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noWizardme
Half-elven
Nov 9 2021, 12:46pm
Post #1 of 4
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Kopp that, Tolkien
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Here's another set of writing prompts for you!
Sheldon Kopp was a psychiatrist and author. I have not (yet?) read 'If you meet the Buddha on the Road kill him’ By Sheldon Kopp, Sheldon Press, London 1974. But it contains a list of 'eternal truths', some of which can be read on this web page
Whether or not these 'eternal truths' are eternal (or even true) is not what I wanted to debate. I wondered whether anyone might like to use them as writing prompts to say something about Tolkien. For example you might take one and find a Tolkien quote that illustrates it (or rebuts it). Or you might take one and discuss how it does (or does not) seem to match themes, motifs, ideas, events etc in one of Tolkien's stories (or his other works). Or you might think of a totally different reaction.
I'd like this to be fundamentally catholic (small 'c' as in universal or suiting a wide variety of tastes; not big-C Catholic as in the church).
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My profile picture is "Kaninchen und Ente" ("Rabbit and Duck") from the 23 October 1892 issue of Fliegende Blätter (see https://en.wikipedia.org/...2%80%93duck_illusion )
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Gwytha
Rohan
Nov 9 2021, 3:10pm
Post #2 of 4
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Wow! The list is a gold mine, Tolkien-wise
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I look forward to pondering it and putting down some thoughts. At the moment it's too much a bubbling hot cauldron of ideas to pulll one out to elaborate.
Growth after all is not so much a matter of change as of ripening, and what alters most is the degree of clarity with which we see one another. -Edith Pargeter
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noWizardme
Half-elven
Nov 9 2021, 4:22pm
Post #3 of 4
(393 views)
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It will be interesting to see what ideas people have, based on Kopp's aphorisms.
Meanwhile I'm going to have to stop going around humming 'Kopp that Tolkien' to the tune of 'Stop that Pigeon' 
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My profile picture is "Kaninchen und Ente" ("Rabbit and Duck") from the 23 October 1892 issue of Fliegende Blätter (see https://en.wikipedia.org/...2%80%93duck_illusion )
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Gwytha
Rohan
Nov 12 2021, 7:27am
Post #4 of 4
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That was a fun piece of time travel for me
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No memory of "Stop that Pigeon," but "Save That Tiger" came into my head, and turns out they've got pretty much the same tune. I'm sure I haven't thought of Dastardly and Muttley in 50 years, but I do recall now watching them as a chlld.
I think many, if not all, of Kopp's aphorisms could inspire their own essays relating or comparing them to something in Tolkien. For many of them I'm not making a connection, others clash or contrast with perspectives expressed in JRRT's work, and some, to my thinking, overlap, at least in part. Rather than penning any essays, I'm going to list of a few accompanied by a Tolkien quote that seems related somehow:
8-You only get to keep what you give away.
"It goes hard parting with anything I brought out of the Elf-country. Made by Galadriel herself, too, maybe. Galadriel,' [Sam] murmured, nodding his head mournfully. He looked up and gave one last pull to the rope as in farewell.
To the complete surprise of both hobbits it came loose. Sam fell over, and the long grey coils slithered silently down on top of him.
(Book IV, chapter 1-The Taming of Smeagol)
12-It is a random universe to which we bring meaning.
'[the Ring] abandoned Gollum. Only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable: Bilbo from the Shire!
'Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you were also meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought."
(Book I, Chapter 2-The Shadow of the Past)
18-If you have a hero, look again: you have diminished yourself in some way.
'Well, we've got you with us," said Merry, 'so things will soon be cleared up.'
'I am with you at present' said Gandalf, 'but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for."
(Book VI Chapter 7-Homeward Bound)
Growth after all is not so much a matter of change as of ripening, and what alters most is the degree of clarity with which we see one another. -Edith Pargeter
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Yes, and a free earworm :)
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