Quote:
Originally Posted by davem
OK, now I don't go all the way with the writer - Tolkien was writing an 'epic romance' not reportage. I think he fails to appreciate Tolkien's art, & insults his work unnecessarily... but I don't think he's completely wrong. A very real, vital aspect of war is absent from Tolkien's war epic, & I certainly think its valid to ask why that's so, & what that means.
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Hmm, didn't you just say that Tolkien was writing an epic romance, not a war epic?
That, perhaps, is why something about war is "missing" from Tolkien's work, I think: he's not really writing about war. He's writing about a changing world, about the growing pains of a world shifting from one in which "magic" is real to one in which it is only a memory, and a fading memory at that. The world of Men will not be without its own achievements, but the Art he so often associates with the Elves will not be of such a high degree; if I recall correctly, Faramir acknowledges this in his talks with Frodo, saying that the Men of Gondor have become more like the lesser Men of Rohan, and have lost much of their knowledge and skills that once made them the greatest of Men. I do think that the ravages of war upon the land made a great impression on Tolkien, and this comes across clearly in his writing. His experience with the human suffering it entailed may have been too personal for him to communicate effectively (or in a manner which would have felt appropriate to him). We do see some of it in the suffering of Frodo, and the changes wrought on the other Hobbits of the company, and as someone recovering from PSTD, I find it quite sufficient. Others will not, obviously. To each their own.