LOTR vs. Scholars, or Academics Can Kiss My As-taldo.

[Lush]

Yet I think a balanced assessment of Tolkien's work--or at least a fair and impartial airing of the difficulties of the text--will ultimately do him more credit. I made my comment about purple prose initially because so many of the points raised by your mystery scholar at Duke rose from issues outside Tolkien's texts. (Most of mine were similar, let me hasten to add.) To me, there are issues inside the texts which also bear on the fact that he is not taken seriously.

Touché. The main problem is, I think, that anyone hardly bothers to even discuss the flaws in Tolkien's work in any sort of thoughtful manner. Mention Tolkien, and the conversation immediately turns to giggling and Harry Potter comparisons. Most scholars out there aren't going to be willing to sit down and discuss, say, the whole problem you have with "gated communitites," because they'll be too busy making fun of the fact that you brought up the issue in the first place. The very fact that such issues are brought up, by you, by Rimbaud, et al, points to how much a work like Tolkien's needs scholarly attention. But that doesn't happen too often because most are too busy roaring with laughter, or holding their tongues. I don't even know which is worse.

But if the discussion devolves always to one of love, or faith in readers, then almost axiomatically, it seems, discussion stops.

But the love of a work is the first step in justification of it. Back in the days of yore (i.e. high school) on of the most respected teachers in the English department, doctorate and all that, asked me this question: "Why is a girl like you lugging around a book like that?" I told him that I loved it. The inevitable question that followed was, "Why does a girl like you love a book like that?" There was a multitude of answers to pick from, and I won't go into what I said, but debate eventually took place that, I think, was beneficial for both of us.

Of course, he could have been just shocked by the fact that blondes read Tolkien, but that assumption aside, isn't it obvious that when one is pressed to justify one's love of Tolkien, that a deep assessment is bound to take place? I don't know, I think at least somewhat useful in a discussion.

[ April 01, 2003: Message edited by: Lush ]