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mk  ·  4743 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Tolkien: Tedious or Tremendous?
Whoa, Moby Dick. Really? It's in my top 5. I didn't find it boring at all. However, I was pretty isolated in China when I read it.

But, there is more to a book than the opinion of the people reading it. Books are art, and art can be altered by context.

For example, I watched Citizen Kane a couple of months ago. I thought it sucked. It really bored me. However, I wouldn't feel justified judging the movie on that alone. I could write a review based on my viewing experience, but I wouldn't be offering much more than my ignorance of film history. Had I been around to watch Citizen Kane the year it came out, I probably would have found it to be amazing. If I spent enough time learning about film history, I'd probably think it sucked less.

I don't like the Beatles very much. I think they are just an ok band. However, I do appreciate that they broke new ground, and were very talented musicians. Given enough background and listening time, I could probably find more appreciation for their music.

Of course you can look at the Mona Lisa and judge it soley on its technique, and from that viewpoint you could call it a pretty good painting. However, your opinion is not going to inform someone in a very useful way.

I found Ulysses to be unreadable. But, I wouldn't put it in the category of The Celestine Prophesy which I also found to be unreadable. If I spent enough time educating myself, I'd probably find Ulysses amazing. However, the more I educated myself, the less readable I'd find The Celestine Prophesy.

I wouldn't say that Tolkein created the modern fantasy paradigm, but he synthesized it in a way that has been much imitated and further derived from. In that sense, when you are reading Tolkein, you are reading more than a story, you are perusing a recognized focal point in literature.

It's totally fine to ignore that when you decide whether or not you like the book. However, if you are going to write a review of the book, you better realize that although you are talking about the book's readability, a good portion of your readers are going to be aware of the books cultural context, and are going to expect that to be addressed as well. Often the cultural context of a piece is more interesting than the piece itself.

BTW, I liked the LoTR trilogy more than The Hobbit.