|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
squire
Half-elven
Feb 3 2013, 2:21pm
Views: 2756
Shortcut
|
I think your defense of Tolkien as a writer is about as good as can be made, against the accusation that he is not a "great" writer such as is taught in advanced English Literature classes in high school and college.
Another point, perhaps, is to consider who he is being compared to: those authors currently taught and celebrated by academically-trained and employed critics. As his defenders (like Shippey, Drout, and Rosebury) have noted, Tolkien's accusers are not as sure about what good writing is, as they are sure that Tolkien's writing is not it. But these three Tolkien-studies critics, who are modern professors of English, have speculated that modern educational tastes in reading and writing world-class literature tend to favor authors who use English in a highly artful way to explore the inner selves of characters, and how those characters experience the world they live in (squire's attempt at summing up the argument that what makes Tolkien a "bad writer" is that he doesn't do this).
Tolkien fans, if they are attentive, should recognize that this is almost a prescription of what Tolkien does not do in his writing. His language is relatively plainly structured and his narratives are straightforward third-person accounts of events and dialogue. His exploration of emotions is restrained and often follows generic models from early 20th century heroic adventures or romances. Only his use of vocabulary seems artful to us in terms of actual composition, and I would say that many of the words he uses were much better known to his readers in the mid-20th century than they are even now. His manipulations of syntax and style to evoke a medieval-era setting are quite artful (as Drout and Shippey have written), but that kind of accomplishment is downplayed by critics who believe writers should engage the present day in a more direct manner.
As has been noted already, Tolkien's use of "setting" is incomparable. He creates entire worlds, including races, languages, and customs, that are engaging and self-contained. In our Rosebury discussion last year (sample here), we talked at length about Rosebury's argument that Tolkien's greatness as a writer really should be argued in terms of his world-creation, and his use of English to convey that world in terms that engage the average reader. But that kind of creation, in a fantastical setting, is not really highly-valued by the critics who as I have said are looking for something else, however poorly they define it, in art literature.
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd (and NOW the 4th too!) TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion; and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
 = Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.
|
|
|
|
Subject
|
User
|
Time
|
Why do some people say that Tolkien wasn't a writer?
|
Rane
|
Feb 2 2013, 1:19am
|
No accounting for taste.
|
Elizabeth
|
Feb 2 2013, 2:38am
|
|
He has certainty lasted a long time!
|
Eowyn3
|
Feb 2 2013, 6:31am
|
|
What is great literature?
|
Angharad73
|
Feb 2 2013, 10:39am
|
|
I wonder if they regret their decision
|
Rane
|
Feb 2 2013, 9:19pm
|
|
What makes a writer...
|
Angharad73
|
Feb 2 2013, 10:01pm
|
|
What about it?
|
sador
|
Feb 3 2013, 8:01am
|
|
I think it's a matter of opinion -
|
geordie
|
Feb 3 2013, 9:47am
|
|
Well put
|
squire
|
Feb 3 2013, 2:21pm
|
|
Also well put.
|
Elizabeth
|
Feb 3 2013, 6:59pm
|
|
Some critical reviews...
|
Morthoron
|
Feb 7 2013, 3:07am
|
|
Unfortunately, Tolkien will never win it.
|
macfalk
|
Feb 3 2013, 12:05pm
|
|
Tolkien never will win the Nobel Prize for Literature
|
geordie
|
Feb 3 2013, 12:48pm
|
|
The Nobel Prize has been awarded posthumously
|
macfalk
|
Feb 3 2013, 3:40pm
|
|
Just a minor, supplementary point: The Nobel Prize Committee
|
NZ Strider
|
Feb 11 2013, 7:27am
|
|
I heard that too
|
Sam20
|
Feb 27 2013, 5:31pm
|
|
|
|
