Who's your favorite author?

[Sidhe]

Can I just call it a boring book? I made it through all but the final chapter of The Fellowship Of The Ring before deciding it wasn't worth wasting any more time over. I should really have stopped at the mention of Tom Bombadil; useless character.

Admittedly, I prefer a high standard of prose and The Lord Of The Rings was nowhere approaching close.

Tom Bombadil is odd, this is a guy who has more power than Sauron who sits around all day writing poetry and talking nonsense, I think it's the arcehtypical drop out hippy character

EDIT: In England it was voted the best book of the 20th century by several poles, now popularity doesn't mean it's great literature(although I personally would say it was well written but it's a moot point based on opinion) It does mean at least it is a great story.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Tom Bombadil is odd, this is a guy who has more power than Sauron who sits around all day writing poetry and talking nonsense, I think it's the arcehtypical drop out hippy character

Must have ruined his life, and his mind, by smoking pot.

 

[Fifty]

Bombadil personifies time, hence he is immortal and others are powerless to manipulate him. He is not desccribed as more powerful than sauron/the ring, it is just said that "the ring has no power over him". He's time.

 

[Raisin Bran]

George Orwell Is my favorite.

1984 and the animal farm are my 2 best books. Wonder what ever happenned to this guy to hate the communists like that!!!!!

I also like Tolkien (he comes second in my list).

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Goodness, I forgot about Orwell. To be fair though I've only read Animal Farm (one of my favourite books) and 1984 as well, so I'd hardly call myself an expert on his stuff.

 

[Sidhe]

Bombadil personifies time, hence he is immortal and others are powerless to manipulate him. He is not desccribed as more powerful than sauron/the ring, it is just said that "the ring has no power over him". He's time.

True but in the book, it says that in his own realm he has more power than Sauron himself. sorry for the slight misinformation, it was not intentional.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Bombadil personifies time, hence he is immortal and others are powerless to manipulate him. He is not desccribed as more powerful than sauron/the ring, it is just said that "the ring has no power over him". He's time.

I was under the impression he personified nature itself, particularly given his mastery over the countryside. I suppose both work.

 

[Raisin Bran]

Goodness, I forgot about Orwell. To be fair though I've only read Animal Farm (one of my favourite books) and 1984 as well, so I'd hardly call myself an expert on his stuff.

Try Homage to Catalonia its a great book.

Orwell is the one that made me like reading.

First book I ever red was the Jim morrisson biography (signer of ''the Doors'')
Its a shame ... he dies at the end of the book !!!!!! lol

 

[Keshik]

Right now, I recommend James Bradley. Although not an experienced author, his (non-fiction) "Flags of our Fathers" and "Fly Boys" are tremendous WWII books.

 

[Raisin Bran]

Bombadil is a error of nature in my opinion .... he is not even mentionned in the ''Silmarion'' where tolkien explains the making of middle earth and the deity sequence.

He's both ''nature'' and ''time''.

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

There are no definative answers about Tom Bombadil, Tolkien deliberatley left him as a mystery, so he is whatever you interpret him as I suppose...

The only thing you CAN say is that he was NOT a Maiar..its a popular theory, but obviously the ring would affect him if he was a maiar, like it did the other Maiar, Gandalf, Saruman etc

Looking at him from outside Middle-Earth I think he is a holdover from when LOTR was meant to be a sequel to the Hobbit (in style etc) that Tolkien just didnt want to cut out becuase he liked him so much, which explains why Tom is such an anomaly compared to the rest of the book.

 

[Sidhe]

Bombadil is a error of nature in my opinion .... he is not even mentionned in the ''Silmarion'' where tolkien explains the making of middle earth and the deity sequence.

He's both ''nature'' and ''time''.

Well fine but the Maiar are mentioned, the faires if you like from the realms of the valar, I think your reading too much into his role. He's like the Linyuile the lady of the lake of Anuminas, a Maiar of incalculable power, more powerful than Tom Bombadill, one who is beyond the bounds of middle Earth in there own realm, not some sort of overarching concept, just powerful maiar like balrogs and the Istari.

he is a Maiar because if he isn't there is nothing else he can be, except maybe a new race or a creation of a valar, which puts him in the Maiar fold again, and this certainly isn't mentioned. Think of the Valar as archangles of Eru the one God, not an etnirely adequate analogy but good enough. And Maiar as their children or angels. Elves are semi divine because fo their exposure to the valar in the undying lands, humans are well merely human.

The ring can't effect him only if he remains in his own realm, he has power over that realm even Sauron cannot breach, because it is old and powerful magic.

