"just a book" or "a descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere " ? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

***Gilthalion*** · 07-25-2003, 02:54 PM

While LOTR is "just a book" it is also "a descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere." Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" is essential reading on this point, and many deeper points that are suggested by this thread. This story, with its "imaginary ecosphere," was written with such internal consistency and relevance to reality that few are left unaffected by it.

From religious reverence, to the beauties of nature, to the social, technological, environmental and governmental issues, to the arts of language, poetry, and story, Tolkien's work ought to have earned him a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Can such things be granted postumously?

07-25-2003, 02:54 PM	#10
*Gilthalion* Hobbitus Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: South Farthing Posts: 635	While LOTR is "just a book" it is also "a descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere." Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" is essential reading on this point, and many deeper points that are suggested by this thread. This story, with its "imaginary ecosphere," was written with such internal consistency and relevance to reality that few are left unaffected by it. From religious reverence, to the beauties of nature, to the social, technological, environmental and governmental issues, to the arts of language, poetry, and story, Tolkien's work ought to have earned him a Nobel Prize for Literature. Can such things be granted postumously? __________________ Please read my fan fiction novel THE HOBBITS. Wanna hear me read Tolkien? Gilthalion's Grand Adventures!