Doctor Tolkien

[lindil]

I know the good Professor was only granted an honarary Doctorate, but I was laying in bed attempting some of Treebeards breathing technique's [ well what I guess them to be anyway] and the thought returned to me that JJRT was in a real sense a Doctor.

I can only imagine that whomsoever decided to apply the title to those who did not practice a medical profession did so with the implication that these 'Doctors' had taken their field to such a level that, whatever it was, it healed or to use the root word made whole those whom opened themselves to the Doctor's influence, regarless of the specific profession involved.

This is certainly the case I am sure we all agree with JRRT's writings. Indeed with his idea of Eucatastrophe one could indeed say that was part of his aim.

I am hopeful some of the more learned amongst us can add to my begining, or that some of us may have more specific examples of how the writings of JRRT may have helped them in this fashion.

I know for me I have always had a sense that painful though it was reading the LotR and co. during the entirety of my teen years helped me to see what was going on around me in the destruction of beautiful Oak forests for tacky suburbs [tree's were piled up and uprooted without even the poor exscuse of feeding the fires] Public education was revealed as an exercise in mind/societal control [at worst] or a buch of manure only tangentially related to being a citizen in a country in the midst of moral, ecological and political crisis.

Indeed the entire culture around me appeared fallen and I credit JRRT's writings with making that plain and showing [ through the examples of the Elves and also through following up references to his Faith] me a way through and out of it all.

[ January 24, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]

[littlemanpoet]

Lindil: Greetings. I don't think we've communicated directly till now, though I've read your posts and scanned your amazing project on the Sil with much respect.

Doctor of "what", I wonder? Philosophy? Somehow that may be the best, but what Tolkien gave us seems to go beyond that. Doctor of the Twentieth Century? [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] Sorry. I couldn't help it. Doctor of Subcreation? I kind of like that.

To answer your question more directly, what Tolkien did for me, and for others I think, was to subcreate a world large enough and deep enough to encompass and interpret twentieth century realities back to us in a way that give hope amid all there is to potentially despair about. He gave my world meaning that survives and grows while all other attempts at meaning wither in the cold harsh wind of irrelevance. My own background of Calvinism is such a dying vine - at least for me. If not for Tolkien, I fear to think what fool's teachings I might have latched onto to find hope.

[lindil]

Thanks for the gracious words littemanpoet, I too have enjoyed your many rewarding posts.

As for the Doctor of what, well, I would hazard of Literature, but Sub-creation is certainly more specific and acurrate.

I would imagine that his honorary Dr'ate was in linguitics, and I would personally be willing to wager that [properly spoken] Elvish alone might have therapeutic effects similar to the mideaval harp playing used in terminal wards in the US these days.

The very sounds are of a higher order, if you will, than mortal tounges.

So, I think he was in reality a Doctor or Master in several area's at least.

[ January 24, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I can only imagine that whomsoever decided to apply the title to those who did not practice a medical profession did so with the implication that these 'Doctors' had taken their field to such a level that, whatever it was, it healed or to use the root word made whole those whom opened themselves to the Doctor's influence, regarless of the specific profession involved.

Actually the word and title "doctor" derives from the Latin doctor, a teacher, (from docere: to teach). A doctor of Philology is every bit as much a doctor as the MD who treats him, it's just that a medical doctorate qualifies someone to practice medicine.

Certainly your experiences bear out my view that the title suits Tolkien perfectly. His use of language alone is an education, but he also manages to expose the follies of modern society without recourse to clumsy allegory, which makes him all the more of an educator in my opinion. The Shire, for example, is almost a manifesto for an ideal society; one in which no complicated machines are required (apart from clocks, apparently); in which life is simple and in tune with nature, and in which authority is loosely imposed and highly accountable. In that respect it can sit happily in the company of Utopia, Erewhon, Lilliput and even Prospero's island.

Like Swift, Tolkien shows us through the actions of his characters and what befalls them how people ought to behave, and this is scarcely surprising, given his original intent: one of the uses of mythology is to pass on the values and standards of the culture that spawns it. Most importantly of all, however, he does this in a manner that entertains. He doesn't preach, save through example and any parallels between his world and that which we inhabit stem from the sheer detail of the setting, the carefully consistent and plausible behaviour of the characters.

I'm running out of time here, so I'll have to cut this short. Suffice it to say that Tolkien was a doctor if ever there was one.

[Rimbaud]

He certainly 'doctored' his mother tongue. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

More than that sardonicism however, he did sub-create to teach, thereby fulfilling somewhat the criteria above.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Lindil,

You bring up some interesting points. If I understand you correctly, one of your central questions is this: have the writings of JRRT ever helped bring healing to your heart?

