Calling all women

[Alphaelin]

Fordim wrote:

And it's interesting to me to see how often in this thread we see people -- a many of them women -- revealing that their first exposure to TH was from a parent reading it to her! So, a book written by an adult is selected by another adult for presentation to a child -- that's a lot of layers and editing to get through -- too many to start making bold claims about TH as something that children should or do respond to.

and

All of which is a long way round of saying that Saucy is right: the complaint from my students is not that TI or TH are childish -- we spent a week on Where the Wild Things Are and had wonderful time with that -- but very cleary and specifically centred on the fact that it's about boys. Not just that it's not about girls, but that it's about boys. What's interesting to me is to see how the women in this thread who like TH don't see it that way at all -- it's not about boys, but about people, or adventure, or Fairy Tale...

Response to TH is as individual as each person, I think. For myself, I certainly was responding to the story rather than the adult reading it, as she was a teacher I quite disliked.

Giving more serious thought to what I enjoyed in TH: I liked the hints of an older history implied by the swords Orcrist and Glamdring and in Bilbo's Sting (made by the High Elves, kin of Elrond, in the city of Gondolin -- what a tantalizing hint of other times and places). And I liked Tolkien's version of elves as personified by Elrond ("hale as a warrior...kind as summer"). No silly dancing about just because you've got a new set of clothes, like in 'The Shoemaker and the Elves', or lame conversation such as the fairies in 'Midsummer's Night's Dream' when Bottom is introduced to them. I also enjoy the gently humorous tone of TH. I don't feel I am being talked down to, but invited to see the funny side of Bilbo's predicaments.

What disturbs me about your students is their blanket condemnation of TH as 'bad' because it is only about boys. Can't understand that -- I've always rather liked males myself. Are they trying to suggest that TH is bad for children in general because it has no females??? I honestly don't get this. Do they also condemn 'Peter Pan' for its poor presentation of females? Or 'Winnie-the-Pooh'? Or 'The Gingerbread Man' because of it's lack of female characters?

One of the things I most enjoy about Tolkien's writing in general -- and everyone is free to disagree with me -- is his use of archetypes in characterization and plot. They're all over the place in his literature: the Innocent -- Bilbo, the Wise Man -- Gandalf (sorry Child ), the Sacrifice -- Frodo, the Wise King -- Elrond in TH, and later the Wise Queen, Galadriel...the list goes on. These are not gender-specific concepts by any means.

Pondering further, Tolkien was upfront in 'On Faerie' about the topics which appealed to him as an author. If I remember correctly, he was fascinated with the idea of The Quest...and he does an excellent job in TH of presenting both an external Quest (to win Erebor and its treasure back from Smaug) and an internal Quest (Bilbo's growth from the safe, settled hobbit of the Shire to an individual interested in the Great World and its history). The gold is won, but more interesting to me has always been Bilbo's growth as a person. He finds he is braver, smarter, more capable than he'd ever imagined back in the Shire. Yes, TH is clearly aimed at youngsters, but the points I've just mentioned are what I've always considered to be the bones of the story, and they appeal to me irregardless of the gender involved.