{"id":3986,"date":"2011-01-03T19:42:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T19:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/01\/happy-birthday-professor-tolkien.html"},"modified":"2011-01-03T19:42:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-03T19:42:00","slug":"happy-birthday-professor-tolkien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/01\/happy-birthday-professor-tolkien.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Professor Tolkien!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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I can\u2019t believe I almost forgot J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s birthday.\u00a0 He would have been 119.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into detail, except to say I\u2019ve never been much of a fantasy or sci-fiction fan, but his masterpiece The Lord of the Rings<\/em> still ranks as one of my favorites.\u00a0 I try to read at least one of the three books every year (always starting in September of course).\u00a0 His works are loved by many, and like anything, disliked by others.\u00a0 But few try to dismiss the influence he had on fantasy in particular and fiction in general.\u00a0 A work of such magnitude, by a man so brilliant in his field and yet possessing that rarest of qualities in so many academic settings \u2013 common sense and wisdom \u2013 molded a tale that is wonderful on more levels than I can grasp.\u00a0 The films, cartoons, animated specials all have their own visions of what he wrote, and each has good and bad.\u00a0 But there is nothing to compare with his magnum opus, a story that makes other popular fantasy literature seem like pale reflections at best.\u00a0\u00a0 So for the influence, the enjoyment, and the sheer depth of the literary undertaking that stands almost as its own genre, thanks for everything!\u00a0 And Happy Eleventy-Ninth Birthday<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t believe I almost forgot J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s birthday.\u00a0 He would have been 119.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into detail, except to say I\u2019ve never been much of a fantasy or sci-fiction fan, but his masterpiece The Lord of the Rings still ranks as one of my favorites.\u00a0 I try to read at least one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHappy Birthday Professor Tolkien!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I can't believe I almost forgot J.R.R. 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