Post originally by Bloodcat at 2003-08-24 13:16:52
Converted from Phorums BB System

Actually, plenty of literary critics have bashed LOTR over the years, especially ones from the UK.

My edition of the LOTR trilogy came with a bonus book filled with reviews and essays on the book.

Snobby people really seem to hate LOTR for some reason. But it seems a big part of it is so the snobby British people can bash Americans. (But considering they make French bashing an artform, even on the front page of their major newspapers, I think we can handle it. I can, because I know many of my fellow Americans are morons. Hell, we elected one as our president!)

Heck, Tolkien himself wasn't a fan of his fans.

But in his days, they were a large number of potsmoking hippies anyhow. Which of course could possibly annoy a then 70something year old conservative Catholic for some reason...

But my basic thoughts still stand.

Most geek hobby fanbases SUCK. They take all the joy out of whatever was cool. Either by being a group of mouthbreathing morons, turning it into some creepy sexual fetish, or turning into some friggin lifestyle/religion...

I have the most fun with my gaming and other geeky things by NOT taking it seriously. If I show up to an RPG game and we spend 1 hour gaming and the other 3 shooting the sh!t about anything and everything, I am as happy as a clam. In groups where its all serious and lets play blah blah, I am generally miserable.

Its one reason the Star Wars fandom doesn't irritate me half as much as most other geek fandoms. By and large they don't take it too seriously, and they have a sense of humor about it.

Remember last year when Conan O Brien's Triumph the Insult Comic Dog when to a line party for Attack of the Clones? He was ripping into the crowd, and they were laughing their asses off with him. If they had done similar at say, Gen Con, or an Anime convention, the fans would have been LIVID and probably tried to beat the camera crew and comedian to death with their own shoes!!

Life sucks, have FUN with stuff. And be willing to try something new fer Cthulhu's sake!