October 6, 2002

To the Tolkien 'Purists'
Richard P.

OK, this goes out to all of those Tolkien 'purists', who hate on the movie and say fan-fic is evil and who would generally see the fantasy genre stay as it is.

Why don't you all go ahead and read 'Smith of Wooton Major', by Tolkien himself. In this book Tolkien discusses such things as becoming too attatched, too involved in feary, and also talks about handing on the batton (or star) of creation of fantasy to others. This in a sence is what Peter Jackson is doing. Tolkien himself said that he liked to see other peoples interpretation of his work, and that is also what PJ is doing.

Now, we don't have to agree with everything PJ has done in the flim(s), indeed I don't; but we do have to applaud him for having a go, and I think Tolkien would have been very pleased with some elements of the film.