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Sunday, December 21, 2003

Tolkien and the modern woman.

by Philocrites

Caryn James says The Lord of the Rings is a guy thing. "[W]hat the chick flick is to men, this trilogy is to women," she writes in the Times. But Rebecca Onion (who works at ym) says otherwise — and reports that teenage girls are drawn to the novels and the films as "an outlet for their repressed idealism."

I'm in no position to adjudicate this dispute. I found it amazing, however, that one of the Boston Globe's movie critics hadn't seen the first two films at all — and then proceeded to sit through the 13-hour marathon last week to catch up. And Wesley Morris may have caught something Caryn James missed:

As Frodo the Hobbit, Elijah Wood has a big neck, bigger eyes, and a soft little voice. He's so soothing and comforting that he should have his own line of mood-mellowing teas and candles.

Maybe Frodo can bring us all together . . .

Copyright © 2003 by Philocrites | Posted 21 December 2003 at 12:13 AM

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2 comments:

Melanie:

December 21, 2003 06:03 PM | Permalink for this comment

I've been a Tolkein fan since I first picked up LOTR in high school, and have gone on to collect first editions of the rest of his books. I saw the first movie, hated it, skipped the second, but no less an authority than Patrick Nielsen Hayden says that ROTK is awesome, so I'll probably see it. I think Tolkein is for people with religious imaginations--these are deeply Catholic books--and not everyone has one. I doubt that it's a guy or chick thing, however.

Philocrites:

December 21, 2003 10:18 PM | Permalink for this comment

You'll want to see Commonweal's cover story on Tolkien and the Catholic imagination, although it probably doesn't cover entirely new ground. (It's not online yet, but I might get around to typing some excerpts in over the holiday break.



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