Posted: April 04, 2000 at 13:37:11: by Tauron
Rob Roy's recent post is right on the money...I too am not concerned about the movies for the reasons he mentions. But what will be painful to me, and I hope to many others, will be seeing Middle Earth become a pop culture/ junk culture playground. In other words, how will you all react to the hundreds of products, promotions, and just plain junk that will be heaved up by these movies if they are anything but flops?
My feeling is that there are two camps on this issue too. One type of Tolkien afficionado will be delighted that the rest of the world is in on the scene. Such people can be proslytizers, "I was there first" types, etc. These people (and many of you are in this camp), probably take a great deal of direction from mass-culture, and derive a great deal of satisfaction from being part of something huge.
Others (like me and many of you), like to lurk on the edges of pop culture, and believe in the "lowest common denominator" theory that states that if something is popular enough it can't be good! So Tolkien fandom is a "cult" that we like to belong in, and it will be extremely painful to have the party crashed by 500 millions or so of the great unwashed horde.
I don't want to sound any more cynical than I am, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but I wonder what others feel.
To summarize: I love Tolkien, I always will, I'm looking forward to the movies, I'm not terribly concerned about their "lapses", but I am bracing for a pop culture onslaught that WILL depress me!
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