THE FANTASTIC AS REAL

[icernet-admin at listserv.cddc.vt.edu]

It is extraordinary that at the end of a typical Oscar awards ceremony - a
familiar and meretricious mix of giggle and glamour - the enduring image
should be that of an Oxford don who specialised in Old and Middle English.
The moment may have belonged to Kiwi director Peter Jackson, whose highly
praised The Lord of the Rings (Return of the King) took home 11 golden
statuettes thereby tying with Ben Hur and Titanic to become the three most
honoured films in Oscar history. But in many ways the time belongs to John
Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), whose fabulist tales of hobbits, orcs,
wizards, elves and other fantastic creatures that populate an invented
universe with its own history, genealogy and topography continue to
captivate a worldwide audience many decades after they were written.

Source:
http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/03/stories/2004030301371000.htm