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Post by Doul on Aug 25, 2003 13:58:08 GMT -5
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Post by isaacplautus on Aug 12, 2004 17:18:07 GMT -5
Speaking as a liberal Christian(I believe George Bush to be the antichrist!) who admires both Mieville and Tolkien, I would just like to respond to Mieville's attack on the "fantasy daddy" and his friend, C.S. Lewis. Obviously, as a far-left socialist, his main objection to Middle-Earth is that it is not "politically correct." Well, of course it isn't! Tolkien based it on ancient Medieval texts, Beowulf in particular, which he had studied and loved his whole life. Naturally, the social systems in the book will be the social systems of medieval Europe. The most poisonous idea in modern literature is the way we look at an author's politics, and if it doesn't suit us we chuck him out of the window. Here in North Carolina, my high school recently banned Mark Twain because a group of parents didn't like the fact that Twain regularly uses the word "nigger." Well, how the fuck can you write a book about 19th Century Southern U.S. without using the word "nigger?" Twain was very concerned about black civil rights and was trying to write realistically about the world he was living in. Tolkien had the racial and sexist stereotypes inherent in his era. Mieville may have had them too if he had been born one hundred years ago. If China is reading this, I would like to point him to a letter Tolkien wrote denouncing a German publisher who refused to publish the Hobbit unless he could confirm Tolkiens Aryan origins. Tolkien was by no means insensitive to racial issues. Remember that in LOTR it is a Hobbit, the lowest racial order, who saves the world by destroying the one ring. It is a great mistake for China to associate C.S. Lewis with rugby and english schools, because he hated them both!(read Surprised by Joy.) The ironic thing about Pullman and Mieville's attacks is that Lewis would probably greatly admire their books. Though he was a Christian himself, he did not restrict his reading list only to Christian authors. He was a fan of H.G. Wells and Bram Stoker, among others. Tolkien liked Robert Howard. It is also a mistake for Mieville to label Charles Williams as more free-thinking than Lewis and Tolkien. In fact, Williams possessed the same views as they did. Williams himself believed in the horrific idea that women are unsuitable for the priesthood because of their menstral cycle. There is no doubt that the Tolkien clones, in general, are a sorry artistically low bunch. But, in the words of the great critic John Clute, "Tolkiens books themselves remain, untouched by the myriad borrowings." Clute likes Tolkien, but is against modern Tolkien imitators, as am I.
P.S. It is also, in my view, possible to admire Wagner and not be an anti-semite. Case in point, the late Nietchzee(sic) and D.H. Lawrence.
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Post by Doul on Sept 23, 2004 13:48:07 GMT -5
what the...?
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