Tolkien: Stories are always about one thing

[Snicklefritz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1687469355867553793

 

[Lacedaemonian]

Not that I would ever disagree with the great man, but I find most stories are about the difficulty of living. I guess that is only a philosophical sidestep. When I write, which is not often and never for long, the themes are almost entirely about the human condition of loneliness that we contend with from day 1 to day 0.

 

[farntfar]

I might agree with Simone de Beauvoir statement that death is always an unacceptable intruder, even when life is relinquish willingly. But I don't think that make LOTR or any other story principally about death.

I suppose you could argue that the difficulties between Elves and Men was largely about their jealousy on both sides concerning death, especially during the time of Numenor. But the rest? It's surely about preserving life, and the quality of life.

He said it was true of LARGE stories; so stories covering large periods of time. So I suppose there will inevitably occur a number of deaths within them, some of them given willingly for the sake of others, but that doesn't make the story about death.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Death and change are synonymous in many respects. Deaths in Tolkien's stories usually bring the end to some things and a beginning to others; but they always have significance.

My opinion of Tolkien is that he laments the death of a greener, more peaceful, way of life that gave way to towns and cities and the industrialisation that followed (which in many respects is what LOTR is all about). When we look at the 'good' guys in Middle-earth, they are the ones who largely live in agricultural societies, whereas the 'baddies' like Sauron and Saruman are literally forging their way to the detriment of this.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

...we'd all better pack in the >300 word stories so if that Yeats lad was to be heeded

 

[Lacedaemonian]

Again, would never argue with Yeats. Was that his gravestone?

 

[HareBrain]

I would broaden it slightly. Everyone's death is an unnatural violation to their ego, because the ego considers that it damn well should be immortal. I think this is one aspect of the tension between a person's ego-self and the exterior world's reality, and this probably encompasses almost all human stories, large or small. But death is the biggest aspect of that, and so is the subject of the bigger stories.

 

[BAYLOR]

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...we'd all better pack in the >300 word stories so if that Yeats lad was to be heeded

I have The Collected Poems of W B Yeats. There is so much magic , majesty and power in his poems . W. B. Yeats put his heart and soul into everything he ever wrote and did .

 

[AllanR]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1687469355867553793

Twitter is again not letting one read posts there if one isn't signed up.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Are you sure that he didn't actually say that stories were always about one  ring?

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Again, would never argue with Yeats. Was that his gravestone?

That's it -that quote always sticks in my head, not sure if I understand the bleakness.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

Horseman, Pass By is the title of one of the few Larry McMurtry novels I haven't read. From what I have read the epitaph wasn't intended to be bleak but rather to laugh at death. I certainly didn't read it that way.

 

[BAYLOR]

Horseman, Pass By is the title of one of the few Larry McMurtry novels I haven't read. From what I have read the epitaph wasn't intended to be bleak but rather to laugh at death. I certainly didn't read it that way.

Under Westerns would suggest The Track of the Cat by Walter Van Timburg Clark . He also wrote The Oxbow Incident.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Perhaps he was asking the one who rides a pale horse to find another to take with him?

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I think Tolkien was correct, but perhaps he meant myths (in the original sense of the word, not the current "it's not true" sense) not stories. Tolkien was creating a complete mythology. The brilliant idea at the heart of his mythos was that elves are immortal and humans mortal. That allowed him to compare and contrast in an absolutely unique way. So, yes... all myths are about death.

 

[Toby Frost]

It's such a vague comment that I don't really know what it means at all, and quoting a French philosopher has never clarified anything for me, I'm afraid.

 

[msstice]

View attachment 108009
...we'd all better pack in the >300 word stories so if that Yeats lad was to be heeded

Could have done with an editor. I mean, if that's the last few sentences you're gonna write, at least do a second draft.

 

[msstice]

It's such a vague comment that I don't really know what it means at all, and quoting a French philosopher has never clarified anything for me, I'm afraid.

The proper form is to quote a German philosopher in response.

 

[Boaz]

I tend to agree with Professor Tolkien. Isn't the thought of death a search for the bottom line? Isn't the vision, the acceptance, the reluctance, or even a brush with death set our minds upon the meaning of life?

I am not a writer, just a reader. But death as a topic or theme gets my attention going towards purpose and meaning quicker than say leaves on a tree, flying balloons, or a wedding. I'm not saying that leaves, balloons, nor weddings don't have any place in speaking on the purpose of life, but they don't grab my attention as easily nor as quickly as death.

Just to comment upon Tolkien's pronounciation.... As an educated fifty-seven year old American, who has lived in the Midwest/the South/the West Coast/the Great Plains (and Taiwan), I find myself comprehending about seven to eight words out of ten spoken by Tolkien. This really makes me doubt my education, my love of the English language, my ardor for Tolkien's works, and my respect for the man himself. How much of the meaning of Tolkien's English and stories am I missing?

 

[Swank]

Death? Pffft. Stories are about risk.