<< I'm forwarding this for Tom Herron. - dswo >>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 13:43:30 -0500
From: "Tom Herron" <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: Trees and Tolkein
Dear List,
I agree with David's appreciation of Tolkein's poetry which, among other
merits (that is, despite the occasional inanity of Tom Bombadill), gives a
welcome break to the monotony of the narrative style. Another weakness in
Tolkein is clearly his characterization; he's no Flaubert. ("Frodo, c'est
moi"?) Hence the movie version is able to bring out sympathy and pathos
through (generally) excellent acting (cf. Ian Holmes/Bilbo's conversations
with Frodo in Rivendell) that the writing simply doesn't. On the other
hand, one could argue that Gollum, at least, is a superbly scripted
character, as, perhaps, is Smaug.
But T's plotting is superb and his imagination simply majestical, as noted.
His historical allegorizing IS worth pondering despite his strenuous
protests that his writing was not allegorical, esp. concerning WWII (or, as
is less noted, WWI... as the deluxe DVD set of TT makes clear, the floating
bodies in the Dead Marshes owe something to T's war experience in the wet
trenches. A standard view of the WWII allegory is that Hobbit=English,
Elf=French, Dwarf=?American? Sauron to the east=Germany; the Ring=the Bomb.
A recent article in the New Yorker noted the eerie timing of the film with
the new south-eastern world threat to "civilization", and esp the title
"The Two Towers").
Also, nobody on our list so far has mentioned his environmental ethic,
which, if not new, was prophetic (I think this registers a great chord with
moviegoers today as well... how many other anti-industrial films are out
there?). His prose is at its best, in my opinion, not only in the battle
scenes but in his descriptions of forest and dell... the way the birch
leaves rustle and sunlight dapples as characters and streams wander
through; suddenly they and we are aware how suddenly small we are inside
this greater atmosphere of ancient life; the forests turn everyone into
hobbits. Tolkein clearly understands the mystery of a Teutonic forest as
he does Grendel's mere.
Let us ungrateful K-zoo Spenserians not forget that we often dine at
Bilbo's! Should one think of Fradubio when pondering how Sam and Pippin
(?) get swallowed by old man Willow? Here's a tease: I found a direct echo
of a line from Sp's CCCHA in one of Tolkein's forest descriptions in
Fellowship but the book I marked it in, alas, lies sleeping in a Swedish
forest (summer reading). Maybe I can find it when I disappear again into
my childhood. Does this new Tolkein journal have a "Gleanings" section?
--Thomas Herron
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