# New Wolfe essay *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 11 Dec 2001* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Matthew Davis *11 Dec 2001, 19:33* There's an essay by Wolfe about Tolkien in December's "Interzone": "The Best Introduction to the Mountains". It's mostly autobiographical: how he discovered LOTR in 1956, the experience of reading it, poetic inscriptions he made in the individual volumes, and the transcript of a letter from Tolkien to Wolfe. In particular Wolfe praises the books because their medieval setting embodies a system of social order and responsibilities, of defined duties and freedoms - the Christian order itself, even if there is no sight of God himself in the books. Curiously, the ultra-Catholic Lafferty despised LOTR because he thought it was a diminished fantasy world of second-hand people and concepts with a big fence set up around it and a flashing sign that proclaimed "God Keep Out!". Matthew Davis --- ### Jerry Friedman *12 Dec 2001, 23:52 · follows Matthew Davis* > --- Matthew Davis wrote: > There's an essay by Wolfe about Tolkien in December's "Interzone": "The > Best > Introduction to the Mountains". It's mostly autobiographical: how he > discovered LOTR in 1956, the experience of reading it, poetic > inscriptions > he made in the individual volumes, and the transcript of a letter from > Tolkien to Wolfe. > > In particular Wolfe praises the books because their medieval setting > embodies a system of social order and responsibilities, of defined > duties > and freedoms - the Christian order itself, even if there is no sight of > God > himself in the books. "No sight of God" is literally true, but God is busily arranging coincidences, prophetic dreams, and stuff like that. Sort of like TBotNS, as a matter of fact. I wonder whether Tolkien was Wolfe's model in that book. > Curiously, the ultra-Catholic Lafferty despised LOTR because he thought > it > was a diminished fantasy world of second-hand people and concepts with a > big > fence set up around it and a flashing sign that proclaimed "God Keep > Out!". It's also interesting, at least to me, that as a child I felt a bit betrayed when I realized that _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ was Christian propaganda, and I'm glad LotR didn't do that to me. Obviously I've gotten over this, since I like Wolfe. Jerry Friedman ---