I seem to remember vaguely that TB is mentioned as Maiar in the unfinished tales, but I could be mistaken, I'll fish it out, he's an enigma, but Maiar is not some definitive term it simply means beneath the Valar but above the mortal world.

Oh and remember Gandalf is forbidden just like all the Maiar from revealing his true power in Middle Earth as is Sauron(they have to work through mortal magics and Machievellian influence) Linyuile and Tom Bombadil are beyond that reprimand from the Valar it seems, why is the enigma.

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

Are you done editing now?

Thats definatly possible but as I said I don't think hes a Maiar...hes just too different to the the other ones, Sauron, the Istari and all that lot

Another possibility is that he was in fact Iluvater himself, playing around in his creation.

Edit: Bombadil's realm was very strong, but not strong enough to resist Sauron indefinatley, IIRC it was brought up at the Council of Elrond - why not give the ring to Bombadil? Elrond and the others figured that not even Tom was strong enough to beat off Sauron permantly. Either that or he would lose the ring (Elrond thought he would )

 

[CartesianFart]

George Orwell Is my favorite.

Good paradox writer and that is it,kinda funny people don't acknowledge that.To busy thinking it is a 'real' social criticism.



Here is a funny parody of George Lucus Star Wars script and a Harry Potter story.



God!I hate Harry Potter and the kids that read them.I find it a distraction of the intellect that children these days prefer a story which in fact is a carbon copy from the great classical literature of Greek and Latin.

 

[Sidhe]

Are you done editing now?

Thats definatly possible but as I said I don't think hes a Maiar...hes just too different to the the other ones, Sauron, the Istari and all that lot

Another possibility is that he was in fact Iluvater himself, playing around in his creation.

Edit: Bombadil's realm was very strong, but not strong enough to resist Sauron indefinatley, IIRC it was brought up at the Council of Elrond - why not give the ring to Bombadil? Elrond and the others figured that not even Tom was strong enough to beat off Sauron permantly. Either that or he would lose the ring (Elrond thought he would )

Yes it fits the Jesus thing, the original hippy but I somehow doubt it. But hey it's all fiction anyway. Who's Linyuile then? She is suposed to be more powerful than TB? is that Iluvatar's female side, to me they are Maiar, maybe they are the avatars of Iluvatar? Sounds reasonable. A man who is a poet and a preacher of peace and a women who is fickle and will kill and save in equal measure? It's all very interesting but we couldn't really know unless we asked Tolkien himself

EDIT: @Cart: Lighten up not all kids want the philosophical depth of the adult world we maybe did but then we probably werent typical kids, thus we read books that were adult. But didn't you delight in some childhood fantasy?

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

Yup, only JRR knows for certain

But hey at least this way we can have lots of fun speculating

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

EDIT: @Cart: Lighten up not all kids want the philosophical depth of the adult world we maybe did but then we probably werent typical kids, thus we read books that were adult. But didn't you delight in some childhood fantasy?

Indeed. Quite frankly even now I can read only so much stuff about the second world war or more mature works before becoming a little bit miserable and needing some light entertainment. I mentioned A.A. Milne before, but Harry Potter fills in the need as well. I'll be the first to admit it's not great or in-depth literature. That's WHY I'm reading it.

 

[CartesianFart]

The problem is that when a young mind cultivate themselve with non in-depth literatures too much,they become accustomed too much of the comfort of light entertaining materials which can heavily influence them to seek entertainment out of so-called in-depth literatures.This is what i percieve as a perverse disposition in the making.Do not underestimate where enfeebleness come from.

 

[Sidhe]

I see fair enough and a good point. Read HP and Dostoyevski in equal measure

Yup, only JRR knows for certain

But hey at least this way we can have lots of fun speculating

Oh yeah, it's Tolkien geeks paradise the internet

Indeed. Quite frankly even now I can read only so much stuff about the second world war or more mature works before becoming a little bit miserable and needing some light entertainment. I mentioned A.A. Milne before, but Harry Potter fills in the need as well. I'll be the first to admit it's not great or in-depth literature. That's WHY I'm reading it.

Yeah the adult world is depressing, you read as much of that fantasy as you can, before the inevitable prejudice of the adult world sinks in, as a kid I made a deal with myself, I think I was 7 at the time, if I ever became as depressive as adults, I would have lost the game. For me I'm still playing on the childhood wonder thing, but in equal measure with the adult thing, it's not uncommon

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Try Homage to Catalonia its a great book.

Heh. When I read your first post I was poised with outraged finger over the "reply" button; "how can he possibly mention Orwell as a great writer, and rate Animal Farm above Homage to Catalonia ?!"

But now you've put my mind entirely at ease, and I am serene, at one with the fruity yet high fibre content of your posts.