Word: tolkien
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...Silmarillion, Tolkien...
...Silmarillion, Tolkien...
...like rummaging through a kind of verbal attic of folkways and attitudes that have shaped the language over the past half-century. The editors have placed their imprimatur on "McCarthyism," "McLuhanism," "Maoism" and "Naderism." They have acknowledged a menagerie of latter-day elves and monsters, from "Hobbits" (Novelist J.R.R. Tolkien's small, furry earth dwellers) to "Nessie" (who lives in Loch Ness). Trade names like Levi's, Muzak, Nescafe and Jell-O have officially entered the English language...
...long line of antic British bestiary writers-Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, A.A. Milne, Kenneth Grahame, J.R.R. Tolkien-must now be added Richard Adams, Oxford graduate, British army veteran and recently resigned assistant secretary in the Department of the Environment. This talking-rabbits novel, his first, was rated flayrah ("unusually good food, e.g., lettuce") by the palates of English readers, who made it a bestseller and called it a classic-to-be. How will American readers like their existential Peter Rabbit? Probably less...
...called El-ahrairah. There is a brief glossary of rabbit terms. The quotations at the head of each chapter derive from Aeschylus, Xenophon, Pilgrim's Progress, Morte d' Arthur. But otherwise Watership Down offers little to build a literary cult upon. On the American-whimsy exchange, one Tolkien hobbit should still be worth a dozen talking rabbits...