While Gilgamesh, the Illiad,
the Odyssey, and other earlier
day-and-night origin myths--
even ones as late as the Aeneid
and Paradise Lost--are sincere,
artistic, primitive explanations
of the mysterious when little
else was at hand, but held up
to them, The Lord of the Rings,
written in the 20th century,
seems to me retro, antiquarian,
not freshly imaginative enough,
too occupied with ground already
covered, and lacking in more
realistic, up-to-date international
principles of conduct to be
considered seriously for an Oscar,
not matter how much assisted
by computers or mind-numbing
the box office returns.
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Rio:
A Journal of the Arts