Howdy! *curtsies* I have a problem: I used to love Tolkien. My mum read the Hobbit aloud to me when I was five, and after that I was hooked on LOTR. But now, as a 20-year-old returning to Tolkien’s world, I can’t help but feel disappointed. I’m re-reading the trilogy for the first time since 7th grade, and I’m discovering that all the things I overlooked when I was 13 are so much harder to overlook now (like the racism, moral absolutism, etc). Has anything like this happened to you? :( :( :( :(

dukeofbookingham:

*Curtsies* Part of reading and enjoying a book written like 60 years ago is understanding that it was written 60 years ago and that it’s a piece of history as well as a piece of literature. I think a lot of what I said here and here is relevant, and I’m not sure what I could add without repeating myself. Basically, you can’t totally separate a piece of period lit from the period it was written in and expect it to conform with modern moral standards. It’s just not going to happen. But you can still read it and enjoy it while recognizing that parts of it are problematic (to use Tumblr’s favorite word). Because while yes, there are some iffy bits of LOTR and pretty much anything written by a white person before about 1980, it’s still a good story, and it’s okay to enjoy that. Yeah, there are some pretty strong undercurrents of Eurocentrism and Christian moralism, but it’s still an adventure story about elves and dragons and hobbits and war and magic and saving the world, and it’s hard not to enjoy that–which is precisely why people (including me) are still reading it 60 years later.