Is he overrated?

Sort of. In the context of genre fiction he entirely deserves his praise for re-inventing the modern interpretation of fantasy.

That said, The Hobbit is the only one that stands the test of time for it's purely literary merits. The writing for LotR/Silmarillion/etc are less literary and more of a platform for Tolkien to flesh out his fictional languages, being a philologist. I don't mean that as a rejection of Tolkien (again, he's important), just that it becomes more obvious over time where his faults lay.

He's kind of the spiritual successor to Chesterton, and succeeded in transmitting a lot of medievalist/distributist/reactionary ideas to a lot of people very subtly.

Moorcock isn't wrong to dislike Tolkien on intellectual grounds; or, rather, he's right to suspect that in LOTR Tolkien is advancing a broad philosophy diametrically opposed to Moorcock's own.

>>9985236
Within fantasy he's of course one of the best, but fantasy is ultimately a pretty small field compared to literature in genetal. He certainly doesn't merit all the tomes of analysis and reference material people have written about LotR, or for it to be declared Britain's Favorite Novel

>>9985236
underrated. lotr is best book of the century along with finnegans wake

The only thing that's overrated is what other people derived from his work, including the movie adaptions.
His works may not be high literature on a technical level, but his approach to fantasy literature marked an important change for the genre and in terms of worldbuilding nothing has even come close to middle-earth, aside from maybe Frank Herbert's Dune.

>>9985275
Moorcock mostly bashes Tolkien for not using purple prose and his essay "The epic Pooh" is just embarrassing considering how much pulp trash Moorcock himself has written. After reading that I lost a lot of respect for him even though I really like some of his novels.

>I like the rambley bits and the Tom Bombadil stuff more than the main narrative
What do

>>9985472
Tolkien liked those things too.

>>9985472
I like that the Bombadil stuff is still largely unexplained. Helps give the whole franchise a greater sense of mystery.

>>9985493
Yeah the mystery aspect and the nature of his character is very appealing to me - the same with The Istari

The Hobbit is the only one of the books that stand on its own. LotR is better as a film, and the rest is shit.

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>>9985619
>LotR is better as a film

If you happen to be a brainlet, I suppose it is.

>>9985472
Go listen to some Robbie Basho: https://youtu.be/8Ezp0WMTAzc

>>9985325
Favourite is not the same as best. Potentially any book can deserve to be a favourite as unlike measures of genuine greatness it is entirely subjective.

I want him in me.

>>9985236 (OP)
No. He singlehandedly created one of the most influential and popular fictional universes of all time, while bridging the gap between advanced academic subjects and fairy tales. His accomplishment is so substantial that I even overlook his religious faith, which would normally make me view someone as having low intellect.

A cut above more like. Postchristian in the best possible way- ecologically minded, careful thinker but still intuitive, not a pedo. One to be retained among Euro lit imo

>>9985236
underrated in terms of artistic talent due to the films being massive plebbait

>>9985236
Nope if anything he's underated. Let's be honest most people only watched the movies.

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>>9985236
greatest book Tolkien ever wrote no challenge

>>9985236
I think he's rated about right. Like the first poster said his work really re-defined what it meant to write fantasy. Later fantasy writers have had better ways with words or have conveyed traditional Christian themes and created original worlds with more literary flair but Tolkien deserves his reputation as a game-changer. If anything the other big fantasy writers of the time are underrated. Eddison deserves more recognition for Ouroboros.

I think that Gene Wolfe is a much better writer and Catholic apologist/propagandist but even then what he does isn't exactly what Tolkien did.

>>9985236
I think his influence on modern fantasy is actually overstated. There was a period in the 80s and 90s where he was an overwhelming influence, but there are other sources of "deep influence" in fantasy like the pulp adventures and weird fiction.

On his own merit though, he isn't overrated at all. Fuck, I need to re-read LOTR.

>>9986014
you dropped your fedora

>>9985907
Love Basho and the American Primitivism stuff in general