Eldacar
Physical Acolyte
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2024
- Messages
- 152
For starters, here is link to the book in question. If anyone is unfamiliar with the Internet Archive: You can just set up an account and borrow the book to read it online for free, and it is like a library completely legal, so no worries.
I came along this book a few weeks ago and since it's a comparably short read of around 170 pages, I gave it a try, while pretending to work.
It is mainly written to refute literary criticisms of Tolkien - hence defending - but while pointing out the inherent values concerning community, spirituality and especially ecology transferred in (mainly) the Lord of the Rings, the book oftentimes steers away from being a specific response to being a sort of Tolkien Manifesto on why the general public should read and engage with Tolkien. That isn't to say that Curry looses sight of literary critics. The book is entertaining to read since even though it being scientific it has been formatted for readability with footnotes absent from the text and moved completely into the appendix. Patrick Curry obviously is deeply in love with Middle-Earth and has a way of grasping and expressing rather vague feelings one might have while reading Tolkien. In many of his passages I found him explaining to me why I even developed an interest in Tolkien as a young adult and how I felt while doing it, which at one time even felt a bit eerie. Throughout the book he is very plain in criticising the current political and economic system that is the major driver of ecologic collapse and the shaping of man's unsustainable and arrogant stance towards nature. While this at most times adds tremendously to the readability and significance of the book, it also sometimes falls short and degrades a bit into a short rant against an ominous and mostly faceless opponent.
Concerning ecology, he made a good many thought-provoking points and I enjoyed that part the most. Second to this is his chapter that sheds some light on the role of Christianity and religion in Tolkien's Works. To me as a nonreligious person, the following sentence really stood out since it captured how a non-theistic core belief, can still be of a religious nature, which makes me reconsider how I think of religious belief.
"For reasons already discussed in the previous chapter, the things, places and people we love will be saved for their own sakes or not at all; and that is ultimately a religious valuing." (P. 119)
The polemical element Curry's writing displays is - as stated - a net win for the book most of the time, but especially in the end to me this sours a bit, as it is overdone. The most noteable example of this is at the end of Chapter 5 when positioning Tolkien in the broader world of myth and fantasy. While his writings concerning Tolkien are an intricate love letter his judgement of the works of others is sharp and dismissing, at times even a bit insulting.
"For all the reasons I have given, this is Tolkien's true company of peers. He is saved by his deep and tough roots in an ancient place from the pathetically deracinated (and therefore shallow) universalism of Star Wars with its bargain-basement Jungian archetypes as eulogized by Joseph Campbell" (P. 151)
He is writing with heated arrogance of an adolescent that prides himself for liking something that is real art not like all the other stupid people. I know, because he sounds like me aged 14 only more eloquently. This made me rethink the book shortly before it was done. I liked it very much, and it definitely widened my view and understanding of Tolkien, but it is also the work of an academic that maybe is a bit too full himself and the author he likes the most.
Have any of you read it? What are your thoughts on it?
I came along this book a few weeks ago and since it's a comparably short read of around 170 pages, I gave it a try, while pretending to work.
It is mainly written to refute literary criticisms of Tolkien - hence defending - but while pointing out the inherent values concerning community, spirituality and especially ecology transferred in (mainly) the Lord of the Rings, the book oftentimes steers away from being a specific response to being a sort of Tolkien Manifesto on why the general public should read and engage with Tolkien. That isn't to say that Curry looses sight of literary critics. The book is entertaining to read since even though it being scientific it has been formatted for readability with footnotes absent from the text and moved completely into the appendix. Patrick Curry obviously is deeply in love with Middle-Earth and has a way of grasping and expressing rather vague feelings one might have while reading Tolkien. In many of his passages I found him explaining to me why I even developed an interest in Tolkien as a young adult and how I felt while doing it, which at one time even felt a bit eerie. Throughout the book he is very plain in criticising the current political and economic system that is the major driver of ecologic collapse and the shaping of man's unsustainable and arrogant stance towards nature. While this at most times adds tremendously to the readability and significance of the book, it also sometimes falls short and degrades a bit into a short rant against an ominous and mostly faceless opponent.
Concerning ecology, he made a good many thought-provoking points and I enjoyed that part the most. Second to this is his chapter that sheds some light on the role of Christianity and religion in Tolkien's Works. To me as a nonreligious person, the following sentence really stood out since it captured how a non-theistic core belief, can still be of a religious nature, which makes me reconsider how I think of religious belief.
"For reasons already discussed in the previous chapter, the things, places and people we love will be saved for their own sakes or not at all; and that is ultimately a religious valuing." (P. 119)
The polemical element Curry's writing displays is - as stated - a net win for the book most of the time, but especially in the end to me this sours a bit, as it is overdone. The most noteable example of this is at the end of Chapter 5 when positioning Tolkien in the broader world of myth and fantasy. While his writings concerning Tolkien are an intricate love letter his judgement of the works of others is sharp and dismissing, at times even a bit insulting.
"For all the reasons I have given, this is Tolkien's true company of peers. He is saved by his deep and tough roots in an ancient place from the pathetically deracinated (and therefore shallow) universalism of Star Wars with its bargain-basement Jungian archetypes as eulogized by Joseph Campbell" (P. 151)
He is writing with heated arrogance of an adolescent that prides himself for liking something that is real art not like all the other stupid people. I know, because he sounds like me aged 14 only more eloquently. This made me rethink the book shortly before it was done. I liked it very much, and it definitely widened my view and understanding of Tolkien, but it is also the work of an academic that maybe is a bit too full himself and the author he likes the most.
Have any of you read it? What are your thoughts on it?
