"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
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March 31, 2010
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for me it was Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, and Lord of the Flies.
cliched- I know, but we were forced to read them and I'm glad.
Posted by: Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist ! | March 31, 2010 at 08:03 PM
I take exception to the "emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world" canard on LOTR fans. Since I was a 14 year old Tolkien fan myself.
But then, pace Bruno Bettelheim, I think there are uses for fantasy. Important ones, that aren't about escapism.
Posted by: Alison Croggon | April 01, 2010 at 07:04 PM
A-MEN!
You've read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy-Stories," right, in which he contrasts the Flight of the Deserter (what is commonly meant by the pejorative term "escapism") with the Escape of the Prisoner?
I read this quote to my mom, who laughed for a whole minute, and then asked me to read it again.
Posted by: Cole Matson | April 02, 2010 at 12:05 AM
Uh... guys, point of the quote that it uses your expectation that LOTR fans are "emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world" to make fun of people who read Atlas Shrugged?
Posted by: isaac | April 02, 2010 at 01:13 AM
Lord of the Rings fans, like many fans, can be rather defensive when they think the object of their adoration might be under attack-- even when it isn't.
Ayn Randians are defensive too, but they tend to see it as a conspiracy to suppress the thought of what they believe to be the greatest thinker in human history.
The difference is that Tolkien was a story-teller whose work is oft dismissed as genre fiction, while Rand was a cult-leader.
Posted by: Ian Thal | April 06, 2010 at 08:57 AM