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Originally Posted by Fordim
But I daresay that this exotic-Englishness appeals to English readers as well since the England that Tolkien preserved (quite Elvishly, I might add...) in his stories is one that no longer really exists either. So I would argue that every reader of the story exists at least one remove from the English-aura we find there...
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I remember posting some time back that I found it difficult to understand how non English readers related so strongly to LotR, because I personally found so essentially English & getting quite a negative response from some fans in other countries.
It was almost as if they felt that I was attempting to exclude them, say they didn't have a 'right' to Tolkien's work. Needless to say that wasn't the point I was making at all. It just seemed to me that the work was so English that it must seem a bit 'alien' to anyone who had not been born & brought up here.
Clearly that's not the case. Something Flieger said struck me, that the work, because its so essentially English actually becomes 'universal'. I think what she meant was that because Tolkien didn't attempt to produce some kind of 'mid-Atlantic' or pan-European work that tried to appeal to everybody, his work had a kind inner cultural 'unity' (no I'm not sure what I mean by that exactly - I'm struggling here) that makes it seem real. Its not inclusive, politically correct, struggling not to offend anyone so that it will appeal to a mass market (& inevitably appealing to no-one in particular as a result). Its a work with universal appeal precisely because its so English. Its the same with War & Peace, which speaks to all cultures precisely because it is so Russian. These kinds of works reveal our common humanity because they are so particularly of the culture which the author comes from. A work which attempts to be all things to all readers tends to be a confused mess, 'multi-cultural', 'politically correct' & with no real identity or sense of place.
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Originally Posted by Bb
LotR is broader than simply England--all those nods to the northern mythologies lifts it above national iconography.
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I suppose one could argue the same for the plays of Shakespeare, yet whose work is more typically English, because of, rather than in spite of, its multi-national/multi-cultural settings? The Legendarium came from an English mind, heart & hand & that is why it appeals to so many readers across so many different cultures. Only an English writer of the 20th century could have produced a work like LotR.