Has anyone else sensed this?

[Churl]

I'm willing to bet that most of us want the movies to succeed. What's more, we knew that The Lord of the Rings has been read by tens (hundreds?) of millions of people worldwide.

Despite all that, though, does anyone else find it strange to hear so much Tolkien talk in the mass media?

I don't even mean the marketing/tie-in avalanche … I'm talking about the brief blurbs that mention Rings on CNN, Fox News, E!, etc.

I mean, we knew this mass exposure was coming, but it just seems weird to hear international news anchors talking about Rings, and to hear it mentioned in entertainment shows that are otherwise the domain of celebrity gossip and Hollywood hype.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying this is good or bad, just … strange.

[anduin]

Very strange, and I no longer feel special.

[Churl]

My sister went through something similar a few years ago.

She had been fascinated by the history of the Titanic long before the James Cameron movie was released, and even before the ship's discovery by Robert Ballard's exploration team in 1985.

Then, after years of being a rather obscure interest, the Titanic suddenly became the biggest pop-culture phenomenon around when the movie was released.

My sister looked at it two ways: one one hand, she and like-minded buffs were mildly (often humorously) annoyed by the newbies and dilettantes who thought themselves instant Titanic "experts." On the other hand, though, she was glad that more people were learning about an interesting piece of history.

We're going through something similar with the release of the Rings films. How does everyone else feel about the "mainstreaming" of Tolkien?

[mirrille]

I don't think there is anything bad about the exposure it's getting. What it means is that I'm finding alot of my friends moving the books up the priority list of books they have to read. And alot of them are finding that they like it, some of them people that I never thought would be into that sort of thing. It's great! It's one more thing that I can have in common with my friends now.

[XRogue]

I feel glad that it's getting noticed. HOWEVER, if I hear the phrase "Tolkien Geek" one more time..........

Seriously, I'm glad people are taking notice for the (Some of them) first time. My mother is reading the books and wanted to know why I didn't make her read LOTR long ago.
I have wanted to see this visually for a long time. I'm happy about it and will do my best to bite my tongue and educate people about reading the books now they've seen it and so on.

[Desdemona]

I have mixed feeling about the tremendous amount of exposure LotR has received over the past months - especially these last several weeks. I like the exposure on one hand, because I want as many people as possible to love these books as much as I do, but the cheesiness factor and the misinformation drives me crazy.

I was in BK the other night (only because it was one of those crazy nights where everyone had a game at a different gym at a different time - I swear! ) and someone was explaining who Arwen was to their child by using the blurb on the goblet box as a guide and I wanted to beat them over the head with the thing!

I have enjoyed reading the better articles and I've really enjoyed talking Tolkien with people from all over the world via the internet for the past two years, though. It's nice to know that Tolkien has touched so many lives in such a positive way.