Let me begin by briefly discussing one side issue you raise--the whole question of JRRT being a "doctor" and how this may relate to the theme of healing. I myself hold a doctorate in medieval history, so perhaps my views on this are a little different. I absolutely agree that Tolkien's writings do contain within them words and wisdom which can bring healing to a troubled heart. However, having known too many Ph.ds, I would say that this has little direct tie-in with his academic credentials. I've known some real stinkers who hold doctorates, figures that resemble slimy Sarumans rather than any of the "good" or "true" characters in LotR or Silm.

Even at its best, a doctorate is no more than an academic degree that tells someone you should have a certain amount of knowledge in your head. What it doesn't say is how much goodness you have in your heart. I have been privileged to know a few folk with great goodness in their hearts. Some of these people had strings of degrees, while others had none at all. It was the goodness that made them special, not the degrees.

And I would say the same is true for Tolkien. Certainly, his considerable knowledge of linguistics, literature, etc. helped him communicate his goodness to a wider audience than would be the case with another person who did not have those vast abilities. But without the core goodness that lay in Tolkien's heart, all his degrees would have been worthless!

As to the second part....whether JRRT's writings have the capability of healing folk....I would say definitely yes. Of course, I base this on my own experience, as most of us will do when responding to a question of this sort.

My own example is somewhat extreme, and I almost hesitate to use it here, because I don't want to stifle discussion. Someimes that happens when you discuss things other folk may not be comfortable with.

Let me explain. Fifteen years ago, my husband and I lost a strapping, seven month old baby to SIDS (crib or cot death). We checked on our daughter at one point in the night, and she was fine. Two hours later she had died.

A great many healing things happened that next year to pull us through the bad times. I won't go into all the family and friends who helped us so we could make it. But there were times when folk weren't there, and I was left alone at home wondering how I could get through to the next day. And at least a few of those times, I dragged out my very well worn copy of LotR and read. And on some level and in some mysterious way, I found myself responding to certain characters and themes that JRRT put forth, and the only word I can use to describe that process is "healing".

The whole idea of hope, of not despairing even when times are bad, was something that spoke directly to me. I was also determined not to become another Denethor, either literally or figuratively. This wasn't an abstract idea, but a real threat, since I'd met another woman who'd lost a baby to SIDS who ended up wrecking her life with too much alcohol and anger and bleak despair.

Finally, I've always been partial to hobbits and particularly to Frodo. Immediately after Heather's death, I could not help but identify closely with this little hobbit in terms of how he had to struggle with himself at the end of the tale. A recent essay has said that Frodo had a case of "shell shock" or post-traumatic stress syndrome. But when I looked at his character, I felt he was dealing with the process of grieving....grieving for what had been lost (the Ring), and for those things within himself that had changed so much that they would never be the same again.

Again, some folk have suggested that travelling to the West was Frodo's way of running off and not facing things in the Shire. But I didn't see it like that. In my experience, grief makes us sit still in one place and not move at all. So in my eyes, Frodo's decision to move west was born from his genuine desire to be healed, not simply a despairing escape from the Shire.

It's strange but it never bothered me that, at the end of the book, we see Frodo broken down, and aren't totally sure if he'll actually achieve healing in the West. I figured life was like that. Your only real decision is whether you chose to struggle on, since no one can predict how things will end up. If Tolkien had showed me a Frodo totally healed, I probably would have thrown down the book in disgust and said that life wasn't like that--some things hurt too much. But instead, he showed me that even a broken down, grieving hobbit could respond graciously to his friend Sam and do something to try to put the pieces back together again.

I prefer the word healer to doctor, since it seems more genuinely "Middle-earth". But I do agree that, for me, the healing nature of Tolkien's world was central.

[ January 24, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[mark12_30]

If I understand you correctly, one of your central questions is this: have the writings of JRRT ever helped bring healing to your heart?

Yes.

[ January 24, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]

[Voronwe]

Tolkien's doctorate was an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University awarded in 1972. Interestingly enough, this was not for the Lord of the Rings, but for his academic work in Philology.

[mark12_30]

Lindil, you wrote:

Indeed the entire culture around me appeared fallen and I credit JRRT's writings with making that plain and showing [ through the examples of the Elves and also through following up references to his Faith] me a way through and out of it all.

I would heartily agree. I would summarize it like this: He attempted to create a mythos that pointed to the Truth (he states also that the Gospel is the one completely true Myth) in order to draw those who heard the story to pursue that truth, simply by reading his Tale.

In my case he most certainly succeeded.

[ January 24, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]

[HerenIstarion]

Bringing this up for the sake of Canonicity thread