Its interesting how the critics fall into two camps. We have the Greers, Corens, Howard Jacobson (who responded to LotR winning the Waterstones poll for Book of the Century with "It just shows the folly of these polls, the folly of teaching people
to read. Close all the libraries. Use the money for something else." ie the fact that so many people voted for LotR means the majority of Britons are idiots (Of course Shippey himself points out that idiots would not choose to read, & re-read, an 1100 page book)
The other camp id typified by
Johann Hari who states, among other things
Quote:
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The great critic Edmund Wilson called it "balderdash" and "juvenile trash" when it was first published, and it’s hard to disagree. Tolkien’s insufferable obsession with describing a fictional landscape borders on the autistic, as does the almost total absence of women or sophisticated emotion from his work. No, ‘Lord of the Rings’ is not loved because it is a good novel, but because it taps into some of the most atavistic and ugly impulses of our times.
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(Notice that at the end of the article he posts a response which is illiterate, ignorant, & possibly borderline insane & then claims that is the most sensible response he has had.)
What comes across to me from these critics is not that they have read Tolkien objectively & found he has nothing to say to them - they have started out with a bias against Tolkien. Their initial attack is that 'Its all nonsense, not fit for grown-ups.' If they are challenged on this, they change tack & claim 'Ok, its not nonsense, its a dangerous fascist tract.'
Hari's claim that Tolkien's subcreation of Middle-earth is 'autistic' is not only insulting but plainly ridiculous - any author will strive to create a convincing secondary world.
What I find most interesting though, is that Tolkien is the one fantasy writer who attracts such venom - these critics may dismiss the fantasy genre generally, but it is Tolkien they single out for attack. Also interesting is the way many of them have taken up Pullman. Why?
I can't help thinking there are two reasons: one, Pullman is an athiest, & HDM is about 'liberating' humanity from an evil God. Two, they maybe think that HDM can deal the death blow to fantast in general & Tolkien in particular. HDM ends not only with no God, but also with no magic, & everyone grows up & goes off to do the 'sensible, grown-up thing' of building the 'Republic of Heaven' (whatever that means).
And again, HDM is, like the Harry Potter books, a children's story. Fantasy is fine, as far as these critics are concerned, if it stays safely in the nursery, & is quickly outgrown. Tolkien wrote for adults, he said things the critics either didn't understand or didn't like. He became popular - way too popular. And that created another problem for the 'Literati'. If LotR is great literature, why did they miss it, why didn;t they recognise that? They are the (self appointed)
experts. Its their job to tell us lesser mortals what's important, what matters, & they blew it in the case of Tolkien.
Fact is, they daren't look in the dark - they might find they've got it wrong all along. But the most pernicious thing about them is that not only are they refusing to look in the dark, they're trying to stop anyone else doing so, by making up horror stories about the terrible monsters lurking there.
(End rant....)