Revisiting Tolkien
I've just finished reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy through the lens of who I am as a writer.
I know it's blasphemous, but I wasn't a fan of these stories growing up. I didn't like the writing style, and they didn't hold my attention. Oddly, as an adult, I found them much more interesting.
When you comb through this story, you find how layered and intentional Tolkien was with his storytelling and worldbuilding. He was even able to take the Hobbit and make it fit into the Lord of the Rings saga despite it not matching in tone or register.
I've also gained a strong appreciation for the Peter Jackson adaptations. Jackson was able to take a lot of the "weaknesses" of the LOTR trilogy and represent the story in a way that was both easy to understand and fully functional. The Hobbit adaptions are perhaps less successful with that, but, in my opinion, The Hobbit is less enjoyable as a story in general.
I'm not sure when I will revisit these stories again in the future, but I do plan to once I shave off more of my TBR list.
Thank you, Professor Tolkien, for giving us these classic stories. Without them, I don't think my stories could have existed.
