Posted: December 15, 1999 at 00:10:43: by Michael Martinez
: : People already have "wrong ideas" about the book, and I'm not
: : referring to the Medieval/Balrog Wings/Who Spoke on Mount
: : Doom/Bombadil issues. I'm referring to the allegations of
: : allegory and racism, to the perceptions of otherworldliness,
: : to the shallow or casual knowledge that some people develop
: : without delving deeply into the stories and backgrounds (and
: : I don't consider that to be a requirement for personal
: : enjoyment -- I mean nothing condescending or pejorative in
: : this, but not everyone tries to figure out where Aragorn
: : lived).: If this "wrong idea" of "perceptions of otherworldliness" is an
: indirect reference to my post below concerning S&S, I should
: say then, that CS Lewis had the "wrong idea" about Tolkiens'
: work for it was indeed Lewis who brought this
: "otherworldliness" aspect to my attention (see Of Other Worlds
: pages 70-71). I am not ready to concede that Lewis was
: wrong--especially within the context of what I said. It may not
: be the "entire idea" of the book, but as I said it is a very
: important aspect--certainly a huge part. Actually, no, it wasn't a reference to your message at all. I'm not sure whether I read it (I try to read as much as possible, but I have to admit that some threads scroll by me). I was, in fact, thinking of a couple of people in rec.arts.sf.written who were insisting that Middle-earth only became "our world" after THE LORD OF THE RINGS was published. Tolkien always envisioned the story to be set in some imaginary time in our past, and this is provable with citations (several of which have been offered by me and at least two other people in the news group as of this writing). So, when people say the story is set on some imaginary world rather than Earth, that is what I'm referring to. If that was the gist of your argument, then I must include you under that umbrella of indictment, but I did not have you personally in mind. : I am very interested in what you may consider the "correct
: idea" of the book. I'll take a look at your message and post a followup there.
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