[Dininziliel]

Well, I feel a mite cheeky inserting myself into a discussion surrounded by brilliant erudition, but this combination psych and English major will offer some thoughts nevertheless. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

It seems to me that the best and most exciting scholars it has been my privilege to know (none being widely famous to my knowledge) are those who would respond to G.B. Shaw's famous bon mot in a rather Tom Bombadil kind of way--deeply amused but a tad puzzled over all the serious hubbub. There are many in upper academia who are indeed there because they are clever rather than honest, because they cannot teach but merely tell. They fear that, like the emperor in his new clothes, their insecurity and need for validation will be revealed. The best scholars are those who fearlessly and socratically pursue the joy of discovery and truth. Lesser scholars are usually invested in the hollow holiness of existential "realism" and therefore cling to the safety of various movements and stylistic flavors of snobbery.

Regarding the teaching of Tolkien in university & college classrooms--that phrase itself is all I need to discourage me. I doubt that one can "teach" Tolkien or other great authors. However, that has never prevented the dessication of Melville, Eliot, and Shakespeare. Perhaps British/American Lit 101 is the threshing floor for the truly great with Fitzgerald and Joyce (and Shakespeare, of course!) managing to withstand the most didactic approaches. (Thank goodness for Samuel Beckett who seems to defy all such attempts!) But how many potential lovers of literature have been put off it by the putoffingness of the method? Perhaps it is the classroom itself that needs to change. Economic forces may soon accomplish great change, but not for the better.

Tolkien was "taught" at university when I first entered in 1971. It was above my level then. But I can think of some of my then future professors who could have brought ME alive and some who would have gutted it like a fish ("He who overanalyzes a thing breaks it" kind of approach.)

On the whole, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Tolkien is neither legitimized nor defamed by the scholarly community for me, nor does it seem to be for other Barrows folk on this thread. But I suspect that, that is because we are among those who can thrive within the system because of our grasp on learning and the love of it. Until the entire system has been overhauled to embody the epitome of higher learning, as it was classically intended to be, I'd just as soon the popular majority of ivory raisins leave Tolkien's towers alone so that others can discover them and follow them wherever they are led.

Has anyone here entered the Barrows because they studied Tolkien at university/college? I'm not saying universities will kill Tolkien's star, just diminish it and make the path it illuminates fainter and a lot longer.

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I, too, would like to know more about "The Other." And, I am hoping it is because my mind is dulled with the need for sleep, but I also need more clarification regarding the relationship of gated communities, metaphorical and otherwise, to this thread.

I greatly enjoy my wee barrow because of its proximity to the quality of scholarship and expression I encounter. Thank you, everyone! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]