From: private@gmx.liechtenstein   
      
   I was thinking the movies have brought tolkien to a wider audience   
   but at the cost of drowning out the type person who may have read the   
   books. In the past, being a fan would mark out you out as someone   
   with particular leanings but in today's democratised geekdom, it has   
   little meaning beyond default participation in contemporary   
   mainstream culture.   
      
   By the way, I dislike the snobbish attitudes and the pseudo academic   
   tendencies of classic tolkien admirers but it's just a shame that you   
   can no longer assume a fellowship with a stranger simply based on   
   their casual reference to middle-earth.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)