The Lord of the Rings

I hardly need to review this book; everyone knows it, except for those who probably wouldn't like it anyway. Although I like it, overall, it's not one of my top favourite books: I like some parts of it, but have to tolerate other parts that I don't really enjoy. In particular, although I don't strongly dislike Gollum—he's the product of his experiences, and perhaps pity is appropriate—I don't seem to enjoy reading about him.

Tolkien was, I suppose, inspired by the legends of old, and wanted to create his own legend in the same style. He managed to do this while at the same time writing something that would appeal to 20th century readers, which is a neat trick. I don't normally read the legends of old, they're not my kind of fiction; but I'm willing to read this. The introduction of the hobbits was surely the key to this achievement; we can relate to them relatively easily.

Glancing at a few other reviews of this book, I found someone who was bored by it. Well, fair enough; it doesn't bore me, but your reactions are as valid as mine.

I also found someone who complained about it being politically incorrect in some ways (sexism, racism, etcetera). I have less sympathy with this. Tolkien was born in 1892; if he had any notion of political correctness, it wouldn't be much like yours, and it's silly to expect it. Furthermore, he was trying to emulate the legends of old, when political correctness meant being polite to the king, and sexism and racism were merely normal human behaviour. Bearing all that in mind, I think the political incorrectness of this book is relatively mild.

There is also the fact that what we have here is a struggle between Good and Evil. I don't normally like that: I prefer characters who are more like normal people, neither wholly bad nor wholly good. But Good and Evil seem more acceptable in the context of old legends, and I can tolerate them here.

Sauron seems evil to the core, as far as we can tell; although he remains out of sight throughout, so we know only what his subordinates do, and what his enemies think of him. Perhaps he loves his cat? It's not clear what he gets out of life, nor what he wants to get out of life.

Gandalf and Galadriel seem prime examples of good; but both of them avoid the Ring because they fear being corrupted by it. Which suggests that they're not really good to the core; at least, they don't believe they are.