Outrage? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Bêthberry · 02-03-2006, 08:33 AM

I cannot tell you all how many times, seeing this thread in my "New Subscribed Threads", that I have read the thread title as "Outage". And for a moment I sit there in confusion wondering who or what was outed.

Reading through this analysis of Galadriel has been intriguing, and it sets me off on a related idea, which I throw out here, for what it is worth. Do correct me--gently

-- if I misinterpret the points here.

There seems to be some agreement that Galadriel's intentions were nostalgic, that is, a looking backward and longing for something viewed as better in the past. And, general agreement that while her intentions might have been admirable her method erred. Can we extrapolate this to many readers' interpretations of LotR?

It seems to me that many readers enjoy Tolkien because he offers a nostalgic vision of a past world that was better than our sordid present one--higher, finer, free of dross. It upholds an idealism of values and behaviour which, as many readers also point out, are absent from modern literature. (Critics, too, but I won't go there for this thread!) Obviously I am generalising here.

So, if we are to view Galadriel as tragically in err for her nostalgia, is there anything else in Tolkien which would "correct" or equally suggest that readers are in err for a nostalgic reading of Tolkien? (I'm using this term 'err' not proscriptively but simply descriptively for the sake of the argument here, as everyone knows that I don't subscribe to the theory that there is only one way of reading a text.) I am here suggesting that Galadriel is used as a model for a prime 'reader' of Middle-earth and that when we decode her reading as tragically wrong, we step back and see if this decoding can be applied--applicability!--to our own readings of Middle-earth. (Or those of some of us.)

Is it possible that Tolkien gives us a text which invites us to fall into the elvish habit of nostalgia, to enjoy it and revere it and be inspired by it, but in the end he provides subtle suggestions that such nostalgia is a false or misplaced longing? Does Tolkien undercut the major response he seems to create in his readers? Are we to repent of our reading?

I'm not saying he does, just throwing out some thoughts which the discussion here brought to mind as possibilities.

02-03-2006, 08:33 AM	#20
Bêthberry Cryptic Aura Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 6,005	Po-mo Toko I cannot tell you all how many times, seeing this thread in my "New Subscribed Threads", that I have read the thread title as "Outage". And for a moment I sit there in confusion wondering who or what was outed. Reading through this analysis of Galadriel has been intriguing, and it sets me off on a related idea, which I throw out here, for what it is worth. Do correct me--gently -- if I misinterpret the points here. There seems to be some agreement that Galadriel's intentions were nostalgic, that is, a looking backward and longing for something viewed as better in the past. And, general agreement that while her intentions might have been admirable her method erred. Can we extrapolate this to many readers' interpretations of LotR? It seems to me that many readers enjoy Tolkien because he offers a nostalgic vision of a past world that was better than our sordid present one--higher, finer, free of dross. It upholds an idealism of values and behaviour which, as many readers also point out, are absent from modern literature. (Critics, too, but I won't go there for this thread!) Obviously I am generalising here. So, if we are to view Galadriel as tragically in err for her nostalgia, is there anything else in Tolkien which would "correct" or equally suggest that readers are in err for a nostalgic reading of Tolkien? (I'm using this term 'err' not proscriptively but simply descriptively for the sake of the argument here, as everyone knows that I don't subscribe to the theory that there is only one way of reading a text.) I am here suggesting that Galadriel is used as a model for a prime 'reader' of Middle-earth and that when we decode her reading as tragically wrong, we step back and see if this decoding can be applied--applicability!--to our own readings of Middle-earth. (Or those of some of us.) Is it possible that Tolkien gives us a text which invites us to fall into the elvish habit of nostalgia, to enjoy it and revere it and be inspired by it, but in the end he provides subtle suggestions that such nostalgia is a false or misplaced longing? Does Tolkien undercut the major response he seems to create in his readers? Are we to repent of our reading? I'm not saying he does, just throwing out some thoughts which the discussion here brought to mind as possibilities. __________________ I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away.