[Bill Ferny]

Doug,

Great take on the article by Dan Deluca. The big difference between Mr. Deluca and Mr. Pinkerton is that Deluca doesn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. He is able to see through the predominate predisposition and misconception of the masses concerning the “nanosecond.” Mr. Pinkerton, however, rates with those who say that Norse mythology is nazism, Harry Potter is Satanism, and anything Celtic is occultist.

There’s nothing wrong with looking beyond the words of any work of literature to see the influences at work in a given author. This holds true for Tolkien just as it would hold true for any other writer. Tolkien may have striven to keep his work free of allegory, but he, as the creator, can not help but leave a reflection of himself, his life, beliefs and psychology behind on the pages containing the ink he put there. Trying to get a glimpse of this man through his work is perfectly respectable and valid.

However, I’ve seen Tolkien’s work used to advocate some pretty strange things, such as the Tarot, paganism, racism, and now its being characterized as pro-war propaganda. Anyone who knows Tolkien the man would know that he would hardly advocate such ideas. That’s why trying to analyze the author behind the work is actually an important thing; it helps one refute those who would misinterpret and thus misconstrue that author’s work. Its far more open minded than just rejecting it altogether just because some neo-nazi or Satanist, or in this case a war-ready society, misconstrues it.

Tolkien wanted to achieve applicability not allegory, but applicability in the hands of the wrong people can be just as annoying and in some cases just as stupid.

[ January 05, 2003: Message edited by: Bill Ferny ]