Sunday 19 August 2012

Who, among living people, I would most like to meet for a long conversation...

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Christopher Tolkien: as the last Inkling; as the editor of the History of Middle Earth, especially The Notion Club Papers - which I have spent so many hundreds (?) of hours inside; and as an intense, fascinating and (to me) almost-wholly-mysterious personality.

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Who would you most like to meet for conversation, and why?

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7 comments:

Wurmbrand said...

Well, supposing you knew you would have a long evening with CJRT -- what are some questions and comments you'd want to have in mind, should they seem appropriate?

Bruce Charlton said...

@Dale - There is a long gap in what I know of Christopher T's biography between his graduation and becoming a Fellow of New College in 1964, aged 40. I wonder what he was doing through that time, how he made a living etc.

But mostly I would want to talk about his father's wish to re-connect history with mythology (dating back to the TCBS days), to discover how widely this 'project' was shared among the Inklings, whether it influenced Christopher himself etc.

JP said...

The answer, obviously, is Bruce Charlton, because he is the author of a highly thought-provoking blog!

Bruce Charlton said...

@JP - which just goes to show that it is often much less disappointing when our wishes do *not* come true...

josh said...

Jesus is a living person.

Sorry about playing gotcha, I don't get to be right very often.

dearieme said...

Jesus is a "person"?! Heretic!

Brian said...

Rene Girard