Word: tolkien
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...thundered to the Big Beat of transistors at full blast, surfers leafed lightly over the waves, and girls in Bermuda-length "cutoffs" or gaudy minishifts strolled languidly down the strand. Mostly, they read: Hans Reichenbach's The Rise of Scientific Philosophy, giant Batman comics, In Cold Blood, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and a strategic paperback titled How to Get Ahead in the Army. For those who could not make the sun scene, there was a new crop of movies to catch, coffeehouses for conversation, or further out, a burgeoning of psychediscotheques tripping with lobster lights...
...have been reading Tolkien since I was ten, at a time when, as you say, it "languished largely unread." At that time, Tolkien came as a blessed and delightful discovery, unsullied by elvish slogans on subway walls, FRODO LIVES buttons, or campus societies. But now, everywhere one turns, gushing over-enthusiasts are to be found turning Tolkien into a common cult, with no recognition for the most ardent readers of all who, instead of joining the society, are keeping quiet. As for you, TIME, may the hair on your feet become mangy and fall out. You have done your...
...Villain. Tolkien himself denies that there is any "inner meaning or message" in the Ring cycle, and many students take on a muzzy, Middle-earth look when they try to explain its appeal. To some, it is a poetic portrayal of the times, with Sauron and his destructive threat seen as an analogy to atomic war. For others, the Frodo saga represents a way to escape the mundane realities of life. "I'd like to live in the hobbit world because this world is so foul," says Marilyn Nulman, who works at the Harvard bookstore. Another enthusiast likes...
...loyalty to the author, true-blue Rings fanciers ignore the edition published by Ace Books, Inc., which was not authorized by Tolkien, and favor instead the version brought out by Ballantine Books and personally approved...
...much better. For one thing, a few important critics have belatedly reviewed Life Against Death, and the London Observer has placed it on two outstanding-books lists. Now, with more than 50,000 copies in print, it ranks alongside David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring as one of the underground books that undergraduates feel they must read to be with...