(no subject)
Somebody on fandomsecrets posted that they were sad that the LotR fandom was dead. (scroll down to secret 138, if you wanna see.) And yeah, it has faded away. I thought about this for a moment, and what I decided was that for myself, I was so used to being alone in my fandom (I was too shy to join a Tolkien group online) that now that the craze is over, it's just too easy to go back to the solitude.
Because this LotR fan shall remain a LotR fan forever, or so she hopes. I may get caught up in the Next Geeky Thing, but I know those books too well. They're too much a part of me to forget. I can fangirl Samwise Gamgee like a crazy person, and I really don't think that's ever gonna change. It's easy to fangirl Doctor Who and Stargate when so many other people are fangirling it, and squeeing, and going a little nuts. But for Tolkien it goes a bit deeper than that. The Lord of the Rings is personal to me. It's had an enormous effect on my life. There's a reason I won't write LotR fanfiction or do the whole shipping thing. I can't touch those books, because the books as they are were exactly what I needed through junior high and high school, and still are what I need now. To change any of it would be wrong.
When I saw Doctor Who, I said, "Why did it take me so long to watch this?" When I saw Stargate, I said, "It's like Trek, but with all the good bits Trek left out!" When I read Harry Potter, I said, "Why can't fantasy always be this fun?" But when I read The Lord of the Rings, I said, "They write books like this?" It was what I was looking for, without knowing I'd been looking for it, and I have found nothing like it since.
"The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo; adventures, I used to call them. I used to think that they were the things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, you might say. But it's not the way of it in the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually -- their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on -- and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same -- like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?"
There is glory there, and death, and sorrow, and joy. Adventure and peril and laughter and loss. Friendship and love and hatred and heartache. Like Lewis said, "Here are beauties that pierce like swords and burn like cold iron." It's the best fiction I've ever read.
Because this LotR fan shall remain a LotR fan forever, or so she hopes. I may get caught up in the Next Geeky Thing, but I know those books too well. They're too much a part of me to forget. I can fangirl Samwise Gamgee like a crazy person, and I really don't think that's ever gonna change. It's easy to fangirl Doctor Who and Stargate when so many other people are fangirling it, and squeeing, and going a little nuts. But for Tolkien it goes a bit deeper than that. The Lord of the Rings is personal to me. It's had an enormous effect on my life. There's a reason I won't write LotR fanfiction or do the whole shipping thing. I can't touch those books, because the books as they are were exactly what I needed through junior high and high school, and still are what I need now. To change any of it would be wrong.
When I saw Doctor Who, I said, "Why did it take me so long to watch this?" When I saw Stargate, I said, "It's like Trek, but with all the good bits Trek left out!" When I read Harry Potter, I said, "Why can't fantasy always be this fun?" But when I read The Lord of the Rings, I said, "They write books like this?" It was what I was looking for, without knowing I'd been looking for it, and I have found nothing like it since.
"The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo; adventures, I used to call them. I used to think that they were the things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, you might say. But it's not the way of it in the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually -- their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on -- and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same -- like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?"
There is glory there, and death, and sorrow, and joy. Adventure and peril and laughter and loss. Friendship and love and hatred and heartache. Like Lewis said, "Here are beauties that pierce like swords and burn like cold iron." It's the best fiction I've ever read.