Cinematic Scripture: The Structure and Usage of The Lord of the Rings as Equipment for Living (07.11.09 by Pieter Collier) - Comments

Once in a while one finds a book that seems to be talking about the Lord of the Rings, you had not noticed it before, and when you find it you doubt if it was a good thing that it surfaced.

Here is a book that is called Cinematic Scripture: The Structure and Usage of The Lord of the Rings as Equipment for Living and was published in May 2009 by VDM Verlag.

Now I'm wondering what this book is all about and whether it would be good to read. Maybe some of you who already read it can sent me a review?

If I'm correct this is a thesis (M.A.) by Brent Yergensen -Eastern Illinois University, 2006 - that now has been released by VDM, who in the past released several other Tolkien titles, like for example Projecting tolkien's Musical Worlds - A Study of Musical Affect in Howard Shore's Soundtrack to Lord of the Rings by Matthew Young and Roots of Middle-Earth Seeds of Fantasy by Krisztina Sebok. Both those books were very nice and so maybe this new one is also ok?

The product description goes as follows:
"Film has the capacity to function as cinematic scripture for Christian audiences. Cinematic scripture means that films are authoritative for audiences in the same way as written scripture. In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, this new form of scripture works as equipment for living by being interpreted by Christian audiences as a call to go to war against evil through the structure of the films biblical themes of bifurcation, redemption, and millennialism. These fantasy themes culminate in a rhetorical vision of war that emerges when Christian bloggers describe how they use the films. From the usage of The Lord of the Rings, two functions of this example of cinematic scripture surface: the films are canonical, and they are militant. Because the films are militant, they foster zealously nationalistic attitudes at the expense of prophetic realism."

When I read this description I find that there are being made a lot of conclusion that I cannot follow that easily. Still, some people might share similar ideas and maybe all together this book could proof an interesting read.

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