# I must be the only one who never read or watched any of the Lord of the Rings saga **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 14, 2006, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294 "2006-03-14T09:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/41 "2006-03-15T05:43:14Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Well, in this instance, because that’s the question posed by the OP. > > In general I’d say it’s a reaction to the somewhat “holier than thou” attitude that Tolkein fans can sometimes adopt and that is parodied nicely by **What Exit?** Well, but I wasn’t asking why people were chiming in with the OP so much as why the OP was posted in the first place. It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve had threads like this, though they’ve died down a lot since the movies became history. It seems like there are lots of people that feel compelled to make their disinterest/disdain for Tolkien public, and I don’t really get it. I can’t think of any other popular and reasonably good body of work that gets slagged as often. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/42 "2006-03-15T05:47:52Z")
If it’s been done before, I hadn’t seen it. Sorry. I was just curious… an informal poll, if you will, though I’m guessing this board probably has ten times the Tolkien fans as the general population. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/43 "2006-03-15T05:58:45Z")
Oh, no need to apologize really. I just find the phenomena rather curious. I google around a bit and find that ROTK took in $377 million in the US. So, figure an average ticket price of say $8, we get something under 50 million people who saw it in the theatre. That’s about 1 person in 6. I’ll WAG that that many again have seen it on dvd. That’s still only 1 in 3. So no, you aren’t the only one. You’re most likely in the majority in not having seen it, actually. ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/44 "2006-03-15T06:00:41Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Oh, no need to apologize really. I just find the phenomena rather curious. I google around a bit and find that ROTK took in $377 million in the US. So, figure an average ticket price of say $8, we get something under 50 million people who saw it in the theatre. That’s about 1 person in 6. I’ll WAG that that many again have seen it on dvd. That’s still only 1 in 3. So no, you aren’t the only one. You’re most likely in the majority in not having seen it, actually. Well I’m sure a fair number of people saw it multiple times in the theatre, but still that’s quite a number. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/45 "2006-03-15T11:15:34Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > I’ve never read the books and I’ve never seen the movies. These are the Harry Potter books of yesteryear, oversold and overhyped. For that reason I refused for years to read the books, and I will not watch the movies before I read the books, so they’re out. > > I might one day get around to the books, but they have HUGE expectations on them now and I’m not sure they can live up to them, so I may never see the movies because I may never get through the books. That “oversold and overhyped” line does not logically stand up. If you’d read 'em and knew that they were drek, you could claim that they did not deserve their reputation. But when I was a lad, about the time you were burping up your mother’s milk, and the books were already a couple of decades old, the general view was that they were out there and they were good, but there wasn’t a vast teen culture devoted to them the way there is to HP. We used to have a story read to us at the end of the day in primary school. One term the book was The Hobbit. I liked it, it fired my imagination, and I was keen to hear more about Middle-Earth. (In a later term the teacher did the first half of “The Fellowship Of The Ring” but it was too darn long for us to have had a hope of hearing the whole book.) That’s the whole story about how I got into it; there was not, and there did not need to be, any massive hype. Now if stories about wizards and dragons and dwarves and elves and all that simply don’t float your boat, fair enough. Tolkein himself was hep to the notion that not everyone would like them, and some would find them trivial and silly; and he admitted that he couldn’t complain, since he had the same sentiments about their own literary tastes. _De gustibus non est disputandem_. But that’s not an objective assessment. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/46 "2006-03-15T12:41:35Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > I’ve read a few chapters of both _The Hobbit_ and _The Fellowship of the Ring_. Neither really pulled me in, so I didn’t continue. I’ve never had any urge to see the movies, either - the pictures I’ve seen in ads and so on certainly look gorgeous, but what’s that worth if I won’t enjoy the story? (C.f. _Dances With Wolves_ :p) Actually, both the story (books) and modifiied story (movies) are very good. It’s not your fault that Tolkien’s writing could bore paint off walls. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/47 "2006-03-15T12:42:51Z")
