| Re: Have you read other Tolkien books....
I must say that I disagree where The Silmarillion is concerned. It's in more of the "high style", if you will, but I find it thoroughly enjoyable; it remains one of my favorites, not just of Tolkien, but in general.... I've not yet read The Children of Hurin, as I'm swamped with other reading for a good while to come, I'm afraid... but I'm glad to have it, and the little I've browsed through it, I don't think I'd agree with you there, either.
Perhaps it's just that I've read so many of the older fantasies, which used a more "distanced" style -- William Morris, E. R. Eddison, James Branch Cabell, etc. -- and therefore I've no complaints about such an approach. But, then, even when I first began reading fantasy, there were authors who used such, and I found (and still find) them to be eminently entertaining, as well as much more textually complex, allowing for new layers in repeated readings, so that they seldom grow old or stale... they simply continue to grow better with each reading.
On The History of Middle Earth, however... that one can be a bit of a pain at times, if you're looking for enjoyable reading as far as story is concerned. Parts of it are indeed just that, and there are many passages that are among Tolkien's most beautifully written and moving; but other sections you have to really have a love of the concepts and ideas he's playing with -- not simply the "secondary world" he's building, but the philosophical concepts underlying everything -- in order to truly enjoy them... |