The White Council

Re: The movies and the pop-culturization of Middle Earth

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : 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!

: I have been a frequent visitor to the Movie Fact/Rumour Page, and often poke my head in here to see what people are saying about Tolkien's works and the up-coming films. This last posting, to which I am responding, brings up an interesting thought upon which I would like to comment.

: We all love Tolkien and enjoy making his work our own, a part of us. Many of us look forward with excitement and trepidation to the possibility that it will become OVER-popularized and in some way debased by the films. I hold some of these fears myself, although I find myself in both of the above-mentioned camps. However, if we believe "in the 'lowest common denominator' theory that states that if something is popular enough it can't be good!" we are raising a tough issue. Tolkien IS already popular, one of the most popular authors of all time. And it is this very popularity that prevents Tolkien from being admitted to the "authorized" literary canon. Only in the late 60's and early 70's was Tolkien taught as Literature in the U.S. university system. Now, the opinion is tht if he is so popular he can't be good. It is a dangerous Catch 22 with which we play here. . . Do we wan't him to remain unpopular? (TOO LATE), or do we want his popularity to rise to such a level that he will have to be taken seriously, even by the literary canon? (Is this even conceivable?)

: Just a thought.

The difference between the typical overpopularised theme and Tolkeins theme is that Tolkeine theme has much more to it. The idea of an entirely different world that has been based on myths and lore already existent in this world has more availability to be popular, before it becomes too popular. Altough not quite, it's almost like a religion. (I do not look forward to the incoming tide though)