Mr. singular was one of those that didn’t read it in high school because “too many girls were carrying it around and babbling about hobbits and elves”. So I was curious to see how he’d react to the movies, as there was no way I was gonna miss it (I guess I was one of those girls - I’d read the whole trilogy four times). He was absolutely enchanted - all three are one of the few movies we made it a point to see int he theater, and we just watched ROTK again this weekend. The Christmas following LOTR, he bought me a boxed set of the books, as we’d lost mine in a flood. I didn’t let him know that I was a little sqicked out by the pictures from the movie on the covers instead of the beautiful art I was used to, and disappointed that they didn’t have the illustrations and runes I was used to seeing, but I didn’t say anything, because it was lovely to have my friends back. As soon as the first book hit the ground when I was done, he scooped it up and devoured it, even beating me to finishing it. I’ll probably buy him a proper illustrated version for his birthday. Having said all that, if you’re avoiding just because everybody else embraced it, the only one you’re hurting is you. You may want to give it a shot, maybe in the same order as Mr. singular. Think of Peter Jackson as a gateway drug to Middle Earth. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/48 "2006-03-15T13:45:00Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Well, in this instance, because that’s the question posed by the OP. > > In general I’d say it’s a reaction to the somewhat **“holier than thou”** attitude that Tolkein fans can sometimes adopt and that is \*\*parodied \*\* nicely by **What Exit?** - (My Bolding)\* Just to clarify, I wasn’t actually do a parody, I was making fun of a younger version of myself that would try to spread the word. 😉 I still feel as passionately about the books, but I realize that not everyone will enjoy them no matter how good I think they are. I really meant what I posted, I just don’t expect everyone to agree. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/49 "2006-03-15T18:08:17Z")
I guess it’s kind of odd to declare that although you’ve never read a book or seen a movie that you don’t like it. I know that sometimes genre can be a shorthand to allow you to dismiss things you aren’t likely to enjoy watching. I know I never want to see another sports movie about a team of lovable losers who learn to work together to overcome their difficulties, and who score the winning goal in the last second of the last big game of the season, so old man Anderson’s ice cream stand won’t have to be sold to the corporate developers. But not all sports movies are like that, some are good, like “Bull Durham” and…and…well, I can’t think of any other good ones. Maybe there were lots of other great sports movies out there that I’ve missed, but I’ve been too narrow minded to give them a try. “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air” –Walt Whitman ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/50 "2006-03-15T18:55:37Z")
> [@Eleusis](#): > > But do you _really_ see this as a _“gap in my cultural schooling”_? I mean, that seriously seems quite a bit far fetched. Well, sure, it’s a gap, but bear in mind, it’s impossible to have a “complete” cultural education. There’s too much culture out there for someone to experience all of it in one lifetime. We’ve all got to make decisions about which gap you want to fill, and which gaps you’re going to leave in place, is all. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/51 "2006-03-15T19:05:41Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I guess it’s kind of odd to declare that although you’ve never read a book or seen a movie that you don’t like it. I think it’s more that those of us who have never read or seen LOTR are “not interested” rather than “don’t like” it. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/52 "2006-03-15T19:21:13Z")
I am an avid reader, I probably read more than 90% of the population, but I’ve never read Tolkein. I just don’t care for fantasy, not in the least. I’m sure that if I sat down and watched the films I’d enjoy them (I saw and liked the original Star Wars and Alien), but I just have no desire to do so. Goblins and wizards hold no interest for me, none at all. ---
**Author:** ![Pyrrhonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@Pyrrhonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrrhonist)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/53 "2006-03-15T23:59:38Z")
There is not an iota of interest in me to watch _The Lord of the Rings_. Twenty-five or so years ago I read the first two books, but never finished the third. Don’t get me wrong, there are many great fantasy or science fiction novels that I read before and since, but it still baffles my mind that kids (or kids at heart) would line up by the thousands to watch the films again and again and again with such undiluted enthusiasm. I also skipped the Star Wars prequels. I’ve never gotten around to watching the Matrix Trilogy either. ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/54 "2006-03-16T01:38:38Z")
I’ve never read the books, but I’ve read and heard a fair amount about them. From all I’ve read and heard, I have absolutely no desire to read them. I have though, unfortunately, sat through all three of the movies, although I will readily admit that I slept through parts of the second and third (especially the second: no plot whatsoever, just two hours of a huge battle). The only reason I watched them is because my SO really wanted to see them. Left to my own devices, I never would have. Seeing the movies definitely reinforced my desire to never read the books. I have to take this opportunity, though, to respond to this: > [@What Exit?](#): > > How a small untrained Hobbit showed true courage by volunteering to go though he knew not the way. From everything I DID see of the movies, I was and continue to be just stunned that everyone views Frodo as the hero of the saga (I am, of course, assuming that the above refers to Frodo; if that assumption is wrong, my apologies). Frodo was a dope who didn’t know what he was doing, who gave up at the slightest difficulty, and who just let himself be seduced by the ring. The **true** hero of the story is Sam. He’s the one who kept Frodo going when the latter wanted to give up, and He’s the one who saved Frodo’s little butt more than once, right up to the end on the silly mountain. Sam is really the only character in the entire saga that I have any respect for. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/55 "2006-03-16T01:55:03Z")
