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Tolkein is an excellent example why I usually dismiss literary critics/critiques HyogaRott Send a noteboard - 23/01/2012 05:57:51 PM
As you explained so well, Tolkein's work was considered not quite up to snuff, and a interesting curiosity by the "experts". HOWEVER, it actually turned out to be one of the most influential collections of prose in the past 100 years. This is so often the case that I have very little regard for the self-proclaimed experts, and what is defined as a classic. Literary experts are actually only an expert on what was. They judge something new, by how its construction compares to something old, with no regard to how it may impact and excite future authors and readers. Often, they even hold a works popularity with the masses against it. Even though it is the popularity of an author's work that can (may/will) direct the future of writing.

Oddly enough, art critics err in the opposite direction, often praising something solely because it is new, even if it has little to nothing unto itself that is praiseworthy.

Movie/play critics probably balance to two extremes the best, but it still all boils down to a person's opinion; and mine is the only opinion that is "right" for me.
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1961 Nobel Finalists: J.R.R. Tolkien - 19/01/2012 09:27:46 AM 1110 Views
It's difficult to assess Tolkien's relative merits then 51 years later. - 19/01/2012 02:41:52 PM 740 Views
Yes, Edwardian prose does not thrill me - 19/01/2012 02:58:00 PM 707 Views
Re: Yes, Edwardian prose does not thrill me - 19/01/2012 03:34:02 PM 566 Views
Re: Yes, Edwardian prose does not thrill me - 19/01/2012 03:45:07 PM 669 Views
Yet Jung personally was contemptuous of Joyce - 19/01/2012 06:41:58 PM 552 Views
Tolkein is an excellent example why I usually dismiss literary critics/critiques - 23/01/2012 05:57:51 PM 814 Views
There's a lot more to it than that. - 23/01/2012 07:20:30 PM 680 Views
True - 23/01/2012 07:57:42 PM 667 Views
You can't dismiss his impact, even if you do not like his storytelling. - 23/01/2012 07:40:19 PM 734 Views
Who is dismissing that he influenced millions well after 1961? - 23/01/2012 07:54:27 PM 663 Views
That's an odd argument - 23/01/2012 07:51:49 PM 749 Views
Not really - 23/01/2012 10:35:39 PM 599 Views
Eh... - 24/01/2012 12:40:37 AM 625 Views
Depends on what you see as the point of literature. - 24/01/2012 08:14:07 AM 583 Views
the point of literature. - 24/01/2012 01:30:28 PM 694 Views
NO - 24/01/2012 02:05:11 PM 567 Views
Re: NO - 25/01/2012 02:54:57 PM 564 Views

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