Bill Pullman's view on LOTRO

[Richard]

In our private discussion with you Professor after the class on Feb 14th one of the members of the kin asked you a question regarding Tolkien's treatment of Orc's in LOTR and how they fit into the theme's of mercy and redemption. I wish I had copied the question but that was roughly it. However a few hours after your answer I stumbled upon something Bill Pullman said in the last week or so.

Here is the article it is from, http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment...ow-up-for-his-dark-materials-series-1.3285988

but this where he mentions his view of LOTR,

"Some critics have ranked Pullman's trilogy alongside J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy saga "The Lord of the Rings," though he doesn't particularly like the comparison.

In Tolkien's Middle Earth, he says, "what's good is good and what's bad is bad and there isn't very much discussion about it."

Pullman prefers fantasy which wrestles with moral ambiguity and has "one foot firmly in this world."".

I will have to look up how to properly quote articles, sorry for the butchery. My question is this. Will you ever do a class just specifically on this view of authors and/or critics seeing Tolkien as just a tale that is black and white in its approach?

 

[NotACat]

I don't want to be too pedantic but I feel drawn to point out that Bill Pullman played the President in Independence Day whereas Philip Pullman wrote His Dark Materials: I think you mean the latter in this case!

I am intrigued by the thought of another book in the sequence: I wonder whether I'll be able to read past the beginning of the second book another time around in order to give the new ones context. I did find his style somewhat dry back when I attempted the feat!