Was Tolkien Depressed? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

***Mister Underhill*** · 07-26-2002, 07:05 PM

Lush, you clearly missed the dark and cynical subtext of "Beaver", especially in the later seasons after the Beav turned awkward.

I've always thought Tolkien came off as manic-depressive in his Letters, as Cot7A hinted above -- although I hasten to add that we'd probably all come off in a similar light when judged by a lifetime's worth of notes and correspondence. I shudder to think of the diagnoses that could be made of me on the basis of just under two years' worth of posts on this board.

I've also always thought that the prof would likely have been diagnosed as some kind of obsessive-compulsive in today's world based on the volume of information he generated regarding an imaginary world and his penchant for endless rewriting, but then I'm of the opinion that every great artist is at least a little bit crazy.

07-26-2002, 07:05 PM	#24
*Mister Underhill* Dread Horseman Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Behind you! Posts: 2,744	Lush, you clearly missed the dark and cynical subtext of "Beaver", especially in the later seasons after the Beav turned awkward. I've always thought Tolkien came off as manic-depressive in his Letters, as Cot7A hinted above -- although I hasten to add that we'd probably all come off in a similar light when judged by a lifetime's worth of notes and correspondence. I shudder to think of the diagnoses that could be made of me on the basis of just under two years' worth of posts on this board. I've also always thought that the prof would likely have been diagnosed as some kind of obsessive-compulsive in today's world based on the volume of information he generated regarding an imaginary world and his penchant for endless rewriting, but then I'm of the opinion that every great artist is at least a little bit crazy.