[ SECRET POST #1959 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1959 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 085 secrets from Secret Submission Post #280.
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.livejournal.com]

14. http://i47.tinypic.com/2s1m1au.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

-shrugs- Honestly, OP, taste is something that's pretty relative anyways. You like what you like and, as long as no one's getting hurt somehow, it's not really anyone else's business.

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

What is with this run of LOTR is boring/I didn't like LOTR secrets? Tolkien's writing drags. It's mundane. It's hard to get into. This is pretty much accepted. His strengths were world-building and plotting. And yeah, it's predictable. Partly because he was drawing on mythology, and mostly because so many people have copied him since.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

To be fair, it took me three tries to read all of LotR. I kept getting stuck in Bree. (Mind you, I've read it all several times since then!) And I'm not sure the OP read beyond Fellowship, looking at the secret.

But I don't think Tolkien's writing is mundane or draggy at all. It's third person omniscient, which a lot of people aren't used to anymore, and he throws in poetry now and then, but it's very readable. I got stuck in Bree because it felt like I'd had my adventure with the wraiths and I was done now.

The writing in Twilight, on the other hand, was excruciating, at least for the forty pages I gave it as a try.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's weird to see like half a dozen secrets in a relatively short period of time (a couple of months) that all basically say the same thing, including "I'm gonna get crucified for this opinion but...", even though the comment sections are always sympathetic overall. I even somewhat agree (though I've never made an honest effort to read LotR, and I was too young for Fellowship when I was forced to read it for school) but I find it odd when people post to F_S without taking note of the secret and commenting patterns.

[(Anonymous)]

Did you just compare Twilight to LotR?
Both are books with fantasy elements. That's where the similarities end.

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty sure they're just comparing how much they enjoyed reading both books/series, not the actual books themselves.

[(Anonymous)]

LOTR is predictable because it's THE fantasy book that has been copied and continues to be copied ad infinitum. You might as well call it the one book that made fantasy literature into what it is today.

I have no idea how you didn't find Twilight boring. It's not even hilariously awful (aside from the sparkling vampires and the fact that they go to school), it's just dull. The only people I know who have enjoyed reading Twilight liked the UST, not because they found it funny beyond its ridiculous concept.

[kryss-labryn.livejournal.com]

LOTR is predictable because it's THE fantasy book that has been copied and continues to be copied ad infinitum. You might as well call it the one book that made fantasy literature into what it is today.

This.

And, yeah, it really does take a while to get going. I heard an interview with a publisher on the CBC a few years ago who said that the books would never have been published today (at least, not without heavy editing/rewrites) because of how much the opening, especially, lags. As she pointed out, it's something like 40 pages before the first word of actual dialogue! And the trend these days is rather more to jump straight into an action scene to grab the reader right off.

Having said that, though, it's still one of my favourite works, and The Ride of the Rohirrim, the last page or so of that chapter, when the Rohirrim go charging across the battlefield... *Happy sigh* I find that pretty much the single most stirring, evocative, and moving pieces of literature EVER. SO amazing. :D

OP, if you're having that hard of a time with it but do want to give it the old college try, perhaps skip ahead to the, oh, I was gonna say to The Council of Elrond, once they've arrived in Rivendell, but honestly, it's not really until the Mines of Moria that things get bad-ass. It won't be the same without the build-up, but there honestly is a fair bit of wandering about the wilderness wondering if those distant crows are spies for the enemy and oh look more bare rock whee. XD (and I say that as someone who LOVES the book).

Try reading from the chapter where they decide to head down to the mines. You want Chapter 4 of Book Two: A Journey in the Dark. Awesome stuff. You can always go back for the first part when you re-read it later. ;-) If you liked the movies you'll probably still really enjoy the book once it gets going.

[otakugal15.livejournal.com]

.....the one book to rule them all?

|D

[(Anonymous)]

inb4 all the comments judging OP for his/her taste

seriously people, you are allowed to like what you like and dislike what you dislike. why is everyone always trying to play quality police?

(the first anon had it right imo)

[xanykaos.livejournal.com]

Eh, so long as you understand there's a difference between: "this is better" and "I enjoyed this more." Good writing/story-telling is what it is, the same goes for bad writing/story-telling. Enjoyment is another issue entirely.

It's like how I enjoy the movies of V for Vendetta and even LXG way more than I enjoy reading the graphic novels for them. The GN's are better crafted, but the movies are just more fun.

But yes, FotR is predictable because A) It inspired almost all modern fantasy literature. I read Wheel of Time before I read LotR, and man, lemme tell you the deja vu... B) LotR and Tolkien's work in general borrows heavily from very early Germanic myth and story. Not the sort of stuff that most of us know by name, but bits and pieces that we've seen/heard growing up in the Western world. If you read Beowulf, bits of the Hobbit will certainly seem oddly familiar...

