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I saw or read an interview with Terry once where he said something like: "If at 16 you don't think LotR is the best story in the world then there's probably som
by dcminter 2y ago
I saw or read an interview with Terry once where he said something like: "If at 16 you don't think LotR is the best story in the world then there's probably something wrong with you, and if at 45 you still think it's the best story in the world then there's definitely something wrong with you." (Quotation marks, but not verbatim I'm sure)
I don't think he meant it as a criticism of LotR, more pointing to the wealth of other literature that you might need a bit of maturity to get into.
It's funny how some people idolise "the classics" and yet if you actually read them then mostly they're just the popular fun stuff from an earlier era. Poor old Terry, he'll probably be a question on an A-level English exam one of these days.
- wzdd 2y agoI was curious about this too and looked it up. The quote is: > At 17, if you don't think Lord of The Rings is the greatest contribution to literature there's something wrong with your head. If you still think that at 50, there's definitely something wrong with your head. (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/dec/09/jrrtolkien.sciencefictionfantasyandhorror https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/dec/09/jrrtolkien.sci...) Him talking about "contribution to literature" instead of "best story" changes the quote for me. It makes it more about the craft of writing -- and I agree: LOTR isn't the world's best literature. But it's still a damn good story.
- dcminter 2y agoYes, definitely spins a bit differently from my version. Thanks for looking it up!