If You Were To meet JRR Tolkien would you Get Along With Him?

[Mon0Zer0]

I'd be interested to know his opinion of Michael Moorcock...

 

[BAYLOR]

I'd be interested to know his opinion of Michael Moorcock...

Moorcock actual knew Tolkien.


I get the sense that he would have though very little Michael Moorcocks Eternal Champion saga.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Moorcock actual knew Tolkien.


I get the sense that he would have though very little Michael Moorcocks Eternal Champion saga.

I didn't know he knew him. I know he wasn't a fan, to put it mildly.

I wonder what they talked about.

 

[BAYLOR]

I didn't know he knew him. I know he wasn't a fan, to put it mildly.

I wonder what they talked about.

No idea on that. He also met C S Lewis

In my case, I like Tolkien and, I like Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion saga and I liked Narnia too .

 

[Extollager]

Moorcock actual knew Tolkien.


I get the sense that he would have though very little Michael Moorcocks Eternal Champion saga.

I believe it would be more accurate to say that Moorcock met Tolkien, who was polite to the hack writer who referred to him elsewhere as being a "crypto-fascist." (I met Ursula Le Guin once, but I wouldn't say I knew her, but then I'm not trying to invoke the name of a better writer to draw attention to myself.) Tolkien served in the war against German militarism in World War I and lost most of his friends then. In World War II his sons Michael and Christopher were soldiers in the struggle against fascism of the Nazi variety. You can read their father's wartime letters to them. That the hack writer had the bad taste and evident moral feebleness to refer to Tolkien as "crypto-fascist" says nothing of importance about Tolkien but does say something about Moorcock's character. Moorcock's an author I will continue to avoid, and I hope his name will not often appear in this area of Chrons.

 

[BAYLOR]

I believe it would be more accurate to say that Moorcock met Tolkien, who was polite to the hack writer who referred to him elsewhere as being a "crypto-fascist." (I met Ursula Le Guin once, but I wouldn't say I knew her, but then I'm not trying to invoke the name of a better writer to draw attention to myself.) Tolkien served in the war against German militarism in World War I and lost most of his friends then. In World War II his sons Michael and Christopher were soldiers in the struggle against fascism of the Nazi variety. You can read their father's wartime letters to them. That the hack writer had the bad taste and evident moral feebleness to refer to Tolkien as "crypto-fascist" says nothing of importance about Tolkien but does say something about Moorcock's character. Moorcock's an author I will continue to avoid, and I hope his name will not often appear in this area of Chrons.

What Michael Moorcock said about J R R Tolkien was pretty damned disrespectful, despicable and mean spirited. On that I agree.

 

[Extollager]

This isn't the place for a discussion of Moorcock, but I wanted to follow up my earlier remark of today with the admission that the only Moorcock books I have read were ones that, I think, he probably acknowledged as being more or less hackwork -- I think I read one of the "Edward P. Bradbury" pastiches of Edgar Rice Burroughs about 50 years ago, and I know I've read the four Hawkmoon-Runestaff books. Probably people wanting to make a case -- NOT HERE! PLEASE! -- for Moorcock as a non-hack would refer to other books. I have no intention of reading them, myself, but I wanted to walk back a remark that sounded like I think Moorcock wrote nothing but hackwork. People of deplorable character may write non-hackwork. But I'm glad that Baylor and I agree about Moorcock's offensive remark about Tolkien.

Incidentally it's hilarious that, when Lancer Books published the first Hawkmoon book, it compared it to Tolkien.

Pre-1970 Paperbacks with Comparisons to Tolkien

**updated entry** Thanks in particular to Dale Nelson, and a few others who emailed me, I can now post a follow-up on what books published...

tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com

Funny to see the books that publishers in the 1960s issued with blurbs intended to snare Tolkien fans.

But this thread is in danger of derailment. That's all I will say about these matters here.

 

[jwbaccaro]

He probably likely wouldn't like the Rankin and Bass adaptations of the Hobbit and Return of the King either.

In terms of knowledge of classical literature , Im nowhere near his equal. But on the subject of fantasy literature, I could probably hold my own , for about 15 minutes if I was really lucky. I think that the two of us would not get along at all. Tolkien at best would probably view me as a intellectual lightweight of no consequence . I think on personal level I would find him aggravating.

hahaah me too. LOTR is one of my fav, though I thought it started off so damn slow! I only continued because I LOVED the Hobbit, and everyone said LOTR is a classic fantasy. So I continued reading and eventually loved it 5-6 chapters in.

I probably wouldn't get along with him either. For starters, he was a strict Catholic, and disliked his friend's (C.S.Lewis) Chronicles of Narnia because of the allegories to Christianity. Not that I'm Christian (anymore) but I found Lewis' work inspirational. Tolkien might dislike my work too, either too violent, or not enough descriptions of trees and flowers along the journey. Haha. Still, I love Tolkien's works.

 

[GEDIMINAS SIMONUTIS]

Well, I would like ask him(because he's ancestors was from East-Prussia) maybe he have a little bit original Old-Prussian blood?

