Tolkien and Psychedelics

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Faramir Jones

What do people think?

I despise political correctness. At the current rate, we'll all eventually be placed in individually-wrapped body condoms, and, safe in our prophylactic cocoons, we will no longer need to touch another human being (as intimacy of any sort causes all sorts of infectious abnormalities). In addition, all books will be burned as decadent and leading to thought; art will be purged as immoral; sex willl be eliminated as gross; alcohol, sugar, salt, tobacco, wood and wood byproducts, meat, vegetables, the sun, the snow, and grass will be banned; and safe in our condoms, eating our non-biotic cellulous mash, free from anything that will trouble our minds or hurt our tender sensibilities, we will blandly float about in our plastic bubbles touching nothing and having nothing touching us.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I despise political correctness. At the current rate, we'll all eventually be placed in individually-wrapped body condoms, and, safe in our prophylactic cocoons, we will no longer need to touch another human being (as intimacy of any sort causes all sorts of infectious abnormalities). In addition, all books will be burned as decadent and leading to thought; art will be purged as immoral; sex willl be eliminated as gross; alcohol, sugar, salt, tobacco, wood and wood byproducts, meat, vegetables, the sun, the snow, and grass will be banned; and safe in our condoms, eating our non-biotic cellulous mash, free from anything that will trouble our minds or hurt our tender sensibilities, we will blandly float about in our plastic bubbles touching nothing and having nothing touching us.

Superb!

Funny how the once quirky beliefs of the old hippies - their macrobiotic food, organic lifetsyles, their eco lightbulbs and yoga - have become rules and regulations. Nowadays to rebel you must seek out the last meat pie and chips in England and drink beer...

[Pitchwife]

The same is happening here in Germany: a growing trend to eco health tyranny, purporting to protect us against ourselves. Vaguely reminds me of the horrid things somebody like Gandalf or maybe Galadriel might have done with the Ring: making Good itself seem despisable... Although, let's hand it to Gandalf: he at least wouldn't have banned smoking.
(I write this smoking a cigarette and with a bottle of Salvator (strong Bavarian beer, 7.9 % vol.) next to my computer...)

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow they will all be illegal......


Back to 'dope.' No. Not even a ghost of a prayer. Tolkien was, like, totally a square.

He goes on to say that he brought the original legend of Numenor "into relation with the main mythology."

But was apparently mistaken in his recollection, or expressed himself obscurely. See HME V The Lost Road- the very first Numenor writings were from the start firmly placed within the Silmarillion mythos.

But, 'expressing himself obscurely,' he might just conceivably have meant by 'the main mythology' The Lord of the Rings, which certainly modified the lower end of the Numenor legend.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow they will all be illegal......

Hmmm....would that be termed Epicureannihilation?

[Lalwendë]

I'm for the high jump if the thought police call round because I now have a growing stash of about two dozen 100w tungsten lightbulbs :P

Anyway...what brought me back onto this thread was a memory of Tolkien's friendship with one of the Inklings who was apparently keen on the Golden Dawn occult 'movement' and for the life of me, I can't remember which one it was.... However, such topics must have been amongst those discussed amongst them?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Anyway...what brought me back onto this thread was a memory of Tolkien's friendship with one of the Inklings who was apparently keen on the Golden Dawn occult 'movement' and for the life of me, I can't remember which one it was.... However, such topics must have been amongst those discussed amongst them?

Charles Williams was a member of the Golden Dawn, & Lewis had apparently been interested in the 'occult' as a young man. Williams was always a bit of an odd cove, as a reading of some of his letters will reveal (he had a bit of a sadistic streak, as anyone who has read his letters to Lois Lang-Sims will be aware). I can understand why Tolkien didn't get along with him. Back on topic though, anyone interested in Tolkien's take on this subject might find Notion Club Papers worth a look.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Hmmm....would that be termed Epicureannihilation?

Well, it doesn't sound like many here would call it an epicure's eucatastrophe (or would that be epicuecatastrophe?)