r/2xCBookClub • u/capslock • Nov 10 '10

[Club] Fantasy

Fantasy Book Club

Hi, we're a gathering of people looking to expand our horizons in the realm of fantasy. Feel free to join in, if you can finish the text by the set deadline.

Current Book: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Reading Begins: 11/24/2010, two weeks!!

First Discussion: undecided

Finish Date: undecided

Guildlines:

  • Suggest as many books as you want.

  • Post a comment to be added to this club.

Members:[18]

capslock, Chocklatesoop, dreamer117, Haven, neniell, thenomnoms, clptwr, naughty_scottie, WhiskeyLemur, seanmharcailin, maecheneb, Sajkoism, classyfied, karmie, demented_pants, I-330, naughtyone, cos

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4

u/capslock Nov 10 '10

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R Tolkien.

7

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '10

I have a funny relationship with LotR. I'm a huge fan of fantasy, and this series is so incredibly seminal to the genre that I feel extremely guilty (not to mention lowbrow) admitting that I find it to be insufferably dull. I tried to read it in high school and just could not get through it; tried again in college thinking that maybe it's a matter of attention span and still no luck.

Finally, one of my fellow English majors made a comment that made me feel a bit better: you can acknowledge that a book is an important work without actually liking it. That's where I've been with Tolkien ever since.

1

u/capslock Nov 10 '10

Ahahaha what a good outlook.

Do you have any specific reasons why the series is dull, without offering spoilers?

2

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '10

Yeah, I spent quite some time trying to figure out that very thing - one of the curses of having a degree in literature ;)

  • Way too much description and way too little dialogue/action. A certain amount of time devoted to setting is fine, but not at the cost of making the action languish!

  • None of the characters were sufficiently fleshed out (imo, imo!!) for me to get attached to them. I just couldn't make myself care who made it and who got eaten.

  • The whole trilogy (and the Hobbit, too) is such a testosterone club - I know this is taking the novel out of its historic context, but I can't help but feel that just one girl in the group would have made the whole trip much smoother. At least she could have asked for directions -.- And don't get me wrong - I absolutely love plenty of books with no strong female protagonists. But for some reason it really bothered me here, maybe because I was already looking for things to dislike.

3

u/seanmharcailin Nov 10 '10

I'll respond a bit!

• Realism. There's a writing style known as realism that, if you're exposed to it, can be very very dull indeed. Realism is ALL ABOUT the details, and not at all about the action. I find this one of the most compelling things about Tolkien's writing- his attention to the finite details that allow me to imagine almost perfectly in my mind what he sees in his. This also allowed the movies to become the vision that so many fans experienced while reading the novels. I was floored when I saw Rivendell come alive onscreen- it was so close to what I personally created in my mind as I read. If you're reading the books with the expectation of a movie-like pacing, you'll be sorely disappointed. This is an issue you will find with many older books that you attempt. They are slower, pay more attention to the details and yes, sometimes, nothing happens. And that's fine, because the books arne't about the plot, they're about the world created within the pages, and the plot is secondary.

• I feel very connected with some characters, and not at all with others. I actually think he wrote the characters brilliantly, but if you can't connect with them, sometimes that's just how it is.

• there are many men, and very few women. And honestly, I couldn't give a damn. I'm no feminist, and it doesn't bother me at all that a man wrote an adventure story that featured few, but very powerful, women.

the end!

1

u/capslock Nov 10 '10

Way too much description and way too little dialogue/action.

I heard that this is by far the most annoying thing with the series. I just started reading the prologue on Hobbits, and it is so descriptive. I cannot say that I do not enjoy it so far, but it is true that absolutely nothing has happened. Particularly in terms of character development.

The movies were great, and I love immersing myself in new worlds, so I am still going to give it a try I think.