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JRR Tolkien: 'I Never Expected a Money Success'

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday October 28 2015, @10:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the one-ring-to-rule-them-all dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

"I never expected a money success," said Tolkien, pacing the room, as he does constantly when he speaks. "In fact, I never even thought of commercial publication when I wrote The Hobbit back in the Thirties.

"It all began when I was reading exam papers to earn a bit of extra money. That was agony. One of the tragedies of the underpaid professor is that he has to do menial jobs. He is expected to maintain a certain position and to send his children to good schools. Well, one day I came to a blank page in an exam book and I scribbled on it. 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

The piece is a pleasant read about the greatest fantasy writer of all time.

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  • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Thursday October 29 2015, @02:21AM

    by jdavidb (5690) on Thursday October 29 2015, @02:21AM (#255856) Homepage Journal

    I don't quite understand why people are so hung up about copyright law,

    I just don't believe it's a natural right. I think people have the right to do what they want with their property, and if I arrange my bits or atoms in a way that looks like one of your ideas or a collection of your bits or atoms, I don't think that grants you rights to prevent my configuration of bits or atoms.

    There, now I've explained it to you, and you understand!

    except as a holdover from their college days when they had no money but still considered it their right to download whatever music, movies, and e-books they wanted.

    Actually, I had more spending money back then than I do now. And I was more scrupulous about copyright law, too.

    --
    ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2015, @02:27AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2015, @02:27AM (#255860)

    Well, you can make similar arguments about the NSA surveillance, or your doctor or pharmacist selling your medical history or whatever. It's all just deez bits.

    Law is more useful and subtle than that. We don't just stop when someone blurts out, everyone should be able to do whatever they want, or something like that.

    • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Thursday October 29 2015, @01:16PM

      by jdavidb (5690) on Thursday October 29 2015, @01:16PM (#255996) Homepage Journal
      The thing about the NSA surveillance is it was all funded with massive amounts of stolen money. I'd be fine with private individuals collecting what information they can collect with their own funding.
      --
      ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings