Middle Earth come to life - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 05-30-2002, 08:11 AM

As I said on another thread, Kalessin, I wonder if you tend to believe that since something is recent it is therefore better? I doubt that you would assert any such thing, but could it be that such thinking forms a paradigmatic background for your assertions?

Tolkien's work is Western, and the era in which he wrote had not yet seen the onset of world literature; therefore, it may be necessary to think in terms of pre-global comparisons precisely because that is Tolkien's context.

As I have said already, I don't consider it important to assert that Tolkien was greater than other pre-global 20th century authors. Rather, critics and readership would do well to appreciate Tolkien's achievements for what they are. Since his writing is Western, these three strands were his milieu, as they were for all other pre-global Western writers. In that context, Tolkien seems to me to be more at home with all three strands (aka Germanic, Christian, and Greek); it has come to my attention that there is a fourth strand, the Celtic, which may have something to do with this at-homeness.

Tolkien's work takes no account of the things you mention because he 1) (obviously) wrote before those things had necessarily come to be; 2) was instead interested in telling a great story instead of getting caught up in debates and struggles he had already resolved for himself; 3) considered (I wager) some of the things you describe as late developments to be the kind of thing that he would call a new form of old evils, such as the Machine age and relativism. What philosophical and scientific elements do you refer to?

05-30-2002, 08:11 AM	#25
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	As I said on another thread, Kalessin, I wonder if you tend to believe that since something is recent it is therefore better? I doubt that you would assert any such thing, but could it be that such thinking forms a paradigmatic background for your assertions? Tolkien's work is Western, and the era in which he wrote had not yet seen the onset of world literature; therefore, it may be necessary to think in terms of pre-global comparisons precisely because that is Tolkien's context. As I have said already, I don't consider it important to assert that Tolkien was greater than other pre-global 20th century authors. Rather, critics and readership would do well to appreciate Tolkien's achievements for what they are. Since his writing is Western, these three strands were his milieu, as they were for all other pre-global Western writers. In that context, Tolkien seems to me to be more at home with all three strands (aka Germanic, Christian, and Greek); it has come to my attention that there is a fourth strand, the Celtic, which may have something to do with this at-homeness. Tolkien's work takes no account of the things you mention because he 1) (obviously) wrote before those things had necessarily come to be; 2) was instead interested in telling a great story instead of getting caught up in debates and struggles he had already resolved for himself; 3) considered (I wager) some of the things you describe as late developments to be the kind of thing that he would call a new form of old evils, such as the Machine age and relativism. What philosophical and scientific elements do you refer to?