Rachel Port
Well-Known Member
I was thinking of the first-time reader experience that came up in MatthewW's post here, and happened across this video made by a first time reader as she went through the books. The first 28 minutes are about the books. I haven't watched her comments on the movies which she went through after reading the books. Anyway, I've been trying to remember my first read when I was 18 back in the dark ages, and what I most remember is wanting to know what happened next, not concerned with all the details we are going over. I was sure Gandalf wasn't dead. I don't think I cared about what the powers of the Ring were, I just wanted to know how it affected the characters and whether Frodo would get it to the Cracks of Doom and whether the Ring would get destroyed. The Ring itself was rather a McGuffin, though I didn't know the word at the time. And so this reader's response is to the characters and the story, and that is what I remember from my first reading, and I still share a lot of her thoughts.
So I wonder if taking the point of view of a first-time reader is actually possible in this kind of close reading (well, microscopic might better describe it). A first time reader reads for the story and for the characters she comes to care about. And yet this young woman ends up talking about the pacing of the writing, how it felt simply to take time over a book in these hurried times. And the moments that stand out for her resonate with my feelings then and now, and with a lot of what we discuss here.
Anyway, here is a real first time reader talking about LOTR.
So I wonder if taking the point of view of a first-time reader is actually possible in this kind of close reading (well, microscopic might better describe it). A first time reader reads for the story and for the characters she comes to care about. And yet this young woman ends up talking about the pacing of the writing, how it felt simply to take time over a book in these hurried times. And the moments that stand out for her resonate with my feelings then and now, and with a lot of what we discuss here.
Anyway, here is a real first time reader talking about LOTR.