> [@Roadfood](#): > > I’ve never read the books, but I’ve read and heard a fair amount about them. From all I’ve read and heard, I have absolutely no desire to read them. > > I have though, unfortunately, sat through all three of the movies, although I will readily admit that I slept through parts of the second and third (especially the second: no plot whatsoever, just two hours of a huge battle). The only reason I watched them is because my SO really wanted to see them. Left to my own devices, I never would have. Seeing the movies definitely reinforced my desire to never read the books. > > I have to take this opportunity, though, to respond to this: > From everything I DID see of the movies, I was and continue to be just stunned that everyone views Frodo as the hero of the saga (I am, of course, assuming that the above refers to Frodo; if that assumption is wrong, my apologies). Frodo was a dope who didn’t know what he was doing, who gave up at the slightest difficulty, and who just let himself be seduced by the ring. The **true** hero of the story is Sam. He’s the one who kept Frodo going when the latter wanted to give up, and He’s the one who saved Frodo’s little butt more than once, right up to the end on the silly mountain. Sam is really the only character in the entire saga that I have any respect for. That is one of the failings of trying to make the books into movies. It was hard to show how heroic Frodo was in accomplishing the quest. He was also a very atypical hero as he did it without magic or a strong sword arm and in the end he would have failed if he had not earlier shown mercy to Sméagol/Gollum. Believe it or not Tolkien created a central hero that has rarely been seen before or since, especially in a Fantasy or Adventure story. Jim ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/56 "2006-03-16T02:40:25Z")
> [@Coil](#): > > No you’re not. There’s a guy (age 40) I work with who hasn’t seen or read LOTR. He has managed to avoid seeing Star Wars, Terminator, Alien, Matrix, Star Trek and just about any big movie series. > > While I can understand that people don’t like those movies it is rather weird to meet someone who has never seen any of them. There are some people who are utterly indifferent to pop culture. My mother is one example. During the past five years, she’s seen no theatrical movies other than _Fahrenheit 9/11_, _Pride and Prejudice_ and perhaps one or two others. She doesn’t own a television, never listens to any music other than classical, very rarely buys new books, and doesn’t read anything other than the local papar and _The New Yorker_. (As a curious side note, Mom hasn’t seen or read _The Lord of the Rings_, but she has read _The Hobbit_. She even assigned portions of _The Hobbit_ to her students so that they could compare and contrast it with _Beowulf_.) She’s hardly the only pop-culture hermit out there. I can name dozens of others, though most of them are at least fifty years old. That may account for some of the difference, as Hollywood and the music industry produce very little material aimed at that age group. I do know a couple people in their mid-twenties who largely ignore popular entertainment. Also, foreign students don’t seem to care about movies and music all that much. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/57 "2006-03-16T02:42:41Z")
> [@ITR champion](#): > > …snip… > (As a curious side note, Mom hasn’t seen or read _The Lord of the Rings_, but she has read _The Hobbit_. She even assigned portions of _The Hobbit_ to her students so that they could compare and contrast it with _Beowulf_.) > …snip… I’m curious. Did she use Professor Tolkien’s Beowulf? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/58 "2006-03-16T14:45:08Z")
> [@Lamar Mundane](#): > > I am an avid reader, I probably read more than 90% of the population, but I’ve never read Tolkein. I just don’t care for fantasy, not in the least. So, no Magic Realism, Italo Calvino, Shakespeare or Dickens, then… ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/59 "2006-03-16T17:22:14Z")
What is “interesting” about not being interested in something? If you dislike LOTR & let us know why, you may get many arguments here. But that’s your opinion. If you are enthusiastic about something else–let us know! There’s a current thread about “Friends.” I never saw an episode & don’t plan to. But I’m not posting there. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294/60 "2006-03-16T18:00:39Z")
What Exit? wrote: “That is one of the failings of trying to make the books into movies. It was hard to show how heroic Frodo was in accomplishing the quest. He was also a very atypical hero as he did it without magic or a strong sword arm and in the end he would have failed if he had not earlier shown mercy to Sméagol/Gollum. Believe it or not Tolkien created a central hero that has rarely been seen before or since, especially in a Fantasy or Adventure story.” Agreed!! I would have tried, but I couldn’t have said it better myself. Though many fans believe Sam to be the “real” hero of the story, after many re-readings, for me it’s Frodo. Back to the OP - I’m one of those that doesn’t quite understand the reason for your question, other than your curiosity, I guess. While I’m obviously a LOTR geek, Narnia bored me (only managed one of the books) as did Star Wars after the original movie (the 2nd two movies, I mean; I haven’t bothered with the prequels). But - really - to each their own. Why then do I sense such reverse snobbery about Tolkien? Do people now have more hipster or indie cred or intellectual points if they haven’t read the books or seen the films? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-the-only-one-who-never-read-or-watched-any-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-saga/348294.md?page=4)