 by -
Lord_Natrone
(Mon Jun 2 20:09:13)
|
|
 UPDATED Mon Jun 2 20:12:07 |
what would you ask him? Suppose that somehow you're introduced to him and you get 30 minutes with him to ask anything you want.
I know that I should lead this off, but my mind is blank. The old "Do balrogs have wings?" question is present, but that is so trivial that I know I would spend my time on something better (though that answer would take less than a minute of time, right?)
So someone else will have to pick this up.
Serious replies only please (unless you've got something really humorous to share.) - I don't want to wade through things like "So how many chicks have you been with?"
|
|
|
This message has been deleted by an administrator
|
|
|
Only 30 minutes??
I would start with What happened with the Ent Wives and then ask him about Tom Bombadil.
Smile... tomorrow will be worse
|
|
|
Good topic! Sorry for the weak beginning, but for me it might be...
Did your conversations with Jack (C.S. Lewis) ever cause you to change your mind about something? Or vice versa?
"If you're not for yourself, then who will be for you? If you're only for yourself, what are you?"
|
|
|
I happen to know the vice versa happened in a big way: CS Lewis was an atheist and his discussions with Tolkien (Catholic) contributed significantly to his conversion to Christianity. This is the guy who went on to become one of the most well read apologists of Christianity, including an essay "The Case for Christianty."
Great question!
(I'm not presuming to speak for the Prof - of course he would have much more to say on the matter.)
|
|
|
I'm embarrassed to say that I'm really not familiar with any of Tolkien's writing-about-his-writing -- except the exposure that this board has given me. I have more perspective on the C.S. Lewis side of the story, but there are some very intriguing holes in my understanding, particularly around the interaction with Prof. Tolkien. Thanks for answering my question in part!
Of course, being a little more practical, I would open my mouth... nothing would come out... and there would be 30 minutes of embarrassed silence while I stammered to get out a single word. 
"If you're not for yourself, then who will be for you? If you're only for yourself, what are you?"
|
|
|
I would definitely write something down in advance of such an incredible meeting. I'd hate to walk out of there completely forgetting something that I'd really wanted to discuss.
And there is no need to be embarrassed about lacking knowledge of Tolkien's personal life. I only learned of such things in the last year (though I first read LOTR 15 years ago), and primarily through only two books: "Letters of JRR Tolkien" and "JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century". So in roughly a couple of weeks, you would know as much as I do on the subject, depending on how fast you read.
There is a biography on Tolkien, I believe published shortly after his death, but I don't recall the author and have not read it. That would be a very specific interest that I doubt all ringnuts would feel the need to take up.
|
|
|
I bought those two books last week! I started reading "Author of the Century", and haven't been able to put it down. It's a brilliant insight into Tolkien's work. I'll be starting on the "Letters" soon.
BTW, I also have Tolkien's biography by Humphrey Carpenter (it was published in 1977), and although I haven't read it for a long while (I think I bought it around the mid-eighties), I remember it as a very good read. I would definitely recommend it if you are interested in Tolkien's life.
As for what would I ask Tolkien....
That's a hard question! I'll have to think about it and come back later!
...diving for dear life, when we should be diving for pearls...
|
|
|
I agree with Shica...
Entwives first
Tom Bombadil and Goldberry next.
I would ask him why Christopher is being such an @$$.
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
|
|
|
I'd ask him how the stuffy old university big wigs reacted to one of their professors writing and publishing stories about hobbits. Did any of them read his books? If they did, were they impressed or derisive?
Be excellent to each other and party on dude!
|
|
|
I learned about this in Tom Shippey's "Tolkien: Author of the Century."
The cool thing about Tom (not Bombadil!) is that he held the same chair that Tolkien occupied and knew him personally. His account of Tolkien's peers suggests they looked upon his book as Christopher does the PJ films. They thought it was simple fairy-tale nonsense, for starters, and secondly they condemned that he had spent so much time on it that should have been devoted to more application towards his field of study.
Tolkien actually did feel some guilt about not applying himself more fully to his studies. Although he did publish a fair amount of papers, the number was on the low side for a man in his position for that number of years. Though if quality is measured over quantity, he did publish one paper on Beowulf that is still the most frequently cited academic article on this work to this day.
