Why did Bloomsbury U.K. eventually decide to offer “Harry Potter” books in disguised covers? Because people were ashamed to be seen reading about witches and wizards on the train. Fantasy had been made into a guilty pleasure, like pornography. It was immature, juvenile, escapist. As for all those Tolkien fans who liked to dress up as elves and orcs, the only explanation, spluttered Edmund Wilson in 1956, was that “Certain people . . . have a lifelong appetite for juvenile trash.” This, Michael Saler remarks, “from a man who liked to be called ‘Bunny.’ ”
In “As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality,” a historical and cultural study of fiction fandom, Mr. Saler counterpunches vigorously against the whole edifice of literary snobbery. What he has to say is so self-evidently right that the fact he has to say it makes one wonder how the critical profession has managed, for so long, to cultivate such a large blind spot. His book should be essential reading in every graduate school of the humanities. But it’s much more fun than that recommendation suggests. More..
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Texts from J.R.R. Tolkien and George Orwell have been removed from the public domain in the United States, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling this week.
On Wednesday, The Supreme Court upheld a 1994 law which gives copyright protection to body of foreign works that had previously been available for free in the public domain.
Google hoped that the high court would overturn the law. The Wall Street Journal has more: “Google Inc. was the leading company challenging the law, in an echo of the separate battle in Washington over an Internet piracy bill that pits Google against movie studios. The search company, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, said in court papers that the restored copyrights could affect more than a million books it has scanned through its Google Books Library Project.” More..
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Join us today for Live chatting and mischief with Quickbeam! We have a very interesting subject today: DEBUNKING GANDALF / GALADRIEL ROMANCE RUMORS, among other things, illuminated by host Clifford Broadway on our streaming video show — You can also join the broadcast via our BARLIMAN’S CHAT built right into our Live Event Area — showtime today at approx. 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time!
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Do you like Lego? Of course you do.
Well, Blake Baer is the brain behind a number of remarkable Lego dioramas that recreate famous scenes from the Hobbit. If you were excited about the announcement of the Lord of the Rings Lego series, you’ll love this. the full-resolution images of the scenes from The Hobbit that Blake has visualised in Lego are amazing.
TheOneRing.net chatted with Blake about the inspiration for his Lego creations, and asked him to pick his three favourites from his Hobbit series. Continue reading “The amazing LOTR Lego designs of Blake Baer”
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Wired’s Erik Wecks makes a compelling case for Tolkien fans to not get too excited about the Hobbit.
What’s he on about? Well, he noticed something in the teaser (one that many other people did as well), but he’s gone a step further and drawn some interesting parallels to one of the most controversial and bizarre changes that Walsh and Boyens made for The Return of The King. Of course, this being the internet, your mileage may vary. Naturally, there are movie spoilers.
Read the full article on Wired.
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The Guardian writes that recently released documents reveal in 1961 Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” — nominated by friend and fellow fantasy writer CS Lewis — was rejected by the Nobel Prize jury “on the grounds of his second-rate prose.” The news organization reports that though LOTR was “crowned the UK’s best-loved book and sold millions of copies around the world,” the 1961 jury believed the book “has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality.”
We can guess what your reaction is — share your thoughts on our message boards.
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