[ SECRET POST #6021 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6021 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.



__________________________________________________



06.



__________________________________________________



07.
























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 44 secrets from Secret Submission Post #861.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

02. https://i.imgur.com/NrSuVFV.png

[(Anonymous)]

That's fair honestly. I like the books and movies but they are very much a product of their time in regards to the gender demographics, hell this is still an issue with modern writers so not much has changed in some places. But don't force it if it's not for you, we all have our different quitting parameters. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, fair.

Like, I think it's a great book, but it's absolutely male-centric, so if that's an issue...

[(Anonymous)]

You are denying yourself beautiful literature. This is sad.

[(Anonymous)]

There's so much beautiful literature that no one can read it all. Passing up one book because it's not for you just means more time to read something else.

No one has to read Tolkien - or any other book.

[(Anonymous)]

It is still sad and I feel sorry for this secret maker.

[(Anonymous)]

Nah they can choose to not engage with the books for whatever reasons they like. I say this as a fan of his books, people can choose to not engage with them and I do not care.

[(Anonymous)]

Anyone can exercise their power to choose what they want; it is still sad.

[(Anonymous)]

This is unnecessarily melodramatic. OP isn't denying themselves the LOTR books. They gave it a try, and it didn't appeal to them for reasons that you might not agree with. That's not the same thing.

[philstar22]

Come on. There is no perfect literature out there, and everyone has their own personal tastes. No one has to enjoy something. No one has to read anything they don't want to.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't want to attack you and I'm not, to be clear, but I don't think you understand how damaging it can be when you're brown, queer, trans, or a woman and you love science fiction and fantasy but there's nothing of "you" in any of the great works of fiction over the last hundred years, and you have to accept it because that's all there is.

Every so often you'll get an Octavia Butler or an Ursula K. Le Guin, but more often than not it's wall to wall white writers writing about white men having all the great adventures, saving all the worlds, and being the Ideal. That's sadder than anyone taking a stand against great works that excluded them sometimes by accident, but mostly, let's be honest on purpose. It's tiring putting up with it, and I get how someone might want to step back and decontaminate and decolonize their minds and give more attention to works of literature that don't focus on how great white folks are in fantasies and science fiction over and over again.

Again, I'm not attacking you or accusing you of anything, but I do think you're in place, for whatever reason, that doesn't let you see this issue from another point of view.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh. Tolkien was an amazing world builder but he was not a good writer. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t enjoy his works! It just means it’s incredibly stupid of you to assume everyone will.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry Tolkien is your entire identity and you can't see other people not liking his works without panicking like a scared hamster.

[meadowphoenix]

to be honest, i feel sad for you anon for thinking that everyone needs to read the same greatness into something you do. that's such a limited perspective i hope doesn't follow you elsewhere.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a cis woman; I like LoTR, both the books and the films. Films more than books because I love the detail and care that went into the costumes and props and design, but I've read all three and The Hobbit more than once and got through the Simarilion once.

I don't really understand OP only wanting to read/watch female centered media; I never felt the lack of it that seems to bother some people. But I understand your comment even less.

OP isn't denying themself anymore than anyone who goes to a library or bookstore and picks ten mystery novels but no Agatha Christie, or whatever. Like, people can choose what to read (or not) for whatever reason they like. They may miss some cool stuff, but no one can read every book ever written anyway. There's no "must read" books once people are done with school.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel EXACTLY the same. Sometimes I try to talk myself into reading male centric books, like, I'm an adult, I can handle it. Then I read a few pages and immediately have to quit. There's just nothing there to motivate me to read further.

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't worry about it. I left after trying The Hobbit because I found Tolkien's storytelling boring, but I usually avoid saying that around English speaking friends out of politeness.

[(Anonymous)]

My mom is a HUGE Tolkien fan, and I think for a while I became her least favorite child when she tried to get me into it and I told her The Hobbit was boring as shit (not those exact words).

[scissorsevered]

I've seen people say that alot of Tolkiens work is meant to be read-aloud, which is why he goes on and on about things like scenery and whatnot.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, if the books didn't work for you, they didn't work for you and that's OK.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think their genders are particularly relevant to the story. You could pretend they were all women and nothing would have to change.

In fact, I vaguely recall someone wrote an essay about how whenever they read the Hobbit growing up they always saw Bilbo as a girl. The details are fuzzy to me beyond that though. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

[(Anonymous)]

On the one hand I get what you're saying, but in the other hand I feel Luke saying "their gender isn't really important" is really not understanding what OP is saying.

I recall a similar story, I wonder if they were the same? I think the one I read about was someone who had it read to them as a child and their dad always changed the genders when reading aloud and the daughters didn't realize until they were older and read the story themselves for the first time.

[(Anonymous)]

There is at least one part where gender is unambiguously important and central to the plot and where if you pretended they were all women, it wouldn't work.

Also, more generally, the genders are definitely part of Tolkien's intent. Like, he's writing a fantasia based on texts that are gendered, and he inherits the gender from the source material. It's not strictly speaking incidental. It's possible to imagine a female LOTR but it certainly isn't Tolkien's LOTR.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I know how you feel.

(Eowyn is pretty cool when she turns up, though.)

[(Anonymous)]

He wrote what he knew, which was linguistics and men doing stuff in great wars.

But so much analysis like this has been done on his books that there's every hope that this century's great fantasy author could get it right, even down to still being right fifty years after their own death.

That author could be you, OP, and I look forward to reading your book/s! Link?