Quote:
Originally Posted by Lalaith
The Estate's reaction - over-control to the point of absurdity over the areas it actually can control - therefore becomes more understandable.
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Maybe its just old age.
Not joking - the older one gets the more one seeks control over one's little world. Sad part is that this book (I'm a quarter of the way through, & I admit its growing on me. I like the heroine, Cadence, & every appearance of Tolkien so far has been entirely 'respectful'. The author is clearly a fan. In other words, there is nothing in this book to get het up about & the action makes no sense. Like Wheelbarrows at Dawn its a little book from a small publisher, with not a smidgeon of malice in it & which if left unmentioned would have attained a small readership & then disappeared. All of which makes this action look petty-minded & reflects so badly on CT & the Estate that you just wish there had been someone around to deliver a good slap to the lot of them to try & knock some sense into them.
These incidents have done them no good at all. What is the point in banning a serious work of biography or a minor potboiler which just happens to have Tolkien as a character? Why even stir yourself to bother? This looks like nothing more than a case (as I've pointed up before) of CT/the Estate stomping around, waving a big stick & shouting 'Get orf my land!!!'. Frankly pathetic & they've made themselves a bit of a joke by doing so. Sadly, they've also done harm to a good few writers, which is not funny in the least. They could have displayed a bit of magnanimity & would have looked all the better for it.
Honestly, I can't go along with those who try & present CT/the Estate as the injured party - if you have a friend who's a nice quiet, friendly guy who gets into a punch up you will likely think the other party to blame. If, a few days later you hear he's been in another fight with a different person, you may still give him the benefit of the doubt, but if it goes on, one fight after another, & all with strangers, you will eventually have to stop thinking of him as an unlucky victim of violence & admit that the most likely explanation is that your friend is the one starting the trouble. And to me it looks like the CT/Estate is throwing its weight around - for no other reason than that its got weight to throw. If this kind of behaviour continues their reputation is going to be shot - a literary organisation that gets a reputation for banning books & dragging (or threatening to) other authors through the courts doesn't make friends.
And the result of these actions - even though in some of the cases they've gotten their way (& they may also succeed in getting this author/publisher to back down & give in) has been that some of us who have been their staunchest supporters have lost a lot of respect for them & now see them as litigious bullies. Which is probably not what they intended - I hope. But it does go to demonstrate that sometimes winning your fight can backfire. If they'd let these books alone we'd still feel as positive about them as in the past.