Good day to you all! I have quite enjoyed this thread and I agree with most of it! I wanted to share something that might cast a light on Tolkien's reticence to expose too much of himself, or perhaps be seen as "too serious" in these matters. I uncovered an original Life magazine from Feb. 24, 1967 as part of a large lot of old magazines, and while flipping through it, I found an article, a review of sorts, called "Can America Kick the Hobbit?" subtitled "The Tolkien Caper" by Charles Elliot. Contained therein are contained some of the most condescending statements about this great work I can imagine!
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If I sound sour, it is because success seems to have spoiled Tolkien. For me, that is.
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The notion of fan clubs devoted to discussions of the history and linguistics of Middle Earth hills me with horror. Yet such fan clubs now exist--at Harvard, at Berkeley, on a host of other campuses.
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The Lord of the Rings is thoroughly innocent. It is even innocent of ideas, which doubtless helps recommend it to those aggressive searchers for sincerity, the opt-out crowd. Although hobbits may very well be a precipitous comedown from Holden Caulfield or Piggy and the lads, these days the student must find solace where he can, if necessary in the Baggins of Bag End bag.
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This Life magazine reviewer is looking at the work through the veil of a student craze, a fad, and he sees only the faddish qualities, not the truth within the text. It is a symptom of those who exclude certain genres or topics from the realm of truth worthy of consideration. The mind of popular America is ever begrudging of new ideas, and those who do not see them of their own free will, through their own honest search for truth, can never understand and accept them; and many, like Charles Elliot, ridicule them as beneath their notice.
Tolkien himself was dismayed at the way his works were treated in America as I recall. It is so easy to be misunderstood or an underlying meaning taken wrongly, especially if a work has such a cult status as LOTR did in 1967. It would not have helped for Tolkien to state the meaning outright. Only those who are true seekers would see it there; the others may wander in this haze of "reviewer truth."
I hope you've enjoyed my bit of sharing, and I have quite enjoyed all the posts here! Thanks!
Cheers,
Lyta
[ June 18, 2003: Message edited by: Lyta_Underhill ]