[Sir Kohran]

Note: if you are American please don't take any offense; this is not an anti-American rant, just my own take on his work.

Looking at Brin's biography I was unsurprised to see that he was American and I think this explains a lot of why he does not 'get' Tolkien's themes. He criticises the 'romantic' ideal of a past golden age. The problem with his writing is that he doesn't have the right perspective. Tolkien was British and writing for a British audience (it was only later that the book became the international favourite it is today). Thus his work reflected a British outlook and British opinions.

The thing is that America has never really had a past 'golden age' - despite some bumps on the road (the Depression, Vietnam, 9/11, etc.) America's history has virtually been uphill ever since they gained their independence and became a nation. Throughout the 19th Century, the US was expanding across North America, and in the 20th Century they became the world's richest country, with only some small involvement in WWI experiencing little of WWII's negative effects.

Britain also did well in the 19th Century, becoming the world's dominant power and enjoying great wealth and advanced culture. In the 20th Century, on the other hand, Britain had a pretty hard time of it. Millions of young men were mindlessly slaughtered in one of the most horrific conflicts in history (WWI) and after WWII the country was shattered, both financially and spiritually. The British Empire was crumbling and the country became increasingly little more than anywhere else that had experienced the war, with a bleak, dull future. The glory days of the Victorian era semed like a dream to many people after that. For the people of Britain in the forties and the fifties the 'golden age' was very real, and now out of reach.

And I think that comes through in Tolkien's writings. Arda was once a world of beauty, light and perfection (essentially the Victorian era). But by the time of his story (LOTR, written in the fifties) the world has become a decaying, desolate place, scarred by the ruin of war. Places of happiness like Lothlorien and Rivendell still remain - but they are really just what has survived - they are from a past age, a glimpse of a bygone era. The heroes are not trying to create a better future, they are trying to save what is left of the past. The 'future' appears to be the smoke and cruelty of Mordor and the Orcs.

Much of what happens in LOTR and its ending are perhaps Tolkien's own fantasy - that the depressed British would find the strength within themselves to overcome the bleak future prepared for them and to return to the 'golden age' of the Victorian era. And I think this was a sentiment shared in much of Britain.

But America never went through this stage of post-war depression (heck it's been over a century since a war was even fought in North America), or at least not in the way that Britain did. So it's not all that surprising that Brin, as an American, finds Tolkien's ideals strange. And in some ways he's right - constantly looking back on the past and trying to recreate it is not a good way to live. But he's not British and so I think this affects his outlook somewhat.

Of course, Britain eventually got past this bleak stage and (mostly) recovered from the war, but sadly Tolkien died before he could see it happen. I often wonder if his works might have been different if they had been written in the 70s-90s rather than the 40s-50s. Perhaps we might have gotten a different message altogether.

Anyway, that's just my opinion from what I've gathered on Tolkien as a person. What does everyone else think?