So, the Tolkien Estate is making it as clear as possible (which is pretty clear) that they do not support, endorse, or approve of the forthcoming Tolkien biopic, due out in a few more weeks:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/tolkien-estate-disavows-forthcoming-film-starring-nicholas-hoult
--John R., who will be seeing it in a room full of Tolkienists. Luckily I don't expect a replay of the time I was present when the Tolkien Society's London smial saw the Rankin-Bass HOBBIT for the first time (around 1985 I think), where I came in for a good deal of blame for being a fellow American of the folks who made it ('Your lot did it!').
It's been interesting to read your reflections and memories of Jared, as they brought back many of my own memories of him. He was one of the first "larger than life" characters that I met at WisCon...literate, opinionated, an animated speaker, and certainly quite willing to dominate a conversation for however long he could get away with it. Thinking back on him, there is a certain sense of tragedy that comes to mind. Jared was a man of enormous intellectual gifts who never seemed to be able to realize much or any of his potential. Certainly some of that was related to the self-destructive tendencies that you and I both observed first-hand.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the posts about him; I don't know that I would have known of his passing otherwise. For a period of time, he was part of my life in Madison...a part that I have many fond memories of.
Thanks for the comments, Matt. It's good to feel that I didn't entirely get it wrong --which I worried about, given how many-faceted a person Jared was.
ReplyDelete--John R.
In those days it seems many in UK Tolkien fandom thought themselves above the perceived "ignorance" and "boorishness" of the American fans (not to mention the fact that US fans back then were often hippie left-wingers!). How times change.
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