The Tolkien fanboys get grumpy when I talk about this.
But, at least according to the book “Bandersnatch” (about the Inklings group C.S. Lewis and Tolkien belonged to) probably Lord of the Rings never would have been written if not for C.S. Lewis. And, even if it had been written, it would have been a completely boring, snooze fest just about hobbits sitting talking and eating and drinking and smoking or whatever.
Yes, originally, Tolkien didn’t write it as some kind of War of the Ring story.
In fact, The Ring had nothing to do with it.
(Add he had to retcon The Hobbit later as a result)
And if LOTR had been written at all, it’d been boring as hell.
With no Rings.
No Ringwraiths.
And no real adventure or anything worth reading.
There’d never even be a Lord of the Rings if left to Tolkien’s original ideas for the book. Not to mention no movies, no video games, no Amazon series (not that anyone cares about that show, but still…) and, basically, no multi-billion dollar franchise.
So how did Lewis save Tolkien from his boring ideas?
It’s quite simple, Frodo:
What Lewis told Tolkien was, yes, hobbits were interesting.
But, they were only interesting when they were out of their element and stood in CONTRAST to the other Middle Earth races — humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. It was only then that anyone cared about them. And, I will add, it was only then when the story started getting interesting, and ultimately turned into something people would grow to love and cherish as LOTR fans do.
More:
This advice applies to many beloved franchises.
It’s not unlike the blonde chick (Marilyn) in The Munsters. The Munsters would probably not have been as engaging and popular probably without a human in the mix. And so it was also with the Muppets. It was the human guest each show that made the Muppets stand out and be inherently more interesting. Same with Sesame Street, Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and many other beloved entertainment shows, movies, franchises.
Something to think about.
For something else to think about, go here:
Ben Settle
