Greg Wright
Registered User
Apr 25 2009, 5:13pm
Views: 74936
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Congrats, and Many Thanks
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On August 20, 2001, Tehanu stumbled across my now rather infamous essay about Tolkien's mythology at Hollywood Jesus and posted a link to it here at TORn. LOTR traffic at Hollywood Jesus exploded, with tons of emails raining down on my inbox... and most of them negative! Two days later, Tehanu had to retract the link to the article with the disclaimer, "I wish I had read through" to the end...
I was relatively new to the Web at the time, and had not yet learned how ill-advised (or rashly provocative) comments can come back to haunt you in a big way; I also had not yet developed into a serious academician, and so had not realized that I was supposed to be a Tolkien "expert"... complete with all the ramifications. I was just a website editor with very specific ideas about Tolkien, and thought I would be merely humored as such. I didn't expect to be translated into Spanish and Swedish, you know!
Thankfully, a great many of TORn's regulars -- Tehanu included -- stuck with me through the development of HJ's vast coverage of Peter Jackson's films, a publishing legacy of which I am very proud, and through the polishing of my ideas (and manners). Tolkien in Perspective, now out of print, was the culmination of that early project, and does fully articulate the thinking behind that early essay. (The last surviving copies are available through HJ Books.)
As my later books came into print, Xoanan was kind enough to give Peter Jackson in Perspective the highest recommendation possible: "A must-read!" The book is still the only comprehensive single-author examination of Jackson's film on the market.
As I hit the convention circuit and entered my "public speaker phase" (nods to Little Big Man here), the ORCs in Pasadena and Burbank have to rank with the best of experiences, as I had the pleasure of finally meeting Tehanu, Xoanon, Altaira, Mr. Cere, and Balin (bless his soul) among many others.
Thanks, all, for dragging me along on your fabulous ride. Congratulations for doing something truly unique, vital... and unforgettable.
(This post was edited by Altaira on Apr 25 2009, 10:04pm)
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