Are you a better person?

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Thank you all for the very intriguing responses to my rather consciously 'loaded' question. In particular, thanks to lmp for really bringing out the central issue of "humility" here. As I read through the posts it's interesting to note that pretty much everyone is saying "Yes, I am better for having read the book" but no-one wants to do anything so lofty (or so flaky) as to indulge in self-congratulatory celebrations of how great we've all become.

I, for one, firmly believe in the educative and improving nature of all reading acts, if these acts are undertaken in intelligence and with an open mind. Such an approach, when in response to a text as rewarding as LotR, cannot be anything but a Good Thing.

I am a better person for having read LotR. It has opened my mind, as I said above, to a point of view different from my own. It has given me endless hours of pleasure. It has helped me make any number of improving friendships with other people who love the book as I do (most of them here at the Downs). I don't think that me admitting this is any lack of humility on my part (at least, I hope not) quite the reverse -- I think that admitting to being improved by a book is acknowlegement of all the ways in which I can be improved.

But this leads me to more questions: I am being improved by the book, or am I improving myself in response to the book? Is there a specific kind of Middle-earth improvement that I cannot gain from any other book, or is it merely one pathway among many to the same place? Are those of us who are made better by the book, or who better ourselves in resonse to the book, better in the same way? Is there a bit of Tolkien in all of us, or are we just rising to a challenge presented by the book in our own unique ways?

[elronds_daughter]

I think I tend to take on traits of certain characters, especially those characters that I particularly admire (e.g. Eowyn). As for 'better', though, I'm not sure. Probably, but since I have no idea where I'd be if I hadn't read LotR, I can't tell for sure. Besides that, any future that we "see" is only a future that might be. What we are is what we are, and, for good or ill, we can't change it; we can change what we choose to become.


Well, that was unusually 'deep' for me.... Strange, I'm not usually like that.... Must've been something about your questions, Fordim....

[littlemanpoet]

Is there a specific kind of Middle-earth improvement that I cannot gain from any other book, or is it merely one pathway among many to the same place?

Eucatastrophe. Perhaps it exists in other books, but I haven't been affected by this in other books as I have in LotR. This is one way in which I became better than I was. I had given way to despair (for various reasons that are not to the point), and partly through the book, and partly through a certain BD discussion thread, I was reminded of the hope in LotR, that some kind of good can come out of seemingly insurmountable evil. Hope has been a re-starting point for a personal renaissance of the spirit.

Are those of us who are made better by the book, or who better ourselves in response to the book, better in the same way?

In part yes, in part no. The former is passive, something that happens to us, whereas the latter is something we do ourselves. That has to account for some difference. Don't you think that being made better (a realization), must precede choosing to be better (conscious action)?

Is there a bit of Tolkien in all of us, or are we just rising to a challenge presented by the book in our own unique ways?

There's a level at which, obviously, there's a bit of Tolkien in all of us, in that we share humanity; but I think you're shooting for something more specific. There seems to me to be a lot of middle ground between your either and or in this question. Might you clarify it?