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A review by octavia_cade
The Lost Road and Other Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2.0
Okay, let me start with something good, before I get onto the rant. The first hundred odd pages are genuinely likeable. There's a brief sketch of "The Fall of Númenor", but the real item of interest is the unfinished "The Lost Road", which Tolkien started to write as part of a bet with C.S. Lewis that made him take a shot at a time travel story. Basically a father and son leapfrog back in time, to various historical and mythical (and Middle-earth) father-son relationships, and it's well-written and affecting and I haven't been presented with it ten thousand times before. Alright, that's a slight exaggeration. I'm getting there. My point is if the book had stopped here it would have earned three stars from me.
Following this is a lengthy piece on the development of the Middle-earth languages, to which I am utterly indifferent. Genuine dislike, however, doesn't start to sink in until we get to another fucking version of The Silmarillion. Yes, another 150 pages of this crap. In fairness, it's not Tolkien senior who is responsible for said crap. He surely didn't know that his son and publisher would beat hell out of the thing while he was too dead to prevent it, because, more recent excursions aside, at time of publishing this was the sixth version of this bloody story put out. Yes, the SIXTH. First there was The Silmarillion itself, which once upon a time I actually liked. Then there were Books 1 and 2 of The Lost Tales, giving the background to The Silmarillion, and yes, it was less interesting but still a bit. Then the Lays of Beleriand went over it again. Then The Shaping of Middle-earth. Now it's #6, The Lost Road, and I'd call it barrel-scraping except the barrel doesn't exist any more, because when the bottom of said barrel's been this whittled away it's no longer a barrel, it's a fucking cylinder, and all the interest has leaked out. If it weren't for "The Lost Road" story, this book would get one star and that is being generous.
I've been a fan of Middle-earth since I was a kid. Reading the Histories has been on my reading bucket list for literally decades, yet you know what? I'm going to stop reading it, at least for a long time, and go onto something less irritatingly exploitative. Because as boring and insulting as I find this continual repetition of the same goddamn material, that's nothing compared to the fact that I'm actually starting to genuinely loathe The Silmarillion.
Critical context should not do that, ever.
Following this is a lengthy piece on the development of the Middle-earth languages, to which I am utterly indifferent. Genuine dislike, however, doesn't start to sink in until we get to another fucking version of The Silmarillion. Yes, another 150 pages of this crap. In fairness, it's not Tolkien senior who is responsible for said crap. He surely didn't know that his son and publisher would beat hell out of the thing while he was too dead to prevent it, because, more recent excursions aside, at time of publishing this was the sixth version of this bloody story put out. Yes, the SIXTH. First there was The Silmarillion itself, which once upon a time I actually liked. Then there were Books 1 and 2 of The Lost Tales, giving the background to The Silmarillion, and yes, it was less interesting but still a bit. Then the Lays of Beleriand went over it again. Then The Shaping of Middle-earth. Now it's #6, The Lost Road, and I'd call it barrel-scraping except the barrel doesn't exist any more, because when the bottom of said barrel's been this whittled away it's no longer a barrel, it's a fucking cylinder, and all the interest has leaked out. If it weren't for "The Lost Road" story, this book would get one star and that is being generous.
I've been a fan of Middle-earth since I was a kid. Reading the Histories has been on my reading bucket list for literally decades, yet you know what? I'm going to stop reading it, at least for a long time, and go onto something less irritatingly exploitative. Because as boring and insulting as I find this continual repetition of the same goddamn material, that's nothing compared to the fact that I'm actually starting to genuinely loathe The Silmarillion.
Critical context should not do that, ever.