Tolkien Fever?
It is amazing the things that you see that are thanks to LOTR. This week in Adelaide Australia the local paper is giving away ($2Aust each) 18 high quality pins. This to me shows how companies are attempting to cash in on the Hobbit obsession. I myself went to 4 different shops taking 3hrs of my Sunday to find that all the newsagents had closed, leaving me with no album to put the pins go in.
So why do we do it?
What is it that makes us go mad with Tolkien fever?
For me the pins would be nice to use as posting icons, but that is not the only reason.
Is it the possibility that they could be worth $$ in the future? Possibly.
The main reason for me is that it makes ME seem more tangible, and the $ is good.
Have you done anything that might look like you are suffering Tolkien fever?
Maiden du Mystique
Posts: 63
(2/10/04 6:03 am) Reply
Re: Tolkien Fever?
After the films came out, it gave people a whole new dimension of reasons to get 'Tolkien fever' - the actors. I think Orlando Bloom single-handedly pulled in more teenage girls than Tolkien ever could have managed. Also, there's something about this type of film - much with the fancy sword-fighting and combat whose popularity can be seen also in other incredibly popular films lately, like Master and Commander or, even better, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN! *screams*
Ahem.
Also, it's a whole different dimension. It gives people a way to escape, as all well-written, absorbing literature does, especially fantasy. And Tolkien was the master of fantasy, and his world so perfectly constructed.
If they ever get around the making His Dark Materials into films, as they're planning, imagine how popular that'll get!
(Hmm, Pullman-mania...wow, now theres a mouthful...)
Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread.
Through shadow, through the edge of night, until the stars are all alight. Mist and shadows, cloud and shade, all shall fade, all shall...
...fade.
Re: Tolkien Fever?
I know people who spend all day on the internet talking to overs about the hobbit and lotr, then they see the movie 30x read all the books own all the merchandise and can talk all the languages that Tolkien invented.
Located on the deserted western shore of the Undying Lands, facing the Encircling Sea and the Walls of Night are the Halls of Mandos, here the spirits of the dead are called and are kept in the Hall of Awaiting
Maiden du Mystique
Posts: 131
(4/24/04 7:21 am) Reply
Re: Tolkien Fever?
To which I must simply say...why?! I know this may seem hypocritical, but does seem a little odd that people spend so much time getting so obsessed with the films and books. Often the books just because of the films - gives a strange idea of what their perception would actually be like.
What do you think Tolkien would think of the films?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Memories of things that made me love you - memories of words that made me love you - memories that now are horrible to me. And how I worshipped you! You were to me something apart from common life, a thing pure, noble, honest, without stain. The world seemed to me finer because you were in it...
Maiden du Mystique
Posts: 137
(4/26/04 12:55 am) Reply
Re: Tolkien Fever?
...I have never heard that word applied to Tolkien before, and that's the honest Troof
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Memories of things that made me love you - memories of words that made me love you - memories that now are horrible to me. And how I worshipped you! You were to me something apart from common life, a thing pure, noble, honest, without stain. The world seemed to me finer because you were in it...
Re: Tolkien Fever?
So here's something I've been wondering: what is it that makes this sort of story so attractive? Three Musketeers, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, anything swashbuckling is incredibly attractive and exciting. Why is that? We love the sword fights and the honor, the great battles, the romances, all of that. But why? Why aren't we as engaged by modern thrillers? Why are gun-fights not as exciting (besides the fact that they tend to be shorter)? Is it that nobody uses swords anymore so we don't consider them as dangerous and they have just become fun toys? Is it that we see those characters as having some greater sense of honor or goodness that we no longer have? I have a feeling this could be it. That we see our world as having lost a lot of romance and become very corrupted, which saddens the romanticists among us, and turns to the great swashbuckling stories.
I was watching TV yesterday and came across a movie called "Ring of the Musketeers." It was not particularly well written or acted, and in general wasn't a great movie. But I watched it and enjoyed it because it involved people acting as modern day musketeers (sort of, they made them out to be a lot more philanthropic than the musketeers really were). I was trying to figure out why I was enjoying the movie (besides the fact that John Rhys-Davies was in it) even though it was inaccurate and poorly done, when one of the characters started a rather corny line about honor. As I say, it was a corny line, but it may have had a point. Much as we may enjoy mocking it in the abstract form, we seem to be innately attracted to honor. Maybe this is why we like swashbuckling movies so much. To an extent, we romanticize things in the past and therefore are attracted to them, what I'm wonder is, what is it that we romanticize about the past, and is there any truth behind this romanticism?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hobbits bow to nobody and nothing...except their plates.
18 high quality pins. This to me shows how companies are attempting to cash in on the Hobbit obsession. I myself went to 4 different shops taking 3hrs of my Sunday to find that all the newsagents had closed, leaving me with no album to put the pins go in. 
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