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From: chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Metropolis and Brunner [actually tLotR]
Message-ID: <4287@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 24-Mar-85 17:37:32 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.4287
Posted: Sun Mar 24 17:37:32 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 00:05:18 EST
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Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 33

> >   The best English language book of the 20th century is very probably 
> > Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". ...
> > 
> >   Tolkien held the chair in English at Merton College in Oxford for many 
> > years, was a master of Middle English and a prolific writer. ...
> > 
> > 					Alastair Milne
> 
> Since when does academia have a damn thing to do with a good book?
> Though Tolkien certainly was extremely imaginative and innovative.
> Personally, I find his writing ponderous and the characters a bit
> too black and white though certainly they are well above average
> books. ...
> 
> David Albrecht

Well, one can expect a professor of English not to make too many
grammatical errors :-).  But I agree that academia and good books are
not very closely related.

I think what makes {\it The Lord of the Rings} so good is the amount of
work that went into it.  Middle-Earth has a solidity to it that is very
impressive.  If I am not mistaken, many of the writings that were published
in {\it The Silmarillion} were at least outlined before tLotR was completed;
they give a sense of history to tLotR.

Maybe I'll go read tLotR for the fourth time....

A Elbereth Gilthoniel, silivren penna miriel,
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 4251)
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