Quote:
Originally Posted by tumhalad2
I find both treatments really interesting; they present a somewhat different view to the usual "Tolkien was Catholic writer, period" argument. Madsen's essay in particular is thought provoking.
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I would dispute that's the "usual view" at all; it's the view of
some commentators. (And, in fact, note that the first article says, "quite a few" critics take this tack, not that it's anything like a universally accepted opinion.) Although I don't think this is mentioned in either the article or the book extract, I'd guess a good deal of it has been a response to the various scares associating fantasy fiction with the occult.
Apart from that, though, some people in general have what I consider a very odd attitude to reading books; they feel it somehow wrong to enjoy anything that doesn't
actively and explicitly promote their religious beliefs– or, as it may be, their political and social views– and have to do all kinds of mental gymnastics to "prove" that it's okay to like whatever they happen to like. (I'm not, in fact, sure that the author of the second piece isn't doing this a little bit herself)
So, indeed, a writer who is a Catholic is not necessarily a "Catholic writer" in the sense you evidently mean.