A rare interview with Christopher Tolkien

The French newspaper Le Monde published a rare interview with Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, this past summer, and it is now available in English. Fans of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations might be disappointed in what he has to say; he has some points, though, that I think are worth considering. An excerpt:

Invited to meet Peter Jackson, the Tolkien family preferred not to. Why? “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25,” Christopher says regretfully. “And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film.”

This divorce has been systematically driven by the logic of Hollywood. “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time,” Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. “The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away.”