Friday, August 13, 2010

Onward to the Two Towers

For the past couple of months I been reading the Lord of the Rings to my eldest son and we finally made to the end of Fellowship of the Rings. As I said in the Power of Tolkien his writing has power even when spoken out aloud. I try to give the character distinct voices and my son seems to enjoy that. A couple of times I had him on the edge of the seat which was interesting. Recently he enjoyed the passion I put into Boromir's rant at Frodo just before he tried to take the ring.

After watching the movies so many times it is nice to rediscover the books.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Power of Tolkien his writing has power even when spoken out aloud.

I missed your earlier post (relatively new here.) So I'll make my comment on this post.

Tolkien is more powerful written aloud. I don't have time to look up the reference right now; but, I recall reading that Tolkien himself intended to write in a way that would be pleasing to the ear in a very literal way. He then goes on to discuss the aesthetic beauty of the spoken English language (Queen's English, of course.)

The Hobbit is by far better read aloud than silently. There are parts of The Fellowship of the Ring that drag on a bit when read aloud; but, overall it is a good read. My first exposure to Tolkien was my older brother reading aloud to me. I've read it aloud to a girlfriend and later to my wife (different ladies.) My twins are only two years old; but, they're starting to get an attention span that might accept the Hobbit in another year or so. I can't wait to read it aloud to them.

Unknown said...

ok, read aloud - not written aloud