Wolfe, Tolkien, Brooks...

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 02 Jan 2002, 22:02 · from urth-v0031.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: Wolfe, Tolkien, Brooks...
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 14:02:26 -0800
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Adam wrote...

> (Has Wolfe ever mentioned Tolkien in print before?) =20

I'm pretty sure JRRT is mentioned, at least in passing, in a couple=20
of the essays on fantasy in _Castle of Days_. And I believe he's=20
quoted at least once in _The Castle of the Otter_ (which is, of=20
course, now a component of _Castle of Days_).=20

> Some aspects of his work definitely need to be reconsidered in light=20
> of it, such as the presentation of the Autarch's rule in BOTNS as the
> best possible under the circumstances,=20

Well, the point here is that "the circumstances" are not merely the
specific political situation, nor even the specifics of the dying sun
and the Monsters Under the Sea; "the circumstances" most relevant to
this point is that the Autarchy is a governance in the Fallen World.
By this (Christian) view, no government can be better than "the best=20
possible under the circumstances" until the Parousia and the Restored
World, of which Ushas itself is only a foreshadowing.

> I haven't looked at MEDITATIONS ON MIDDLE-EARTH, but possibly Wolfe's
essay
> was rejected because the image of Tolkien as propagandist for a society in
> which the lower orders cheerfully obey and serve their betters was not one
> the editor wanted to project.

For me, this is one of the things most blatantly missing from the FotR
film: while they got the look of Middle-earth right, and didn't damage
the plot too badly, they did not carry most of the characters I know and
love into the movie very well. The most horrid examples:

o Saruman as a rug-chewing Mad Scientist from a Hammer movie (well, what
  _did_ I expect from Christopher Lee...?)
o Merry and Pippin as a couple of juvenile delinquents - frankly more
  remniscent of Pepsi and Moxie from BORED OF THE RINGS
o Gimli's horrendous "speaking to the modern audience" remark that
  "nobody tosses a dwarf!"
o Etc.

But in amongst this, subtle but utterly undermining one of my favorite=20
characters: the very _essence_ of Samwise Gamgee in Tolkien is that his
relation to Frodo is an idealization of the Master-Servant relationship
- the British class system "as it should have been." And that's totally=20
gone from the movie, dammit.

> And Terry Brooks again!  First Pullman praises him, then Wolfe
> criticizes his detractors. =20

Note that this is not to praise him but to say that his enemies are=20
Wolfe's. I think Wolfe has gone a bit around the bend here; Brooks's
first novel isn't so much imitation as borderline plagiarism: but I
see Wolfe's point, which is that originality is overrated, and Tolkien
is a model eminently worth emulating.

And Andy wrote:

> Wolfe is a Conservative Catholic Christian right-winger.   Deal With
It!!!!

Bingo. So, more or less, was Tolkien. Deal with that, too.

And Heinlein was a - well, whatever he was (since most of the labels=20
usually used to slam him are blatantly untrue). Deal with it.=20

And Le Guin is a rather muzzy Taoist liberal. Deal with it.

And Pullman is a rabid anticlerical nutcase. Deal with it.

Who gives a frog's bottom? They all write some astonishing stories,
filled with the kind of humanity that allows us, whatever our=20
politics, whatever our religion, to attain (if only for a moment)
to a higher wisdom than daily life allows us.

--Blattid

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