Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2017 20:08:41 GMT
All good points and well made but just take the LOTR movies you don't think came near the books - even if, as you say they had an impossible task equalling the books, they didn't devalue the books at all, did they? They didn't remove them from the public arena - if anything they probably made a whole lot more young people seek them out. Sure, most will just watch the movies but hey, that's the rub. And on the films own merits they can't be said to be anything other than massive hits - they did commercially well, critically well and swept the awards season. Subjectively that means little, of course to someone tied so closely to the books, but the films were hits by any possible metric.
Or take Hitchhikers which you also mention - we've already had things like Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing expanding that universe and that wasn't great to say the least reading like a bad Adams fan-fic...but it's mediocrity doesn't make the first radio series or book any worse. What happened was it came out, was subpar and fans kept going with the stuff they did like. The movie didn't kill the fans love for the old stuff either. Time always sorts the wheat from the chaff.
I do agree there's an inherent issue with endless sequels, remakes and reboots in the mainstream media but if more people didn't go see Pirates 14, Fast & Furious 28 or whatever lazy popcorn fest is out, we wouldn't have so many. The worst that can happen is we get more bad media. The best...we get some good.
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aztec
Chancellery Guard
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Post by aztec on Nov 15, 2017 20:49:45 GMT
Christopher Tolkien has resigned as director of the Tolkien Estate (back in August) (though oddly he apparently remains the sole literary executor of his father's estate), which possibly explains the timing of this TV series announcement: www.tolkiensociety.org/2017/11/christopher-tolkien-resigns-as-tolkien-estate-director/www.theonering.net/torwp/2017/11/15/104426-in-historic-move-christopher-tolkien-resigns-as-director-of-tolkien-estate/Very sad to see that he has retired at long last, for more than 40 years he has been the sole caretaker of his father's literary legacy and a very principled and dedicated editor, compiling numerous of his father's unpublished writings for publication and resisting all efforts to cash in on the Tolkien name with cheap commercial ideas, his hard work over the decades standing as a great testament to his father's achievements and literary legacy, whether he will continue to work as an editor remains to be seen, but as a fan of his work I wish him all the best for a quiet retirement. Christopher Tolkien was (in)famously opposed to screen adaptations of the books (though he did offer his support to the writers of the BBC Radio adaptation back in the 1980's) and wasn't a fan of the Peter Jackson films, it's rather surprising to see he has decided to retire so suddenly (though understandable at his age) but that does explain the timing of this TV series announcement, perhaps he feels an adaptation was inevitable and decided to step aside to let the next generation take the Estate in a different direction... |
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Post by J.A. Prentice on Nov 16, 2017 6:17:56 GMT
Christopher Tolkien has resigned as director of the Tolkien Estate (back in August) (though oddly he apparently remains the sole literary executor of his father's estate), which possibly explains the timing of this TV series announcement: www.tolkiensociety.org/2017/11/christopher-tolkien-resigns-as-tolkien-estate-director/www.theonering.net/torwp/2017/11/15/104426-in-historic-move-christopher-tolkien-resigns-as-director-of-tolkien-estate/Very sad to see that he has retired at long last, for more than 40 years he has been the sole caretaker of his father's literary legacy and a very principled and dedicated editor, compiling numerous of his father's unpublished writings for publication and resisting all efforts to cash in on the Tolkien name with cheap commercial ideas, his hard work over the decades standing as a great testament to his father's achievements and literary legacy, whether he will continue to work as an editor remains to be seen, but as a fan of his work I wish him all the best for a quiet retirement. Christopher Tolkien was (in)famously opposed to screen adaptations of the books (though he did offer his support to the writers of the BBC Radio adaptation back in the 1980's) and wasn't a fan of the Peter Jackson films, it's rather surprising to see he has decided to retire so suddenly (though understandable at his age) but that does explain the timing of this TV series announcement, perhaps he feels an adaptation was inevitable and decided to step aside to let the next generation take the Estate in a different direction... I was wondering how this went through given Christopher Tolkien's strong dislike of adaptations. There goes the slim hope that it was because this adaptation was going to be so faithful and so great that it won him over. I'm very apprehensive about this. I love Tolkien's work and loved the LotR films despite their issues, but I'm not too thrilled about the idea of someone else doing more Middle Earth stories, especially after the Shadows of Mordor/War disaster. |
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Post by mrperson on Nov 16, 2017 19:10:35 GMT
All good points and well made but just take the LOTR movies you don't think came near the books - even if, as you say they had an impossible task equalling the books, they didn't devalue the books at all, did they? They didn't remove them from the public arena - if anything they probably made a whole lot more young people seek them out. Sure, most will just watch the movies but hey, that's the rub. And on the films own merits they can't be said to be anything other than massive hits - they did commercially well, critically well and swept the awards season. Subjectively that means little, of course to someone tied so closely to the books, but the films were hits by any possible metric. Or take Hitchhikers which you also mention - we've already had things like Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing expanding that universe and that wasn't great to say the least reading like a bad Adams fan-fic...but it's mediocrity doesn't make the first radio series or book any worse. What happened was it came out, was subpar and fans kept going with the stuff they did like. The movie didn't kill the fans love for the old stuff either. Time always sorts the wheat from the chaff. I do agree there's an inherent issue with endless sequels, remakes and reboots in the mainstream media but if more people didn't go see Pirates 14, Fast & Furious 28 or whatever lazy popcorn fest is out, we wouldn't have so many. The worst that can happen is we get more bad media. The best...we get some good. No, I don't think the books have been devalued, removed from the public arena, or anything like that. I suppose they may have a side effect where X% of the people who hadn't read the books see the movies and feel that is enough, but that could be said on any adapted book. I hope that doesn't happen, but I suppose it's unavoidable these days. So much media clawing for attention, so little time... But I wasn't thinking so much about the effect of the movies/etc on others, but rather, my reasons for suspecting I won't like this. |
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