It seems to me that the principle of charity would have us read "marvelous" as a modal designation, not an evaluation. If someone posted a call for papers on "marvelous episodes" in Ariosto or Tasso, we would all automatically assume they meant "meraviglie" and not "bits I think are great". Why construe it differently just because it's Tolkien? More to the point, if people with advanced degrees and (some of them) faculty positions at respectable institutions offer to put together a session or a journal on Tolkien, why not assume--in the absence of evidence to the contrary--that they will go about it in a scholarly way?
Clearly, this is a situation in which some people with professional credentials think a topic is worthy of their scholarly interest, and others with equally good credentials don't. Since none of us is queen of the profession, "live and let live" should be the order of the day. When people first started studying Mary Wroth and Aemylia Lanyer, there were plenty of people who thought that was self-evidently absurd. (There probably still are, though they're quieter now.) I can't off the top of my head imagine why "Christopher Reeve's Body" is a promising topic (to cite another special session slated for MLA), but I prefer not to judge a paper until I've read or heard it. Or (since my Milton class is discussing Areopagitica today), not to let any envious Juno sit cross-legged over the nativity of anyone's intellectual offspring, even if it's only with gentle mockery.
Mary R. Bowman
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Stevens Point, WI 54481
(715) 346-4338
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Full disclosure: I gave one of the papers on Tolkien at the last Kalamazoo.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Beth Quitslund
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 1:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Theorizing J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
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For the record, I would also poke fun at the launch of *Fletcher Studies*
if its promotional materials claimed that either Giles or Phineas was a
"marvellous" poet.
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