And I believe that it was in Leaf by Niggle that Tolkien actually wrote of a character with a parallel situation. Leaf was a painter, and had one work that he'd been working on for years. He wasn't an excellent painter, but very in love with the work. Yet he was actually in charge of a garden (for part of the village I think) and often neglected it to work on his painting.
I have only read bits of the story and what I just related is from Tom Shippey's book - I probably got part of it wrong but that's the idea. Although Tolkien may not have liked allegory, this story seems meant to be a parallel to his own life and conflict on his passion and his academic work.
I highly recommend Shippey's book for those interested in a critical look at Tolkien's work as well as some of the factors in his personal life that played a role.
|
|
|
| UPDATED Mon Jun 2 20:37:14 |
This message has been deleted by an administrator
|
|
|
If I didn't make it clear above, that is all Tom Shippey. I cannot take credit for such insightful deductions (to be frank, I wouldn't have known enough about his personal life to see the connections.
|
|
|
| by -
CTS-1
(Mon Jun 2 20:19:30)
|
|
"...Tell me about your World War I experiences."
You'd probably get a good background for some of the material from that one.
Look- he's trying to think!
|
|
|
| by -
Lord_Natrone
(Mon Jun 2 20:35:18)
|
|
| UPDATED Mon Jun 2 20:36:05 |
as she gave me the idea to start this post (though she got the idea from one of my posts on another thread, so I'm actually shamelessly plugging myself).
|
|
|
You just go on shamelessly plugging yourself, I'll shamelessly plug Rosie for you 
Be excellent to each other and party on dude!
|
|
|
I'd ask why if shieldmaidens were the norm in Rohan, why then was Eowyn the only one mentioned 
Seriously I think I would ask which languages influenced him most in making up his own (maybe he says this somewhere), which languages and if time where there any specific myths or legends that started him thinking about making up his own world. I know that he was influenced by the Norse and other northern European myths, but I would want to know if reading a particular one made a light bulb go off in his head and made him say I want to create a world of my own that parallels the detail and realness of this one.
I must wield the cleaver, it's most annoying.
|
|
|
On the language question he does say in
Letters that Quenya is based on Welsh and Sindarin on Finnish...or the converse. But I know that Welsh and Finnish are the two 'real world' languages that he admired and used for inspriration, though I've read posts by some speakers of said languages that they don't see the similarities to Elvish.
The relationship between the two languages though is that Quenya is Elf-Latin - the basis for Sindarin, and practically a dead language by the end of the Third Age.
|
|
|
Thanks, I figured he probably said what his language influences were, but alas and alack I have not the ready resources to find that out (not without exerting effort anyway).
I must wield the cleaver, it's most annoying.
|
|
|
| by -
MatrixMaster
(Mon Jun 2 20:50:40)
|
|
| UPDATED Mon Jun 2 20:51:42 |
1) I know you've been quoted as saying that you did not write LOTR to be an allegory, but did it become one nonetheless and in what ways? If people do see LOTR as a sort of allegory, what should they be taking from it?
2) Who is Lord of the Rings, realizing of course that the plot answer is Sauron, but it seems to me that Sauron really has little to do at all with the story. So did you intend a deeper thematic resonance by naming the series after a character which is mostly absent?
3) Do you like what PJ has done?
4) Have you seen see the Matrix, and what do you think?
The Matrix has you!
|
|
|
Have you seen see the Matrix, and what do you think?
MM, you are incorrigible! 
|
|
|
To your last question, he would have replied...
I liked the first film, and had high hopes for the second, however there can be no excuse for showing Keanu Reeves pasty white arse on screen. On a deeper level, I think the matrix is an allegorical parallel for Sauron, zion for Gondor, Agent Smith for Saruman and Neo for Aragorn, and you know how much I like allegory. 
