chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) (03/25/85)
> > The best English language book of the 20th century is very probably > > Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". ... > > > > Tolkien held the chair in English at Merton College in Oxford for many > > years, was a master of Middle English and a prolific writer. ... > > > > Alastair Milne > > Since when does academia have a damn thing to do with a good book? > Though Tolkien certainly was extremely imaginative and innovative. > Personally, I find his writing ponderous and the characters a bit > too black and white though certainly they are well above average > books. ... > > David Albrecht Well, one can expect a professor of English not to make too many grammatical errors :-). But I agree that academia and good books are not very closely related. I think what makes {\it The Lord of the Rings} so good is the amount of work that went into it. Middle-Earth has a solidity to it that is very impressive. If I am not mistaken, many of the writings that were published in {\it The Silmarillion} were at least outlined before tLotR was completed; they give a sense of history to tLotR. Maybe I'll go read tLotR for the fourth time.... A Elbereth Gilthoniel, silivren penna miriel, -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 4251) UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!chris CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@maryland