Middle Earth come to life - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 05-24-2002, 04:31 AM

I'm not as well read as I ought to be. Of the books you listed, I haven't read one. Therefore, my opinions would be based largely in ignorance. Sorry to disappoint. Although I have read Orwell, Hemingway and Steinbeck - also Fitzgerald. As far as my opinion counts, therefore, I would have to agree with your summation that Tolkien's LotR is one of the great books of the 20th century, and leave whether he is one of the best for more informed minds.

I guess my main contention is that Tolkien deserves recognition as a serious and profound 20th century author whose thought partakes of the three main currents in Western culture: Germanic (broadly speaking) cultural base; Greek-inherited rational/scientific/knowledge gathering process; and Judeo-Christian cosmological/moral framework. Tolkien does better with this than many other 20th century authors because he had a full grasp of all three and embraced them, while his counterparts tended to wrestle against and reject at least one of the three. Thus, LotR is, for the 20th century, a fresh embodiment of all three currents which satisfies the soul of some 20th/21st century Westerns. It achieves this by partaking of myth and story instead of setting up one more rational house-of-cards thesis, only to be blown over by the next antithesis.

The majority of 20th century greats rejected Christianity as it had been received by them. There were some who preferred to reject Greek inherited rational processes, resulting in varities of rank subjectivism.
Others rejected the Germanic base along with Christianity, resulting in the vagueries as the New Age movement.

You know, this could become a book, I'm thinking. And it certainly needs some clarification and research. Hmmmm...

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05-24-2002, 04:31 AM	#23
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	I'm not as well read as I ought to be. Of the books you listed, I haven't read one. Therefore, my opinions would be based largely in ignorance. Sorry to disappoint. Although I have read Orwell, Hemingway and Steinbeck - also Fitzgerald. As far as my opinion counts, therefore, I would have to agree with your summation that Tolkien's LotR is one of the great books of the 20th century, and leave whether he is one of the best for more informed minds. I guess my main contention is that Tolkien deserves recognition as a serious and profound 20th century author whose thought partakes of the three main currents in Western culture: Germanic (broadly speaking) cultural base; Greek-inherited rational/scientific/knowledge gathering process; and Judeo-Christian cosmological/moral framework. Tolkien does better with this than many other 20th century authors because he had a full grasp of all three and embraced them, while his counterparts tended to wrestle against and reject at least one of the three. Thus, LotR is, for the 20th century, a fresh embodiment of all three currents which satisfies the soul of some 20th/21st century Westerns. It achieves this by partaking of myth and story instead of setting up one more rational house-of-cards thesis, only to be blown over by the next antithesis. The majority of 20th century greats rejected Christianity as it had been received by them. There were some who preferred to reject Greek inherited rational processes, resulting in varities of rank subjectivism. Others rejected the Germanic base along with Christianity, resulting in the vagueries as the New Age movement. You know, this could become a book, I'm thinking. And it certainly needs some clarification and research. Hmmmm...