> into a voluntary choice which validates it

Yeah, I get it, people feel like you wanting to improve yourself means you're putting them down (since it's in human nature to be competitive). Or that you are too egotistical and should stay in your lane. So I guess not reading books might come from having a closed mind which could be solved by reading. It's a closed cycle. I wonder what would force such a person to get out of it and try to learn instead of using ignorance as a shield.

You should stop thinking of random things that words call to mind and read the actual meaning of them. If you're just trolling then please leave, I want an honest discussion.

I hope it's a good lesson to you that succinctness is in no way superior to clarity. Just to be fair, your long winded sentences are neither. I would highly recommend reading beyond the range of classics and getting outside your safe space.

Hey, listen, everytime someone asks hard or uncomfortable questions, they are bound to come off as something to someone. I'm interested to know which part sounded arrogant to you personally? I don't feel elitist for reading, on the contrary, I'm praising how approachable reading is to people in any circumstances.

Thanks for the advice. I do realise that mental training might be somewhat dangerous if pushed too far, precisely because our brain conveys the reality to us. I do something I call conscious resting (similar to meditating, but less restrictive, you can open your eyes and basically do nothing, allowing you brain to rest from registering physical surroundings and allowing it to naturally flow to any thoughts it likes, without any outside stimulation).

I agree. Never said Tolkien achieved that, just explained why he didn't. I don't think it's even possible to be honest. Just put two people in a room and you could keep writing forever about what defines their lives.

It's amazing how many contradictions and polysemous statements you've made in your overly succinct reply. You didn't have attention span to finish reading the post, but you persist on dismissing my opinion just to replace it with your own (self-righteousness indeed). So my brain is demaged because I want to improve? And on top of that I had a harsh childhood? You're being a psychic at this point (not a good one, but...). Btw, I don't need to write succintly, because it's not a book. The main goal is to paint a clear enough picture for anyone to understand, since I want an objective discussion. Your opinion is always welcome, and was quite refreshing, thanks!

Yeah, it's just much harder to come up with an attractive story without hacking into people's biological needs. Also, much of the blame falls on readers, since often authors are just trying to survive by leaning more on the commercial side rather than artistic.

That's a great viewpoint, thank you. It's the exact reason I'm asking - to get an objective feel for it. I was blessed with having a linguistic educator for a parent and have been reading as early as I can remember. Environment is definitely an important factor, but now I'm wondering whether thirst for knowledge is inborn or passed on to intentionally.

I'm not saying that not having a degree is a bad thing, or has any indication of person's intelligence. Honestly, I did not learn even a fraction in college of what I learned after it, by my own choices of educational direction and pure interest in various fields. But from experience, the people I know who haven't studied, often are bit touchy about the subject. For one, I thought I was worse than someone with a degree, before I got one. I guess it comes from having no experience with higher education first hand.

Currently I'm finishing The Return of the King (huge fan of the movies too). I do sometimes find the prose lackluster but not in a literary sense - more like it's not in alignment with my expectations of fiction in the context of current times. I want to dive deeper into characters' psyche and emotions etc. But you have to read it with knowledge of it's original release date.

Also, because you have seen the movies, you know how expansive and immersive this world is. Now try writing about this amazing world, encapsulating one specific story within it. Or try writing about our world and capture all of its intricacies. Wouldn't be easy, right? I'm just happy Tolkien managed to somehow describe it, maybe not in the most easily available or modern way (for obvious reasons), but he put this world in our heads, where it kept expanding further on. That's another reason why it seems to lack something - seeing the movies, we have let our imagination run wild as if we already lived in this world. So when the author doesn't describe this exact feeling/ connection that we have with it, something seems off.

Also, I would argue that Tolkien's old-school grand/ melodic writing is the actual source of the Middle Earth's atmosphere and it was written like this completely on purpose. What you have seen in the movies, is the vision that Tolkien showed to it's producers, through these exact words. Author took his world seriously and so did the reader.