About This Site
This site exists for several reasons. Admiration, inspiration and the mere desire to celebrate a masterpiece.
I have been criticized for calling myself a "Rings Whore" because I have not read every word of the three books. I contest this, highly for several reasons. The fact that I learned about this classic story through Peter Jackson's films is not a fact that I am ashamed of. On the contrary, I believe that making such a classic into a motion picture trilogy has allowed millions of people to be aware that such great works by J.R.R. Tolkien exist. I am proud to be one of those people.
As I've implied on the front page, I do not like The Lord of the Rings because of Orlando's pretty face or Elijah's tooth gap. I like The Lord of the Rings as a story, which I respect as a great literary work, perhaps one of the greatest of all time.
The movies caused myself and millions like me to gain interest in something we might otherwise have overlooked. And as you sit there rolling your eyes thinking "This bitch has never picked up a book in her life," you might want to guess again.
Like everything, there is a history. The actors in the films all had their memories of first hearing about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien whether they actually read them or not. I too, have my history.
I used to love to read. I started reading children's books at age three and I read everything I could get my hands on. My favorite books included Heidi, Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland and everything by Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary. I was around ten when my father (an avid reader, we're talking a book a week here despite the fact he is a busy corporate executive) came to me one day and said he was reading a book he thought I might like. The book contained lots of interesting creatures and a wizard. The main character was a creature called a hobbit, thus that was the book's title, The Hobbit . I was interested and began to read about a little creature by the name of Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo went on a journey and found a ring left by some weird creature that lived in a cave called Gollum. Gollum said "precious" a lot and used lots of s's at the end of words. Somewhere I picked up the information that Bilbo had a nephew named Frodo... and that's all I knew. I put the book down and never picked it up again. To this day, I am not sure why, it's not that I didn't like it, I just never finished it. I do remember getting at least half way through.
I heard people talk about The Lord of the Rings. It was a sequel to The Hobbit. But it wasn't about Bilbo, rather, it was about his nephew, Frodo. This annoyed me. I don't know why, but I didn't understand how we went from Bilbo on a journey to Frodo dealing with rings. By this time I was being forced to read the likes of Ayn Rand (along with 3 other grueling and horribly boring novels at once), thus I was disgusted with literature and gave up my reading habit.
Fast forward to December, 2001. When I sat down to see The Fellowship of the Ring all I knew was what I'd read from The Hobbit and what I'd learned from hearsay about the books. And just like the rest of the world, I was in awe of the movie, in love with the characters and couldn't wait for the next film to come out.
After The Two Towers came out in 2002, I decided I needed to know more about the story itself. I had many questions that, granted, could not be answered by the films alone. I read went online and viewed several sites that allowed me to identify all the names of the characters, places and their significance to the story. After a few months, I found myself very familiar with Middle Earth and its inhabitants. There was a lot of homework to do, but by the release of The Return of the King There was virtually nothing I didn't know about the story... but I still hadn't read the books.
This fact still pisses off some loyal Tolkien fans. They don't think that someone can know anything about the story if they haven't read the books. Try telling that to Elijah Wood. The point is, if you know the story, and love the characters and spirit they possess, you are still a fan. If you understand the point and lessons of the story and how they pertain to the world, our real world, then you more or less "get" it without having to read every word printed in the text.
But WHY haven't I read the books. Well one reason is that I don't feel that I absolutely need to read through the excruciating minutiae of every single detail in Middle Earth! I know I love the story and even know what was and was not included in the films. I don't think I have to explain myself to the general public, but ideally I guess I should. I think that the only ones who know more about the actual story are the ones who read it. I am not a fly-by-night fan of this trilogy, only there to whine and swoon over the boys in the cast. I understand its significance and know its worth. I don't deny Tolkien's genius talent - nor do I deny Peter Jackson's.
It's a fact that there are many people who still don't know all the names of the characters because they've only seen the movies once and it's not all that important to them. I certainly don't fall into that category. However, I also don't fall into the category of those who live by Tolkien's works as if they were some sort of religion. I've out grown my geeky reading days and don't choose to re-live them. If that makes me an illiterate, so be it.
Why do I get the feeling that you still aren't understanding me? Here is an excerpt of a letter which I wrote in response to a reader who assumed I knew nothing about the story and only wanted to fuck the actors (she didn't put it that way, but it was implied :)) How could I call myself a "Rings Whore" if I just sat on my ass and watched 9 hours of an elaborate work of fan fiction? (well she didn't exactly put it that way, either but she DID call the Trilogy "fan fiction"... the rest of us call it a masterpiece, but what do we know, right? loll) Anyway, here is what I wrote...
"...did you ever think, that when any of us produce anything Tolkien- related that we are not mercilessly changing the story, but rather adding to it and celebrating it? How many people have been inspired to write because of the sudden popularity of Tolkien due to the release of the movies? I've read fan fiction in every form, some good, some pretty crappy, but it's all works of imagination and art. In art there is no "right or wrong" there is no proper answer to the equation. We all have a part in this classic whether we have read each word written by the Professor himself or whether we have acted out, written or merely fantasized a moment into the alternative world of Middle Earth. So yes, I am a Rings Whore, in the very definition of the phrase. Perhaps it applies not only because I can tell the difference between Ithilian and Osgiliath, Rohan and Gondor or Rivendell and Lothlorien, but because I am a product of a fan who has learned about the story through the films and not the books. I've learned about a classic through a multi-million dollar media production, rather than studying it at a University. I think a cheap term like "Whore" applies to that, and yet I am not ashamed. I don't segregate people or races, nor do I segregate fans of The Lord of the Rings. A character named Scout in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird once said "I think there's only one kind of folks, and that's folks" I think there's really only one kind of Lord of the Rings fans - Lord of the Rings fans. I don't discriminate from having read the books, having not read the books, writing good or bad fan fiction, who's met and slept with which cast member and who hasn't. If you like LOTR in some form, you like it in some form. I sincerely doubt I'd fail an extensive quiz on the story either, by the way, but that's beside the point. (I know more about LOTR as a STORY than I do about the likes and dislikes of the all too highly marketed boys in the cast) Do I know Frodo's parents' names? Yes. Do I know who Glorfindel and Celebrian are? Yes. Do I care? Kind of. But the movies are still my inspiration for my site and my fandom. But this doesn't mean I haven't done research on Professor Tolkien's work or even read some of it... So, in short, you've misjudged me, which is a pity, but not really a concern of mine."

Cool, huh? Almost like one of Dan Abram's rebuttal segments.
Are you still lost, ok, well I hope you made it down here because again, like Dan Abrams, I have a closing argument...
I will like Lord of the Rings the way I want to like it, not the way anyone else wants me to like it. Not only that, it is my business if I want to write stories about the characters fucking or if I have or have not read every word of the books. It is MY business what I do or say or how I choose to present the site. Who really gives a fuck? It's a goddamn story for fuck's sake. It's not like I'm altering the fucking Universe. No one has to read this site if they don't want, so if you don't like it, quite simply, fuck the hell off.
And if you DO like this site - Mae govannen, mellon nin! Please stay a while and entertain yourself with my version of Middle Earth. Because, let's face it, we all have our own version of Middle Earth right in our heads. The story means something special to all of us, maybe not for all the same reasons, but it has a place in our hearts. It allows us to imagine, create and put ourselves in a different time and place which is different from the world we live in today. And for a lot of us, that's why we love The Lord of the Rings .


Suicide Queen's Ring Whores