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, so long as you understand there's a difference between: "this is better" and "I enjoyed this more." Good writing/story-telling is what it is, the same goes for bad writing/story-telling. Enjoyment is another issue entirely.


But that's assuming there's such a thing as objectively good/bad, and I don't think there is, because people have different criteria for what makes something good or bad. Saying "so long as you understand there's a difference between: "this is better" and "I enjoyed this more." Good writing/story-telling is what it is, the same goes for bad writing/story-telling" just comes across as condescending and too much like "it's fine to have your opinion, as long as you realize it's wrong" to me.

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. Sometimes "bad" books are enjoyable because you can enjoy them as mindless entertainment. Whereas, "good" books that don't appeal to you can just be a pain to read.

[(Anonymous)]

You have bad taste and you should feel bad.

[countess-k.livejournal.com]

I tried both of those books and found them crappy in different ways.

Twilight was like something written by a 7 year old: most immature prose ever.

Fellowship was like something written by a 70 year old: most boring prose ever.

[kyogres.livejournal.com]

Did I write this in my sleep?

I kind of enjoyed Twilight for what it was (mindless entertainment, parts of which were unintentionally hilarious, that gave me a decent distraction during a rough 2-week period of my life) though I didn't bother with the sequels after hearing about all the weird stuff that happens in the last book.

LotR, on the other hand... I love the movies, but I cannot get through the books. I tried to read The Hobbit but couldn't get into it. I slogged through Fellowship and I'm halfway through Two Towers, but I don't know if I'll ever find the motivation to finish it. I feel like I should finish it, because it's one of those books that people say "every fantasy fan should read"... but reading is no fun when I have to force myself to finish a book.

[spicandspan89.livejournal.com]

Well, considering that I've read all 4 Twilight books with no difficulty, and yet was unable to get past the first 100 pages of FotR... I'd have to say that I agree with you on all counts. I would like to read LotR someday, but in the meantime I enjoy the movies immensely. And while Twilight is objectively bad writing, there is something about it that resonates with millions of people. (I don't want to get into what that something is, lol.)

LotR is literature, Twilight is definitely not. However, books are not one size fits all. You like what you like.

[drunken-clowns.livejournal.com]

It doesn't really sound like you just read Twilight because it's awful, if you're comparing it to how you read Lord of the Rings. Plenty of people read stuff like Fan Fiction Friday because it's awful, and I've never once seen anybody feel bad for hating something commonly seen as good but loving to laugh at badfic. Stuff you read to mock seems like it would be in a totally different class than stuff you read because you hope it'll be good, and I've never really thought stuff you read to mock had anything to do with your actual taste. You probably actually like Twilight, OP.

But that is okay. Why waste your free time forcing yourself to have "good taste" instead of liking what you like? Not everything has to be cerebral, and sometimes dumb fun is the best fun. You don't have to wave the banner or anything, but if nobody's actually getting hurt, fun is nothing to be ashamed of.

[velvet-mace.livejournal.com]

Well LOTR is a lot tougher read, that's for certain. Boy did Tolkein love to have people sit around and talk. And the whole poetry in a foreign language breaks were pretty self-indulgently nerdy. But despite that, I still found the pay off more interesting than Twilight. I just found Bella a completely uninteresting person and couldn't muster a care about what happened to her.

[lilya7.livejournal.com]

I thought we established that LOTR wasn't everybody's cup of tea already? (I'm won't say anything about Twilight)

[(Anonymous)]

I thought the LOTR movies were horribly boring. My friends forced me to see them multiple times... The characters are the worst, completely two dimensional. I dislike high fantasy anyway so yeah. Tried reading the book but never get past the first few pages.

But I read some book about the mythology of the Middle Earth and I loved it. The world building is amazing. I'd much rather read Tolkien's notes about that subject than his actual writing...

[latitude142.livejournal.com]

I have never read twilight but I'm sympathetic when I first read Lotr I found it difficult to get into, but once I got into the second book I couldn't put it down and it's now by far one of my favourite books.
Try and persevere with it, it's a really rewarding in the end (if you are finding the second book dragging too try and skip sam and frodo's chapters and then go back to them, I always preferred the legolas/aragon/gimli part more!)

[(Anonymous)]

I actually just talked to some people in my sci fi book club about this yesterday. Personally, I'm a fan of the books but I can understand why people may not like them. To paraphrase one of the guys "I could care less about the history behind the moss growing on the right hand side of this statue on this road." Tolkien loved his scenery porn and he loved building his world from a historian's perspective. This can be really distracting if you aren't interested.

Want to know a secret? I have trouble reading the Sherlock Holmes novels even though I really enjoy tv/movie adaptations of them.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't even find Tolkien's writing all that great, but come on, TWILIGHT? No. Sorry, but this DOES mean that you have bad taste in books. Embarrassing taste, actually. I can see why this is a secret.