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Though, like Lal, I haven't found direct evidence of ptsd, he did experience a lot of traumas, phisical or otherwise, which have affected his sensibility and art.~Raynor
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It doesn't seem like he had PTSD, but you provide excellent reasoning to show that no one was unscarred, or unaffected who went through that war. Which echoes what Tolkien said in the Foreward...
An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience...
Then the problem came taking these soldiers who went through horrors and bringing them back into a society where there was no more war, and just trying to find jobs and ways to integrate them back into society. Soon Europe was spun into a huge economic depression, far greater than the one experienced in the U.S. Eventhough if it doesn't appear like Tolkien suffered from PTSD, I completely agree that one cannot go unaffected by their experience and trials of World War 1...and that did have an effect that shows in their stories.
I was discussing a bit about this in another thread, when someone was wondering why Lord of the Rings doesn't have the 'true idea' of 'the hero.' In which case I argued that it does have the 'true hero.' The true hero is not the cliched stuff lal talks about that you see in Hollywood movies...but the true hero are ordinary people, who make their mistakes, but try and accomplish extraordinary deeds. Whether they do fail or succeed the trials and experieces they went through; they don't come back as
Lal puts it:
His heroes don't come all home holding the head of their mortal enemy, rippling with muscles and with a girl in their arms like so many cliched fantasies of the later twentieth century.
They come back changed, altered, scarred, and even in extreme cases...broken.
I think that is where the true greatness (at least to me) shines through in Tolkien's story. He took a story that is fantasy and he made up, yet employed a great sense of realism and believability. He makes his 'fantasy heroes' entirely identifiable and connectable to the readers...and that is what makes his stories so enjoyable to read; for me.
