done through the characters. Tolkien does nothing of that sort and that is quite amazing because without even explaining the world he takes us through the world with the storyline. And despite the vast nature of the story and its various characters Tolkien never leaves a thread untied in the end. I doubt whether there will be another author like Tolkien. And then again why would you need one when you already have J.R.R Tolkien’s creations?

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