Or, to come full circle, perhaps send to whole thing to Tolkien Studies?
Susanne
>There have been some fascinating postings in this thread, but have we reached
>the point where this list is still the appropriate venue? The
>controversy over
>Tolkien is old and fraught, but this is a Sidney-Spenser Discussion
>list, after
>all. Should we let this be -- and perhaps e-mail each other privately on this
>topic?
>
>Michael
>
>Quoting [log in to unmask]:
>
>> Beth, David, all ---
>>
>> Is this thread leading into, or out of, the wandering wood? It's not
>> pre-Raphaelite, but as an aid to the imagination of a post-Morris Arcadia, I
>> would suggest Virginia Woolf's 'Orlando.' If anyone's working on a syllabus
>> testing the proposition that 'endurable' language must be artificial, and as
>> far as possible from 'our slack and often frivolous idiom,' 'Orlando' is a
>> candidate. I confess, though, that only the movie version got me to the end
>> of the story.
>>
>> Cheers, Jon Quitslund
>> > Despite David's compelling and thoughtful reflections on handling irate
>> > undergraduates, what really grabbed my attention in his post was the
>> following:
>> >
>> > >In all seriousness, though, I don't think Tolkien has anything to
>> apologize
>> > >for in the way of style. It is, admittedly, an artificial style. But this
>> > >is not, ipso facto, a demerit. Cf. what C. S. Lewis said about William
>> > >Morris: "It is, of course, perfectly true that Morris invented for his
>> > >poems and perfected in his prose-romances a language which has never at
>> any
>> > >period been spoken in England...The question about Morris's style is not
>> > >whether it is an artificial language--all endurable language in longer
>> > >works must be that--but whether it is a good one...I cannot help
>> suspecting
>> > >that most of the detractors when they talk of Morris's style are really
>> > >thinking of his printing: they expect the florid and the crowded, and
>> > >imagine something like Sidney's Arcadia
>> >
>> > I am now trying in vain to imagine a pre-Raphaelite *Arcadia*, and I tip
>> my
>> > hat to any of Morris's detractors who apparently could. Nor am I having
>> > much success with the necessary corollary, a Gilbert and Sullivan parody
>> of
>> > a pre-Raphaelite Arcadia--although at least there the complications both
>> > possible and impossible in the plot wouldn't pose any unusual difficulty.
>> >
>> >
>> > BQ
>>
|