Has it all been said?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

so I rather like the idea that they will have to read Tolkien as well as Bourroughs

Yes, but they'll make it serious. It will be a subject for study, a chore, something to get 'points' for doing, in order to get a career. Which is the way it all seems to be going. At least when Tolkien's work was looked down on it was read purely for pleasure - no reader was in it for the money. No-one was out to become an 'expert'. I read so many articles on 'Tolkien' now & just think 'Yeah, very clever, but why have you done this? What is the point in showing that? As an example, the other day I posted something on the CbC thread about a possible inspiration for Galadriel's temptation scene in Kipling's Rewards & Fairies. We can speculate Tolkien would have read that book (as Hammond & Scull pointed out Hobbits were probably inspired in part by the character Puck in that book & Puck of Pook's Hill. It was possibly worth mentioning in passing, having some curiosity value. It was not deserving of a long scholarly essay on Kipling's influence on Tolkien, but I've no doubt someone has done that - or will do. I could also mention that in the same book one of the characters mentions 'talking trees', & another one repeatedly says 'Yes, yess!, but its hardly worth it. It doesn't matter that Tolkien read the book & was unconsciously (or even consciously) inspired by it. Who really cares? But so much of what is being written by Tolkien scholars now is on the same level.

There are elements in the Legendarium which can perhaps be traced back to Tolkien's reading of Dusany or Morris, Wyke-Smith's Snergs, Wind in the Willows & numerous other works of contemporary fiction as well as to the Eddas, the Kalevala & the Mabinogion. But there doesn't seem to be any real insights coming out now & in most of the stuff that's being produced the connection to Tolkien is highly tenuous, & in many cases Tolkien's work is used merely as a jumping off point for unconnected waffling by individuals who seem only to be using Tolkien's name to get their work published.