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

Tolkien RJJ · Apr 25, 2022

Extollager said:
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.

I have not and thank you for the recommendation. I am sure I will eventually get around to it. my to-read list is ever-growing.

BAYLOR · Apr 25, 2022

Tales before Tolkien The Roots of Modern Fantasy by Douglas A. Anderson.

hitmouse · Apr 25, 2022

Is there a list of postgraduate students supervised by Tolkein? He would have been a tutor to 100s of undergraduates at Oxford, with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests, and eventual careers. It would be interesting to know if any of their recollections have been collected, or if there is a list of doctoral theses supervised by JRRT.

It might help to answer the hypothetical question posed in this thread if it takes JRRT out of the smoky back room of the Eagle & Child.

Extollager · May 17, 2022

Hitmouse, Cilli's book Tolkien's Library has a list of 68 people under the heading "J. R. R. Tolkien: Supervisor and Examiner 1929-1960" on pp. 345-353.

Mostly it is just a list of people and theses, etc. But under the entry for John Lawlor there's a citation from his book C. S. Lewis: Memories and Reflections: "My first and abiding impression was one of immediate kindness. ...the gentle creature who sucked his pipe and gazed meditatively along its stem seemed interested only in what he could do to help."

paeng · May 18, 2022

I remember reading that he disliked industrialization, including film adaptation of books, and wanted children to read his books so that in adulthood they would read the great literature of Europe, especially medieval epics.

Boaz · Jul 5, 2022

I've been thinking about whether I'd get along with Mr. Tolkien for over a year. While I feel that I really understand his basis of Christian theology for Middle-earth (or am reading even more into it than he actually intended), I do not know what else we have in common. Tolkien died five years after I was born and he's at least as old as I am now in every picture I've ever seen of him. My late twentieth century American ears can only understand about half of words of any of the audio recordings of Tolkien. I seriously doubt that he'd enjoy A Song of Ice and Fire or The First Law stories. I did not serve in the army nor am I a linguist. I've found no evidence to suggest he enjoyed basketball or football. He was married for fifty-five years while I was married for one. I don't know the characteristics of his friends. Were they listeners? Did they extol his writings? Were they outgoing? Explosive? Tactful? Judgemental? Political? Pious? My second favorite author, when I was a teen, was J.E.A. Tyler.... author of The Tolkien Companion and The New Tolkien Companion. Soooo..... I'd probably come across as fawning and vapid.... I am not sure that he'd like me.

BAYLOR · Jul 5, 2022

Boaz said:
I've been thinking about whether I'd get along with Mr. Tolkien for over a year. While I feel that I really understand his basis of Christian theology for Middle-earth (or am reading even more into it than he actually intended), I do not know what else we have in common. Tolkien died five years after I was born and he's at least as old as I am now in every picture I've ever seen of him. My late twentieth century American ears can only understand about half of words of any of the audio recordings of Tolkien. I seriously doubt that he'd enjoy A Song of Ice and Fire or The First Law stories. I did not serve in the army nor am I a linguist. I've found no evidence to suggest he enjoyed basketball or football. He was married for fifty-five years while I was married for one. I don't know the characteristics of his friends. Were they listeners? Did they extol his writings? Were they outgoing? Explosive? Tactful? Judgemental? Political? Pious? My second favorite author, when I was a teen, was J.E.A. Tyler.... author of The Tolkien Companion and The New Tolkien Companion. Soooo..... I'd probably come across as fawning and vapid.... I am not sure that he'd like me.

He would portably dislike George R R Martins , Jordan Sanderson, Goodkind , Abercrombie, Donaldson and Brooks , Feist , McKeirnan , Eddings. Lee , Barker.

Who might he Like? Possibly Holdstock , McKillip and Stoddard , LeGuin perhaps?

Toby Frost · Jul 6, 2022

I wonder what Tolkien and Peake would have made of each other? They were both multi-talented and very clever people, and good artists. I suspect Peake would have liked Tolkien, as he seemed to be a pretty easy-going (if very troubled) sort of man, provided that they'd have hit it off okay. I wonder if Tolkien would have found Peake frivolous, though.

Hugh · Jul 6, 2022

Toby Frost said:
I wonder what Tolkien and Peake would have made of each other? They were both multi-talented and very clever people, and good artists. I suspect Peake would have liked Tolkien, as he seemed to be a pretty easy-going (if very troubled) sort of man, provided that they'd have hit it off okay. I wonder if Tolkien would have found Peake frivolous, though.

I'm sure it would have greatly assisted any bonding if Peake enjoyed his beer.

Margaret Note Spelling · Jul 6, 2022

I should hope that both Tolkien and I would be polite enough people that we would get along no matter what opinions we each held of the other. Just because we might not agree on some things (and we probably do; I don't actually know enough about him personally in order to say) doesn't mean we won't have a lot to talk about, or respect each other for. I obviously wouldn't be as smart and educated as him, but intelligence isn't the only thing about people to respect--at least I hope so, because in my experience half my acquaintance is smarter and more educated than me!

There is sometimes, I feel, a tendency among people who prize intelligence to judge others by that standard alone and quietly dismiss those obviously denser people as unworthy of a certain kind of respect/friendship. I should hope Tolkien wasn't one of those. So I rather think Tolkien and I, chatting in a small gathering or something, would probably get along just fine, regardless of opinions or similar life experiences.

If nothing else, we could talk about our differences.

Christine Wheelwright · Jul 6, 2022