 

[Aquilonian]

I used to think I would have got along with him, as he seems to have been a kindly chap who took the time to reply to anyone who write to him even when he was famous and receiving shedloads of fan mail. Then I read a biography of CS Lewis which mentioned that Tolkein strongly objected to Lewis's marriage on account of his wife being divorced, even though the woman was by that time dying of cancer, and I thought that was typical of the cruelty which religion often inspires in basically decent people. However I would still have been interested to meet Tolkein however much I disagreed with him.

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't know enough to comment on this topic, but I think this phrase:

the cruelty which religion often inspires in basically decent people.

is very well put.

 

[PadreTX]

I would hope he would think of me as a good and interesting person.

I would ask him about the different mythologies and how they influence each other, such as did any mythologies of the Mediterranean area become part of the mythologies of Northern Europe or the British Isles.

I don't know what topics I would talk about with him. It might be about medieval literature. It might be if he wanted to talk about it his experience with World War I. It might be about opinions on why some books don't get published, and why some others do.

 

[Extollager]

I would ask him about the proposed -- and even announced! -- book on the nature of language that he was going to write with C. S. Lewis.

That book must be one of the greatest "lost" books of all time -- something that would have been even more useful now, with the assaults on language that are going on, than in the middle age of these two men.

Language and Human Nature

Language and Human Nature was a joint literature project between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Their publisher had announced that the book was to be published in...

tolkiengateway.net

I can tell you this, that if that book existed it might well have been one of the most important books for my whole life.

Failing that, we have things the two men did write, also writings by Owen Barfield, a great good friend of Lewis's, and an influence on TOlkien:

The Mythopoeic Society Reviews: Splintered Light

mythsoc.org

----Flieger demonstrates the crucial influence that the work of another Inkling, Owen Barfield, had on Tolkien’s ideas and his literary output. As Flieger puts it: “Saving the Beowulf poet, Barfield’s theory of the interdependence of myth and language is the primary influence on Tolkien’s mythos."------

I'd have to be well prepared if I were to try to open that conversation with Tolkien.

Anyone who's thinking: "Owen Barfield?? Never heard of him" should get hold of the man's book Poetic Diction and hasten to give it a first reading so that you can proceed to a second reading.

This might be of interest:

https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2817&context=mythlore

 

[Tolkien RJJ]

And what would he think of you as person once he got the full measure of who you are ? What questions might you ask him.? and what sort of topic and conversation might you have with him ? And out of curiosity, is they anybody here who has actually met JRR Tolkien in Person ?


What do would he think of of todays fantasy writers ? How would react to the Peter Jackson adaptations of his books ?

Great question. I think as a fellow hobbit I would get along very well with the professor. I would ask him about everything from God to what would happen if Galadriel had faced the balrog in Lothlorien.


I think his opinions would vary on current authors, most he would pay no attention to others he would enjoy. Same with Jacksons' movie, he would find much to love and much to hate.

 

[BAYLOR]

Great question. I think as a fellow hobbit I would get along very well with the professor. I would ask him about everything from God to what would happen if Galadriel had faced the balrog in Lothlorien.


I think his opinions would vary on current authors, most he would pay no attention to others he would enjoy. Same with Jacksons' movie, he would find much to love and much to hate.

Welcome to Chrons.

 

[sciwriterPark]

I would like to ask talk to him about his war experience.

 

[Tolkien RJJ]

Welcome to Chrons.

Ty, seems like a great website.

 

[Tolkien RJJ]

I would like to ask talk to him about his war experience.

He might not enjoy that topic.

 

[Extollager]

Great question. I think as a fellow hobbit I would get along very well with the professor. I would ask him about everything from God to what would happen if Galadriel had faced the balrog in Lothlorien.


I think his opinions would vary on current authors, most he would pay no attention to others he would enjoy. Same with Jacksons' movie, he would find much to love and much to hate.

Have you seen Holly Ordway's book Tolkien's Modern Reading? Very good book, and blessedly free of the academic jargon and rubbish about critical lenses and so on that nauseate me.

 

[Le Panda du Mal]

I believe it would be more accurate to say that Moorcock met Tolkien, who was polite to the hack writer who referred to him elsewhere as being a "crypto-fascist." (I met Ursula Le Guin once, but I wouldn't say I knew her, but then I'm not trying to invoke the name of a better writer to draw attention to myself.) Tolkien served in the war against German militarism in World War I and lost most of his friends then. In World War II his sons Michael and Christopher were soldiers in the struggle against fascism of the Nazi variety. You can read their father's wartime letters to them. That the hack writer had the bad taste and evident moral feebleness to refer to Tolkien as "crypto-fascist" says nothing of importance about Tolkien but does say something about Moorcock's character. Moorcock's an author I will continue to avoid, and I hope his name will not often appear in this area of Chrons.

I'm a fan of Moorcock, I even think he makes a good point or two in that "Starship Stormtroopers" essay. But his attack on Tolkien is complete nonsense.