Tolkien is the Homer of the modern world. He was working with themes of media ecology concurrent with Marshall McLuhan, though his approach was more openly moralistic as opposed to McLuhan's assumed air of a dispassionate diagnostician. I suspect this is the source of many of the accusations of Tolkien's naivete - what seems on the surface to be an overly simplistic dualism. I would argue that Tolkien's ideas of good and evil are actually sophisticated, and their clear and obvious delineation does not strike me as intellectual laziness, but rather a bold assertion that is actually very hard to pull off in a way that doesn't bore intelligent readers. The whole story of LotR has at it's core the very Spenglerian idea that technics and magic arise from the same impulse. For Tolkien, being a Catholic, this impulse towards power, the "magical" mode of thought, is the same impulse that led to the fall of man in Genesis, and he places in opposition to this what he calls "enchantment" which is essentially the Christian idea of theosis. Above all else, he intended the story to be a joy to read, to be "enchanting" in accordance with the theme of the book itself, and not a work of "magic". He succeeded in this goal spectacularly, and because of this LotR is often written off as a "good story" and nothing more, like a Dumas novel. If Homer wrote The Odyssey today I'm sure it would receive the same treatment.
Asher Sullivan
I thought Tolstoy was the Homer of the modern world
Jacob Ward
*kien
Aiden Bailey
Who the fuck is Tolstoykien
Cameron Walker
What people fail to understand is that Tolkien wrote for children, his works are not deep, nor complex, nor have actual good reflections and mssages, it's just simples stories for children like a Harry Potter book. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't think he should be regarded on equal foot with the likes of Homer, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Hugo etc.
Nicholas Stewart
True, he is not on equal footing with Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, or Hugo. He is better.
Justin White
Wrong guy
Michael Jenkins
Kek kek kek kek kek kek kek kek kek
One chapter from Hugo's materpiece 'Les Misèrables' would destroy the entirety of Tolkien's fairy-tales.
Thomas Clark
Fuck off frog, I doubt you've even read Tolkien in English.
Jonathan Rogers
>nor have actual good reflections and mssages, Yes they do
Alexander Miller
Don't respond to ESL posters.
David Peterson
Tolkien himself said he hated allegories and philosophy and that his works are pure epic fairy-tale stories for children.
The Hobbit was written for his grandson...
Daniel Jackson
Tolkien's influence was from der ring des nibelungen
Leo Sullivan
This is nonsense as anyone who has studied Homer knows. Tolkien writes myth and he does it very well. Though his morality isn't ambivalent like Homer's is, both arguably have the same values. Tolkien succeeded in imbuing his work with the aspects that are shared by both epic and tragedy. It's very hard for instance not to draw parallels with Achilles and Boromir.
I studied Homer in University, and my Professor was a well known Homeric scholar who helped to translate a certain Oxford classics edition of the Iliad. He loved the Lord of the Rings and reads it on an annual basis.
Chase Hall
Classicists tend to be fans of Tolkien in my experience
Ayden Taylor
He said that he hated allegory, as in hamfisted one-for-one stand-ins for people and events from real life. He also clearly distinguished this from "applicability" or thematic significance, which he freely made use of.
Noah Walker
Is Tolkien the best pleb filter?
Henry Bell
We need more McLuhan talk on this board. Understanding Media is unironically my favourite work of non-fiction.
Eli Cooper
Have you read Laws of Media?
Leo Campbell
Yeah, if someone bashes Tolkien you can safely assume they only pretend to read books to impress hipster whores
Brayden Murphy
I love authors like Tolkien that can be appreciated by pleb and patrician alike, but filter out the middlebrow scum.
Angel Perry
Exactly! Its the ultimate tryhard litmus test Speaking of Tolkien, Chris has resigned from the estate. An Amazon series has already been announced. Personally, im hoping for an anime Silmarillian but we'll probably get a bunch of garbage Game of Thrones clone fanfic garbage instead
Ryder Allen
>im hoping for an anime Silmarillian
Veeky Forums is dead
Christian Wilson
It would be better than anything Hollywitz puts out.
Lucas Miller
Only the Hobbit was written for children
Ayden Nelson
do you even know what allegory is? It's direct symbolism, it's a 1:1 analogy with an existing concept obfuscated to some degree. It's an extremely base literary device and Tolkien is right to hate it. See: All of C.S. Lewis's works.
However, hating allegory and symbolism doesn't mean you make your work devoid of any themes or philosophical underpinnings at all, if such a thing is even possible. I would argue it's not because an author's world-view will inevitably and uncontrollably inform their writing, the same way it's impossible to write an unbiased anything.
His primary influence was Norse sagas, which were his primary area of study.