OT: Politics

[Morkilus]

Gandalf Parker said:
And that trying to read hidden meanings into it was like looking for real world connotations in Dr Seuss.

Yeah, The Lorax and the Horton books were completely just silly little books.

[Saxon]

Tolkein also created entire functional languages for the books, he was a professional linguist and took it all pretty seriously. As for Dr. Suess, with a new child in my life, I am getting to have a second look at them. Kids books yes, but with moral messages in them.

[thejeff]

The Hobbit was a bedtime story for his kids that wound up tying itself into the mythology he'd been working on for years.
The mythology grew, at least partly, as background for the languages he invented, being primarily a linguist.

I wouldn't say hidden messages, he despised allegory and such things, but that doesn't mean there isn't meaning behind the surface. The Lord of the Rings is deeply informed by his Catholic faith, without being overtly religious, a trick not that often pulled off.

Even more so in the Silmarillion mythology. For example, the origin of the orcs is left unclear because he kept debating with himself whether they had free will and were thus redeemable.

[Saxon]

Yes, Tolkien was through and through a Catholic and it shows in his work, but you have to look for it. Earlier, C.S. Lewis was mentioned and his blatant "Aslan is Christ." Lewis was a much heavier handed writer, but both tackled the same themes. They met at Oxford in the 20's and had regular drinking and discussion sessions through the 40's. A number of other authors took part in this and drafts of The Lord of the Rings, The Screwtape Letters and so forth were first discussed in the sessions. It is clear that the group were first and formost christians exploring the intellectual side of their faith, particularly through writing.

Anyone who is interesting in some academic readings on Tolkien, with a focus on the christian side, should check out "Tolkien, A Celebration." I think it falls short in examining his Green side, but it does cover a lot of other territory well.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ahhh ruin it for me.
Not that it was a big subject for my anyway.

[Saxon]

Gandalf,

What are you doing out of bed? I just realized that post about Dr. Suess must have been around 5 in the morning?

Stay well,

Saxon

[llamabeast]

I went to the pub the other day where Tolkien and C. S. Lewis and the others used to meet.

I had a very unpleasant pie.

[HoneyBadger]

Nothing worse than a bad pie.

[Saxon]

Bad pie with no beer to wash the taste away would be worse...

[Gandalf Parker]

Wasnt that pub where they met before they got famous?
No reason to think that it would be a good one.