The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Are There Any Valid Criticisms? (aka Kalessin's Rant)

Child of the 7th Age · 04-10-2002, 01:02 PM

Littlemanpoet--This is Child of the 7th Age. A fast referral to my name. I am only aware of one reference so it is probably the same one you were thinking of. Letter 211 written in 1958 has a footnote where Tolkien says we are probably at the end of the Sixth Age or in the Seventh because it is likely that the Ages have quickened since the Second and Third Age. Now that we have spilled over into the 21st century and the electronic world, I feel justified to think of ourselves as inhabitants of the seventh age. I'm not aware of any other specific references to the seventh age, although there are certainly references to the very end of time, both in Tolkien's writings and by someone like Clyde Kilby who spent an extended period with Tolkien towards the end of the writer's life. If you know any other references to the 7th age, please let me know.

About Patrick Curry...he wrote a book in 1997 called Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth, and Modernity. I do not have access to this, but I do have an article Curry wrote which summarizes some of his main ideas. It appears in a recent work that Joseph Pearce edited which is called Tolkien: A Celebration. The article itself is "Modernity in Middle-earth". The author lives in Canada and is an "independent scholar and writer" who previously earned a Ph.d. from the University of London. Curry says Tolkien's work is, at least in part, "a resistence to the contemporary threat to three great goods, nested one inside each oher. He outlines these three goods as Community, exemplified by "the hobbits, social to the ends of their well-brushed toes and firmly rooted in their place, the Shire"; Nature, as seen in the wonders of Middle-earth itself; and Spiritual Values, as refleced in the Sea and the lands beyond the sea. Curry argues that the overwhelming worldwide reception of Tolkien's book--50 million copies sold in 30 languages--shows that Tolien's insights, fears, and hopes in relation to modernity strike a profound cord in all countries and cultures, precisely because of "the global extent of the crisis it addresses." Needless to say, Curry places a lot of emphasis on the Scouring of the Shire and the figure of Sarumen and his discendents and how these mirror our own problems of modernity: development, ecological distruction, the drive for short-term profits, and the fragmentation of society. This sounds quite interesting, but, as I say, I don't have his full book. sharon, the 7th age hobbit

04-10-2002, 01:02 PM	#76
Child of the 7th Age Spirit of the Lonely Star Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 5,133	Littlemanpoet--This is Child of the 7th Age. A fast referral to my name. I am only aware of one reference so it is probably the same one you were thinking of. Letter 211 written in 1958 has a footnote where Tolkien says we are probably at the end of the Sixth Age or in the Seventh because it is likely that the Ages have quickened since the Second and Third Age. Now that we have spilled over into the 21st century and the electronic world, I feel justified to think of ourselves as inhabitants of the seventh age. I'm not aware of any other specific references to the seventh age, although there are certainly references to the very end of time, both in Tolkien's writings and by someone like Clyde Kilby who spent an extended period with Tolkien towards the end of the writer's life. If you know any other references to the 7th age, please let me know. About Patrick Curry...he wrote a book in 1997 called Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth, and Modernity. I do not have access to this, but I do have an article Curry wrote which summarizes some of his main ideas. It appears in a recent work that Joseph Pearce edited which is called Tolkien: A Celebration. The article itself is "Modernity in Middle-earth". The author lives in Canada and is an "independent scholar and writer" who previously earned a Ph.d. from the University of London. Curry says Tolkien's work is, at least in part, "a resistence to the contemporary threat to three great goods, nested one inside each oher. He outlines these three goods as Community, exemplified by "the hobbits, social to the ends of their well-brushed toes and firmly rooted in their place, the Shire"; Nature, as seen in the wonders of Middle-earth itself; and Spiritual Values, as refleced in the Sea and the lands beyond the sea. Curry argues that the overwhelming worldwide reception of Tolkien's book--50 million copies sold in 30 languages--shows that Tolien's insights, fears, and hopes in relation to modernity strike a profound cord in all countries and cultures, precisely because of "the global extent of the crisis it addresses." Needless to say, Curry places a lot of emphasis on the Scouring of the Shire and the figure of Sarumen and his discendents and how these mirror our own problems of modernity: development, ecological distruction, the drive for short-term profits, and the fragmentation of society. This sounds quite interesting, but, as I say, I don't have his full book. sharon, the 7th age hobbit __________________ Multitasking women are never too busy to vote.