The Sheila Variations

I. LOVE. THAT. MAN.

I know!! I love how he says he "regrets" that he is not Jewish, a member of the "gifted" people. Just twist that knife, Mr. Tolkien. twist it HARD!

I've read that before, and I was so touched I practically cried. Put the lie to the idiots who invariably talk about "Tolkien was a racist," etc.

That is absolutely hilarious.

It's grand to know that a time when many of his fellow Englishmen were genuflecting to the New Order rising on the continent, Tolkien spoke truth to the Nazi swine. God bless his memory.

And everything was going well until jfbranson turned up to spoil things....

It's not so grand to know that there is still a mouthy minority of Americans who genuflect to the myths of anglophobia. Many Englishmen (sic) were fighting and dying against the Nazi swine when the America Firsters were still hiding under the tables. JFB, take the trouble to airbrush the Joe Kennedys, Theodore Driesers, Charles Lindberghs and other numerous US appeasers of Nazism from your country's history before slandering mine.

Phil, he only said "many of his fellow Englishmen", not "all". But I can't really speak for jfbranson - I am just pointing out it didn't seem that he over-exaggerated, or made too general a statement.

Appeasers of fascism came from all countries. I love Anne Morrow Lindbergh's writing, in her journals, for many reasons - but her last volume, from the World War II years - are very uncomfortable reading.

She wrote an enormous preface, from many years in retrospect - saying, "We were willfully naive - We didn't know about the concentration camps - we didn't know the scope of the Nazi horror". That's a paraphrase - but basically, it seemed she had the same uncomfortable sensation reading her own words.

She has quite a lot to answer for. As do all the folks who thought we should sit back and do nothing.

If you're interested, you might profit by reading Tom Shippey's J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Professor Shippey devotes considerable attention to the moral underpinnings of Middle-Earth, relating that to Tolkien's own background. The title, in the author's words, is deliberately provocative. He adopted it at least in part as a response to the (primarily English) literati who cringe every time Lord of the Rings tops a reader poll of great books of the 20th century. I stumbled over it last spring in Target, of all places, and I'm on my third reading.

Red. JFB’s comment implied that Tolkien’s hostility towards Nazis and anti-Semitism was atypical of the English: it was not. ‘Many Englishmen’ did not ‘genuflect’ to any ‘New Order’: the only genuflecting was done by a small and nutty party called the British Union of Fascists. There was appeasement (or, more accurately, delusion) in all three of the principal democracies, but in Britain it lingered longest with mainstream Leftists and even their "pacifism" largely disappeared with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The delusions lasted longer with some of the America First people who continued to propogate anti-British drivel, and did their best to frustrate FDR in his support of us, even as the war intensified over here. Yes, I know they were a small minority too, but their voices still echo……

Ken. When the LoTR was voted the British public’s favourite book of the last century many intellectuals were disgusted, Germaine Greer famously - and fatuously - describing the result as her "nightmare". It’s good to remember that a similar literary snootiness afflicted Dickens who, being applauded by ordinary folk, was despised by most literati throughout the latter C19th until his reputation was largely restored by G K Chesterton’s essays. By the way, I’ve also been recommended JRR Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth; Understanding Middle Earth (Bradley J Birzer and Joseph Pearce) which also deals with the strong religious themes within Tolkien’s vision - though I have not read it.

Phil -

Mr. Mosley, et al, were, from what I understand, a wacko minority.

Mosley's son, by the way, Nicholas Mosley, has written one of my favorite novels of all time - Hopeful Monsters. A sweeping panorama of the lead-up in Berlin to the Nazi take-over, and then two characters, one German, and one English, making it through WWII.

I love what you say about the literary snootiness. It is the same reason that John Irving, a brilliant novelist, will never win a National Book Award. He's too "popular" with the common folk.

Oh, and I'm going to be posting something in a moment - a quote from Tolkien's letters (yet another one!) having to do with the mythology Tolkien created, behind LOTR.

May we see the other draft, too?

There is a bit of a mystery connected to this letter, and it is not clear that it was ever sent. The only record ever found of it was the draft I just posted - and it was found in the archives of Tolkien's publisher in England. Supposedly, it WAS sent - but perhaps the German publisher did not keep as exact archives of correspondence. It is hard to say what might have happened.

This is the draft that exists - and the draft which is published in the collection of Tolkien's letters, as well as in his authorized biography.

If you want to see the other draft, I don't know what to tell you. Call up Allen & Unwin and see if they have a copy.

Tolkien kept drafts of all of his letters - he also wrote stuff on carbon copies - and even in letters to fans, he was always going back and revising. Half of the letters in the collected volume were never sent - many of them were just found in Tolkien's study after his death. Numbered: "Letter to so and so, draft 1"

Tolkien was such a perfectionist that he couldn't even write a letter to an avid reader without constant revision.