David Brin's criticisms

[tumhalad2]

I found this link and message on a blog:


http://revolutionsf.com/article/953.html

THE TOLKIEN CRITIQUE I stumbled across this critique of "The Lord of the Rings" at Boing Boing and read it largely because it was written by author Michael Moorcock, whose own take at darkly heroic fantasy writing has a flavor all its own. Moorcock sees Tolkien's work as conservative and backward-looking (which it is), and too forgiving of (or too inspired by) the "common man" as embodied by those merry hobbits. A complex, dense work of writing, LOTR doesn't delve deep into human nature, he argues -- but, then, what do you expect from a rabid consumer of Nordic culture and medieval literature? Moorcock says: "The Lord of the Rings is much more deep-rooted in its infantilism than a good many of the more obviously juvenile books it influenced. It is Winnie-the-Pooh posing as an epic. If the Shire is a suburban garden, Sauron and his henchmen are that old bourgeois bugaboo, the Mob -- mindless football supporters throwing their beer-bottles over the fence the worst aspects of modern urban society represented as the whole by a fearful, backward-yearning class for whom "good taste" is synonymous with "restraint" (pastel colours, murmured protest) and "civilized" behaviour means "conventional behaviour in all circumstances". This is not to deny that courageous characters are found in The Lord of the Rings, or a willingness to fight Evil (never really defined), but somehow those courageous characters take on the aspect of retired colonels at last driven to write a letter to The Times and we are not sure -- because Tolkien cannot really bring himself to get close to his proles and their satanic leaders -- if Sauron and Co. are quite as evil as we're told. After all, anyone who hates hobbits can't be all bad."

[Raynor]

Come on now, you forgot these good bits:

While there is an argument for the reactionary nature of the books, they are certainly deeply conservative and strongly anti-urban, which is what leads some to associate them with a kind of Wagnerish hitlerism.

Wake me when LotR becomes required reading for the Skinheads.

Evil is never really defined

Indeed; I complained about this too, I can't see who is evil in LotR due to all those nursery rhymes.

The great epics dignified death, but they did not ignore it, and it is one of the reasons why they are superior to the artificial romances of which Lord of the Rings is merely one of the most recent.

This fellow must have read the books with a lot of attention too, if he came to the conclusion that death is ignored (hint: it is the main theme).

If I find this nostalgia for a "vanished" landscape a bit strange it is probably because as I write I can look from my window over twenty miles of superb countryside to the sea and a sparsely populated coast. This county, like many others, has seemingly limitless landscapes of great beauty and variety, unspoiled by excessive tourism or the uglier forms of industry. Elsewhere big cities have certainly destroyed the surrounding countryside but rapid transport now makes it possible for a Londoner to spend the time they would have needed to get to Box Hill forty years ago in getting to Northumberland.

I am starting to like this chap. It never dawned to me that we can happily destroy our surroundings because, hey.... we can always take the train to the yet untarnished places. Talk about cognitive liberation...

And he goes on for four pages. And, evidently, one can always substantiate one's claims by putting silly cartoonish images from LotR (likely of the 1980 vintage), because, you know, that is how Tolkien envisioned his world. I wonder if target practicing on such funny articles will become the favorite Sunday sport of the the Downs. Mirth section, here we come

[tumhalad2]

Ha ha indeed. Though reading some of Brin's stuff again today, it is so difficult to come to the conclusion that he may have a point, one that may be deeply relevant to Tolkien. I find increasingly that while I emotionally enjoy Tolkien, I cannot intellectually justify the most fundemental aspects of his universe.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Tumhalad:

Wherein lie your difficulties?

Come on, we'll restore your wavering faith!

*****
Moorcocks' diatribe has been around for years, possibly decades. Besides being piffle on its own, it also comes from an author so obsessed with not being 'juvenile,' so determined to include 'real-world' angst and sex, that he....writes precisely like a sulky teenager, for whom of course angst, sex, and not appearing juvenile are the principal preoccupations. Elric isn't remotely a grownup character: more like Holden Caulfield with a sword.