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Originally Posted by tumhalad2
haha no I understand...and yes those forumers should be told! I see what you're saying and I suppose there is little I can say against it. Ultimately, as you say, all literature is infused with some kind of social outlook, though with Tolkien I think it is, if anything, a byproduct of his concious attempts to explore entirely unrelated themes.
Though The Lord of the Rings may be infused with "nostalgia" I believe it would be dangerous to simply assume that this was because Tolkien had a particular fetish with it for its own sake; I don't think it is this simple and I believe people like Brin have manipulated this to their own advantage. Taking Tolkien's works as a whole, I think a lot more can be said not only for his 'telling a tale' but also for the themes of 'death and the desire for deathlessness' . I know I keep going on about it but I think theres something to be said for it.  |
Well, nostalgia is to me a negative concept as a nostalgic person concerns himself with something already lost and prefers to remember and cherish an often idealised past rather than trying to do something about the present situation.
Then again, most people (myself included) have a tendency towards bittersweet nostalgia and I certainly don't hold it against Tolkien if he harboured a wistful longing for a lost idealised English conuntyside. I didn't use to think that death and deathlessness was a major theme in LotR but now thinking about it I certainly see your point. These themes become even more important in his post LotR writings on ME, like what can be found in HoME X: Morgoth's Ring. Much of this book to me reads like the contemplations of an aging christian with a curious mind, trying to come to terms with his own mortality and religious beliefs.