C3PX said:
I have always felt that Stephen King is a bit of a prat. His works are way over rated, it pains me how many serious literature teachers consider this guy the next Shakespeare. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I'd hesitate to call anyones opinion stupid just because I disagreed with it. Many people feel Lord of the Rings is a masterpiece and that the Silmarillion is just a shadow of what it was meant to be, an unfinished work never finished by its creator. I believe had the Silmarillion been finished by Tolkien and published while the author still lived, it would not recieve such harsh criticism.

I certainly think King's work is overrated. And I sure don't like to hear that he ran down the greatest fantasy fiction book (I wouldn't call it a novel precisely) of all time. Seriously, if people don't respect the Silmarillion then that's sad, tragic even. It's a beautiful noble work that truly captures the spirit of the ancient literature and heroics Tolkien was inspired by. It far more successfuly captures that spirit than LOTR, let alone the Hobbit. It's also a far more daring work, because it dares to stray farther from the narrative conventions of more modern literature. which is undoubtably why some people fail to appreciate it. You have to be flexible to appreciate the Silmarillion, because it doesn't play by the rules of modern fiction. I think you need to appreciate the Simarillion to understand Tolkien's work. After all, to him it was the most important of his works. LOTR and The Hobbit are Tolkien Lite. The Silmarillion is the real thing.