Be excellent to each other and party on dude!
|
|
|
| by -
MatrixMaster
(Mon Jun 2 23:49:28)
|
|
| UPDATED Thu Jun 5 03:08:04 |
Good to see you are a fan Nasty :)
However, I'm confident the good professor would have have given a more favorable answer
Oh, and Balrogs do have wings ... sometimes. There's more than one you know.
The Matrix has you!
|
|
|
Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. I'm just yanking your chain, which I'm sure you knew already.
On a serious note, did JRR ever express any opinions on movies in general? Did he approve of them or not? I suspect he was so enamoured of the written word he may have actually disliked film as a medium. Just a hunch.
Be excellent to each other and party on dude!
|
|
|
TELL ME PLEASE SIR! I MUST KNOW! PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAASE?????
"It can only be attributable to human error."
|
|
|
Tom Bombadil is the Witch-King.
Honestly, Vince, do you even read the threads before you post or what?
|
|
|
Tolkien would probably punch anyone who thought that TB was the WK.
"What! The Witch-King!" WHUMP.
"It can only be attributable to human error."
|
|
|
I would merely ask him, what does he think of the films and do you approve of the changes PJ made bearing in mind the difference in media?
No matter where you go, there you are...
|
|
|
Do balrogs have wings!?! 
After that, well, daduke beat me too it, I'd ask about the shield maidens of Rohan.
"Boromir, quit trying to cut off Frodo's head ..." ~ Blatant favoritism most annoying.
|
|
|
Balrogs have wings, but they are like chickens, can't use them.
Y'see I think they use the wings as some sort of mating ritual thing, rather like peacocks do. "Hey lady ! look how big mine is compared to that guy over there!"
No matter where you go, there you are...
|
|
|
Peacocks use their tails for that, not their wings. They can actually fly, I didn't think they could, but I saw one about 30 feet up a tree once and there was no other way he could have gotten up there other than flying.
Be excellent to each other and party on dude!
|
|
|
This message has been deleted by the poster
|
|
|
I would quiz him on the ways of the dwarves and the wraiths of Minas Morgul.
 Ohhh, the jedi are going to feel this one!
|
|
|
Is it bad form to bump your own thread? I just figured this general of a question would pull in more ringnuts.
|
|
|
I don't think its bad form at all, Even if the only post in the thread is your own original, so many threads are started here that they can disappear from the first page or two very quickly, and thus be easily missed.
Be excellent to each other and party on dude!
|
|
|
Thanks for the reassurance, Nasty. Still learning the board "rules".
|
|
|
I don't think "rules" is quite the right word. More like "accepted norms". You're a regular here, you have as much input in to what is accepted as any of us. Bumping your own threads could be done for egotistical reasons, sure, but not necessarily. It's all in the attitude IMO.
Be excellent to each other and party on dude!
|
|
|
A friendly bump from Sponsor #11593: Lady Éowyn
 You are a daughter of kings. A shieldmaiden of Rohan.
|
|
|
A friendly bump from Sponsor #11593: Lady Éowyn
You are a daughter of kings. A shieldmaiden of Rohan.
|
|
|
If Tolkien were still alive today, I would probably ask him something like.....
"Where you have been hiding for the past forty years?"
"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it."
|
|
|
*groan!*
You are a daughter of kings. A shieldmaiden of Rohan.
|
|
|
.....just couldn't resist.
Seriously though, I would probably ask him what he thought of the movies.
.....or maybe ask him what his secret was to long-living. 
"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it."
|
|
|
I know what it is. Miruvor. Cordial of Rivendell. It's a life-prolonging elixir.
You are a daughter of kings. A shieldmaiden of Rohan.
|
|
|
| by -
Lianachan
(Thu Jul 10 23:42:18)
|
|
| UPDATED Thu Jul 10 23:42:41 |
Given how much Tolkien hated people constantly badgering him with questions like "Do Balrogs have wings?" I think I'd leave the man be. He used to get phone calls from the USA, at crappy hours of the morning due to the time differences, with people asking him that and other questions - he was really, really fed up with it. So I'd ask him nothing. Maybe I'd ask if he'd like me to open the box so he could breathe, I suppose.
"Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."- Charles Chaplin
|
| |
| | |
company.
Advertise on IMDb.
License our content.
