New Wolfe essay

Matthew Davis · 11 Dec 2001, 19:33 · from urth-v0031.mbox · original

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From: "Matthew Davis" <matthew at michaelscycles.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: New Wolfe essay
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 19:33:03 -0000
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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

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