Quote:
Originally Posted by skip spence
That is a beautiful picture and if I haven't done so already Esty, I congratulate you (and any other people here involved in it) for getting this book out in print!
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So do you enjoy Anke Eissmann's artwork more than Tolkien's,
Skip? (old reference there--
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The difference between what I see in the cover illustration and what others see is, I think, very interesting. It raises several questions about the nature of illustrative art and of the authority of art in reproductions.
First of all, I've tried very hard to "see" closed eyelids in the book cover illustration. I cannot. I cannot eradicate the image of the irises and the whites of Daeron's eyes to see a solid eyelid. I'm sure many of you who are reading this thread will suggest either that I stop imbibing questionable substances or that I get new prescription lens.
But bear with me a bit . . .
My interpretation shows my reading of Daeron in The Silm, The Book of Lost Tales, and The Lay of Leithian. I don't like him, that is, I don't respect him, as a character. Despite his great musical abilities and his creation of runes, he is a snitch and a sneak and a spy, an informer and a betrayer. He is the agent of Thingol's patriarchal control over Luthien. His first betrayal arises from the despicable motivation of jealousy while his second arises from a misogynistic sense that Luthien should not be a free agent to act of her own wishes. It is interesting that originally the character was Luthien's brother, as he acts very similarly to brothers in well-known, documented cases of "honour killings." True that he does not kill Luthien (and true also that Thingol apparently claims to have Luthien's best interests at heart), yet both men operate under the assumption that they have the right to coersce a woman into obeying their wishes for her, that they have authority over her body and mind. Perhaps this issue of control is what also inspires Daeron's great musical abilities--his ability to influence others according to his command. To me, it's no great surprise that Luthien prefers Beren.
So what I take with me from the story is less those moments when the two danced and played in the greenland before Beren arrived than those moments when Daeron was losing her to Beren. Eissmann's illustration, with its heavily lined, curved eyebrows and dark lining suits l. 841 of the Lay, "while Daeron watched with fiery eyes." Nor is it a happy face, as the brow seems, if not furrowed, then tense. I don't see any serenity there. I see a deeply frustrated man who is losing his (apparent or assumed) control over the woman he loves.
So this reading of the illustration raises the question of the relationship between an illustration and the original written text. Does the illustration exist as an independent work of imagination or is it bound by the ur-document? When does a work of art achieve independence and supremacy over it's own inspiration?
The other issue is the authority of the cover illustration over the original artwork or over internet versions. If someone sees something in a book cover, is that interpretation necessarily invalidated by the work in a different form? Reproduction changes art and who is to say that the bookcover is any less important in inspiring interpretation than another form?
I could be reading the illustration from the darkest passages of the story rather than the lighter ones, but those dark passages are, to me, one of the really intriguing aspects of Tolkien's story, so that is what resonates with me.