Tolkien the Metafictionist - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 10-14-2013, 05:09 AM

I'd like to pick up on one piece of this thread's themes, the relationship of the reader to the text.

In the back of my mind I always knew I was reading a fictional work. But I wanted it to be true. It felt true. I was half convinced that it must, somehow, be true. I wanted to go there. I desperately wanted it to be true. The why for this desire could become a thread all its own, and may have been discussed already, maybe often.

But for me, this is one of the greatest successes of LotR and The Hobbit. I think it's achieved, in small part, by the conceit to which NogrodtheGreat refers. I think that it is achieved to a far greater extent by Tolkien's skill as a storyteller. But the greatest reason is that Tolkien was writing about things that partake of our heritage. I knew deep down in my bones that, somehow, this was real.

Thus, it took on greater significance for me than anything else I had ever read, maybe even the bible. This, at least, is the relationship of this reader to the text.

10-14-2013, 05:09 AM	#14
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	I'd like to pick up on one piece of this thread's themes, the relationship of the reader to the text. In the back of my mind I always knew I was reading a fictional work. But I wanted it to be true. It felt true. I was half convinced that it must, somehow, be true. I wanted to go there. I desperately wanted it to be true. The why for this desire could become a thread all its own, and may have been discussed already, maybe often. But for me, this is one of the greatest successes of LotR and The Hobbit. I think it's achieved, in small part, by the conceit to which NogrodtheGreat refers. I think that it is achieved to a far greater extent by Tolkien's skill as a storyteller. But the greatest reason is that Tolkien was writing about things that partake of our heritage. I knew deep down in my bones that, somehow, this was real. Thus, it took on greater significance for me than anything else I had ever read, maybe even the bible. This, at least, is the relationship of this reader to the text.