How comes hippies liked Tolkien stories so much

[herlig9]

Despite how Tolkien didnt give that in return?

 

[Duguay]

Maybe they were interested in nature and environmentalism? Opposed to polluting the environment and knocking down trees? I think I've heard modern "tree huggers" derided as hippies or neo-hippies, or something.

I think I've heard jokes about the drugs, too. The drugs cause a mind-altering state, a trip, an alternative state of consciousness. Which arguable, reading does too, without the drugs. And The Lord of the Rings was not like other books, I gather, much more fantastic than the average book. Maybe it was a heightened trip, doubling down by taking the mind-altering drugs while reading TLotR? Something about there wasn't a sci-fi or fantasy section in bookstores back then, those genres would have been looked at as embarrassing.

Tolkien was a bit of a rebel, but he was a dignified rebel. He swam with the current and didn't scare people. He found a meaningful place that he like within society, and within the realm of academia he challenged the usual assumptions about storytelling, fantasy, fairy tale literature and he did it in a cordial, good-natured way.

The hippies were probably just seen as rebelling against every thing. Everything. Maybe Tolkien felt embarrassed about hippies seeming gaudy and undignified, embracing his work and lifting it up. I haven't read Tolkien's biography yet, maybe he felt he had a reputation that was threatened, or thought he had a reputation he needed to preserve.

Just speculating, although it's uninformed speculation and generalizing.

 

[herlig9]

Maybe they were interested in nature and environmentalism? Opposed to polluting the environment and knocking down trees? I think I've heard modern "tree huggers" derided as hippies or neo-hippies, or something.

I think I've heard jokes about the drugs, too. The drugs cause a mind-altering state, a trip, an alternative state of consciousness. Which arguable, reading does too, without the drugs. And The Lord of the Rings was not like other books, I gather, much more fantastic than the average book. Maybe it was a heightened trip, doubling down by taking the mind-altering drugs while reading TLotR? Something about there wasn't a sci-fi or fantasy section in bookstores back then, those genres would have been looked at as embarrassing.

Tolkien was a bit of a rebel, but he was a dignified rebel. He swam with the current and didn't scare people. He found a meaningful place that he like within society, and within the realm of academia he challenged the usual assumptions about storytelling, fantasy, fairy tale literature and he did it in a cordial, good-natured way.

The hippies were probably just seen as rebelling against every thing. Everything. Maybe Tolkien felt embarrassed about hippies seeming gaudy and undignified, embracing his work and lifting it up. I haven't read Tolkien's biography yet, maybe he felt he had a reputation that was threatened, or thought he had a reputation he needed to preserve.

Just speculating, although it's uninformed speculation and generalizing.

I heard reason he specified "weed" to mean tobacco in LOTR books. Because he didnt like how hippies tried to say it was like drugs or something.
But yeah Tolkien is a legend!

 

[Ent]

I'm a little confused, as the Lord of the Rings was published in 1954, The Hobbit in 1937, and the "Hippie" movement didn't even start until the 1960s.

Not sure how we would connect hippie hatred, 'weed', and stuff with his published works as they preceded the hippies... though he may have developed a dislike for them later. (he wasn't alone.)

Addition: having lived through the 60s, I was unaware the 'hippies' had much love for Tolkien out of the ordinary either. But if they did, I would say it would be for the same reason other people did. It was a fantastic work. It was mythology. It was fantasy.. It was 'different'. And the 'hippies' were definitely looking for 'different' and an 'alternate reality'. Those were years of a certain level of 'rebellion' and 'demand' - and the 'difference' provided by Tolkien may have been attractive for that reason. But those loving his works were a far larger group than just the 'hippies', who - at the end of the day and in spite of their desires to look 'entirely different' in their own way, were nonetheless just people like any other people.

 

[Deimos]

When you are on acid things either look very good (good trip) or things look very bad (bad trip).
When they were reading Tolkien they were having more good trips than bad trips.
Next question.

 

[Eljorahir]

From the Wikipedia article "Hippie":

"A July 1967 Time magazine study on hippie philosophy credited the foundation of the hippie movement with historical precedent as far back as the sadhu of India, the spiritual seekers who had renounced the world and materialistic pursuits by taking "Sannyas". Even the counterculture of the Ancient Greeks, espoused by philosophers like Diogenes of Sinope and the cynics were also early forms of hippie culture. It also named as notable influences the religious and spiritual teachings of Buddha, Hillel the Elder, Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi, Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi and J. R. R. Tolkien."

I found the article and (not having read the entire thing) did locate this sentence referencing our guy:

In a paragraph citing various historical figures which the hippies relate to for different reasons...
"St. Francis of Assisi, who left a rich Italian merchant family to live in poverty among the birds and beasts, is another hero, along with Gandhi (for his patient nonviolence), Aldous Huxley (for his praise of hallucinogens in Doors of Perception), and J. R. R. Tolkien's Hobbits (with their quirky gentleness and hairy toes).

Here's the webpage for the article if anyone would care to look for more Tolkien mentions:

The TIME Vault: July 7, 1967

Check out this page from the July 7, 1967 issue of TIME

time.com

 

[Þráinn Þórhallsson]

They are tree huggers. That's simple.