Saturday, 16 May 2026

Tolkien's world is Not a "modern myth"

I have reworked my post on the "fuzziness" of myth, from a couple of days ago - and with reference to JRR Tolkien's work - over at the Notion Club Papers blog. 

The argument is that Tolkien is "literature" rather than myth; tied to his actual writings in a way that myth is (almost by definition) not. 

I also mention that the idea Tolkien is a myth is used as a "justification" for new "versions" of Tolkien, mostly in other media such as movies and TV, that distort, subvert, and invert the spirit and meanings of the original. 

We can see how far this process can go with such characters as Sherlock Holmes; where, nowadays, few read the superb original stories, and most people "know" Holmes only through the lens of recent - and didactically leftist - "re-interpretations". 

Of course; such deliberate desecration and destruction of Tolkien's real greatness cannot be prevented or stopped - those behind the process are too wealthy and powerful for that; but we can recognize and inwardly reject what is going-on. 
  

1 comment:

  1. Hi Bruce, I agree on this assessment. It seems that the older I get, the more I see the garbage that the entertainment industry has foisted on us in recent decades. I liken it to the maturity of my food selections. As a young boy, I remember my parents telling me not to eat junk-food, yet for some odd reason I enjoyed and indulged in it. Now, almost approaching the end of my fifth decade, junk-food has lost much of its appeal, I see it for what it is. The same goes for what is called entertainment nowadays. The garbage in literature, tv, movie and plays has gotten to a point that I am becoming extremely selective in what I read, and watch. Hence, like you have written in this post, Tolkien has become literature to me, I have place it in the classics section of my personal (printed) library.

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