I just want to make it perfectly clear that my one and only objective was to lay all of the cards on the table. There is nothing worse or more divisive than something left unsaid. As painful as it is to talk about these things, it is far worse to let them fester.
Hmmmmmm.......I don't know if you meant it that way, but it sounds as if you're equating discussing Tolkien with analyzing the movies.
No I didn't mean it that way. If there is anyone that knows I can't write worth a damn it is you (and Prim).
Way back in '96 when I first had an internet connection, one of the first things I searched for was Tolkien sites. I obviously loved his works and wanted to "delve deeper" if I could.
However regardless of my love, Tolkien and his works were for all intents and purposes, a finite issue. Meaning he was dead and was not currently writing anything new. I read what I could though. Still for me it wasn't a bottomless pit of info. I am in no way a scholar lest it be rock and roll or a pretty face.
Then the movie talk came along. That changed everything. Surely I was as much of an expert on Tolkien as the next guy/gal. Well I was dead wrong about that, but still there was loads of new things to discuss.
A whole new world opened up.
Four days or so from now will be my 5th anniversary of joining TORC. I spent some years pre-movies discussing what may be, and some years post movies discussing what was.
Well for better or worse that aspect is over with. Like Tolkien, there is no more new material regarding the movies. Again I am at a point where unless I turn to some scholarly interests in Tolkien, the road is coming to an end.
Sure there will always be some interest for me, but certainly not enough to keep me as entertained as I had been. I have reached some sort of end. Or maybe stasis is a better word, but after guzzling beer there is no way I can work that into a coherent sentence.
How many here are going to take the Tolkien scholar route? How much board wide interest is there?
Anyway, so what is next?
Well on TORC in the last year or so of my existence there I found sort of a new niche. I started meeting new people. Some incredible people. People that have changed my life forever. That isn't just flowery prose, that is a fact.
I kind of took the same attitude or appraoch here. I am still amazed at the incredible people I run across.
One of the most endearing aspects of this board for me is the meshing of the once sundered people. I truly enjoy the fact that I can now post with former RP'ers, Manweites
, etc. It has been great!
This is more than enough to sustain me. However is that and the Tolkien discourse enough to sustain this board? Is that what people here want?
That is my question.
Do we have enough direction? Is there enough interest to sustain a viable messageboard? Is the topic going to turn too many people off?
I sometimes lurk on a site called Kevin's Watch. It is a site related to the works of Stephen R Donaldson, writer of The Thomas Covenent Chronicles. He has been writing this story for 30 years or so, and is now attempting to complete it. There is also talk of a potential movie in the future. This place is a breeding ground much like TORC was. This place will take off big time if the movies are ever made.
There are more than 1300 posters and a quarter million articles there. The place is as quiet as a church mouse.
What is sustaining it is the new books coming out and the potential movies. What is going to sustain the interest here?
Tolkien will always be a matter of some import. Is it enough matter?
Does it really matter?
Again I am already fulfilled. For now.
Will it last? Is there an alternative? Is this direction ok with the people here? Is it indeed a direction?
Well 'Beth sweetheart, I guess that is what I was trying to say.
You should know better than to give me an opening.
Luv ya baby.