(urth) Allegory

[Jack Smith]

"But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have
done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.  I much
prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the
thought and experience of readers.  I think that  many confuse
'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the
reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."  --Tolkien,
Foreword to  The Lord of the Rings

Best wishes,
Jack



On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 10:39 PM, Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I think it's important to remember that Tolkien was a scholar of ancient
> languages who also had to spend plenty of time teaching medieval literature.
> Apparently, his colleagues say that his reaction to "allegory" was
> specifically targeted against the strain of _Piers Plowman_/_Confessio
> Amantis_ brand that was part of his teaching duties and which he was of
> course familiar with. (I'm getting this from my memory of _The Inklings_ and
> other stuff from his letters.)
>
> To the point: what bothered him about allegory was what it did to mythology
> and romance in the middle ages, such as removing it from its original
> context and placing a veneer of teaching or instruction over it. But Tolkien
> himself was not averse to literature-with-an-overt "message," if that's what
> we mean by allegory. The Eddas, Beowulf, even the Bible, all of which he
> loved for their mythic status, are generally "allegorical" but not
> allegorical in the same way that _The Romance of the Rose_ or _The Pearl_ is
> allegorical. They model a way of living, a mindset, an idealized culture,
> etc., but they aren't allegorical in the reductive way that _Pilgrim's
> Progress_ has walking personifications and where meanings can be decoded in
> a this-means-that relationship.
>
> They also aren't topically allegorical, and of course Tolkien hated the
> idea that LotR was sometimes received as a big anti-Germany "allegory." I
> think Tolkien was fine with the general idea that his books could be thought
> of as contributing to thinking about certain situations like that -- after
> all, what use is myth if it doesn't try to define our outlook? But he
> resisted the idea that his books were allegory if that meant that you say
> "Sauron is Hitler" and walk away thinking you solved the puzzle.
>
> Relation to Wolfe? I've always put New Sun in the same category as
> Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, which is a very non-reductive allegory that uses
> its symbols to create interesting ambiguities rather than just reduce an
> icon to a static meaning. New Sun's imagery often works the same way for me.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
> To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Sent: Sat, June 5, 2010 9:14:12 PM
> Subject: Re: (urth) traveling north
>
> On 6/5/2010 7:34 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:
> > He'd whine loudly.
>
> In the interview he said he disliked allegory wherever he smelled it. But
> that didn't stop him from producing some, however unintentionally.
>
> -- Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
> IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
> < http://ieeetamut.org >
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-- 
Best wishes,
Jack
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