Feeling a need to defend myself... Aiwendil said,
Quote:
|
I disagree with your distinction between "deep literary themes" on the one hand and "entertainment" on the other. Let us probe the meaning of the first term. If by "deep literary themes" you mean some underlying message or purpose in the work beyond the story as such, then you are speaking of allegory.
|
When I said themes, I wasn't at all referring to allegorical content, but to the sorts of qualities that tifo-gcs and mark12_30 have been discussing; qualities that run through the work, such as the opposition between despair and hope, loyalty and treason. I am quite familiar with what the Professor had to say about allegory, yet I must contend that if looking for underlying emphases in the work is allegorical, then, I'm guilty as charged. But fortunately, I don't think that's what either you or Tolkien meant by allegory, my apologies for expressing myself badly last time. Catharsis, was another term Aiwendil objected to my use of, I was using it, as it had been used in a previous post, which my post was responding to. I believe the word has been brought in on the Eucatastrophe thread as well, in the same spirit, referring to an emotional reaction to the text.
Quote:
|
Tolkien moralizes, and asks us to suspend our disbelief, and preaches (silently) about God, and gives us larger-than-life heroes whos faults are not adultery or embezzling or treason. And he's twentieth century! Where's the scandal? Where's the intrigue? Where's the disgrace? How can this be serious stuff? It's all far, far too virtuous to be taken seriously.
|
I hope this is not true-- but I'm afraid it is. I remember as far back as my junior high english classes hearing about the necessity of flawed characters and "human" protagonists (meaning hard to tell if they're acutally the good guys...) This has a place, but other approaches should have a place as well.
Bethberry I'm looking forward to the thread on the Other-- will be there! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
And finally, as a sidenote to this thread, I just turned in (as a Undergrad Philosophy student) a paper for Ethics on Aesthetics in Tolkien, related to the function of the eucatastrophe. We'll see how that goes... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]
I'm pressed for time, sorry about the disorganization of this post.
Sophia
[ April 15, 2003: Message edited by: Sophia the Thunder Mistress ]