dclayh comments on Special Status Needs Special Support - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 May 2009 10:59PM

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Comment author: JulianMorrison 05 May 2009 01:54:41AM 0 points [-]

I used to love Tolkien, when I was a kid. But honestly, I can't see the attraction as an adult. Piling centuries of backstory onto a character doesn't make it three-dimensional. And while Tolkien's short doggerel can be fun, his long poems are boring. I don't know - I'm not a poet - but they're probably technically excellent. That doesn't save them.

Comment author: dclayh 05 May 2009 07:54:54AM 1 point [-]

So, when I first (tried to) read the Silmarillion in high school, I thought it was incredibly dry and boring. But when I came back to it a few years later in college I thought it was great, and still do (I now like it much better than LotR, in fact). Probably the sort of epic/mythological style it's written in is something one either loves or can't stand.