Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
The flip side is that a rework of LOTR/The Hobbit wouldn't be even remotely the same thing. That's the whole story teller thing. Part of what makes LOTR/The Hobbit what they were is Tolkien's constantly reworking them over the space of a long period of time. It's the craftmanship. A violin is a violin, yet a Stradivarius is renown for it's craftsmanship. That craftsmanship is what you lose if you go with a "dumbed down", or abridged version of LOTR.
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I cannot agree with that.
Yes to hear a wonderful piece of violin music played on a Stradivarius is pure heaven, but it can still be great, even to a high degree, played on another violin.
And frankly, I don't see what I have been suggesting as dumbed down. The words aren't being replaced, there is just less of them regarding descriptive portions, to enhance the flow for some readers who struggle with long descriptions.
In a very real way, that descriptive stuff is like the icing on a cake, wonderful if you like icing, but not so great if you don't. What matters, is if you can appreciate and enjoy the cake, with or without icing ... the cake being the main important bit.
Tolkien's work and craft has plenty of merit aside from the heavily descriptive portions.
You can compare if with a 7 course meal. Still a great meal, even if you only have 4 or 5 of the courses, one of those being the main course.