Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lush
These feelings are not born of any rational assessment of Tolkien's works, however, which makes me think that what I'm really longing for is that time I first sat down and read the book; how overwhelmed and excited I was, both by the events in the narrative and events going on around me, what a happy and confusing time it was for me, what great fun I had along the way.
Perhaps satisfaction is the wrong word for what I'm seeking. It's something more along the lines of reassurance; the idea that all things I love will continue to live on in one form or another.
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I think
Lush, as so often, is on to something important here, that Tolkien has tapped into an essential element of the reading experience. Reading helps children, teens, adults, experience things which need to be experienced, but often cannot in our world. We need for our psychic development/health situations of abandonment, solitude, fear, to negotiate our way. We need the forest, the Tardis, the Quest, something bigger on the inside than the outside.
Tolkien gives us preeminently the experience of story and it is that experience which is essential to the human condition.