On (re-)Reading Tolkien

On (re-)Reading Tolkien:



Delighted...

     Transported.....

          Beguiled.... by tantalizing whiffs of a land that seems strangely familiar, as if going home and finding all my family and old friends there. Hints of Eden mingle with the stench of Mordor--yes, I live in a fallen world...but it shall be redeemed and recreated!

I opened The Hobbit after a several year hiatus (I read the tetralogy through, every few yrs, but this hiatus was greater'n usual). After the first page, I put the book down and sighed--the magic was at work once again! Not many books will do this for me, apart from Narnia series...oh, and Lewis' SPACE TRILOGY.

The pursuit of this all-enveloping sense of wonder, that sense of, like Alice, falling down a hole and finding oneself in a different world--THAT is why we read...and, I hope and wish and pray, that is my goal in writing. (Fiction-writing, that is...if you find yrself inna diff world after reading my non-fiction--WHOOPS!) The non-fiction writer has the goal of making reality more crisp and clear, of clearing up both near-focus and broad perspective. The fiction writer seeks to overwhelm reality, causing it to pale into a blurry backdrop, onto (or, into!) which a fictive universe may be projected.

Speaking of projection: I will never watch any cinematography based on Tolkien--the magic of his words and his world require no visuals for me. I am happy with the images he conjures: some are clear and concrete, others vague or changeable...but all are sufficiently vivid and are presented at my own pace. If I choose to read aloud one of Bilbo's or Strider's poems, or to slowly sift their imagery, I can do that, chewing slowly and savoring it fully. Okay, fine, call me a book-loving snob, but I think there have only been one or two books ever where the movie was as good as the book...and those were thrillers whose actions suited the big screen very well. Okay, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, based on only one or two chapters of Maria von Trapp's autobiog...that movie took a slow book and breathed life into it with a capital "L."

That's a somewhat lengthy aside. I find rereading Tolkien to be inspiring--I want to write literature that is transporting, fascinating, rich and chewy and funny and poignant and...oh, heck, simply wonderful. That said, wanting and doing oft diverge...thus, I intend to keep writing lots. The trick will be to produce alot, to throw away the gunk, and to keep the good stuff. I guess the "joys" of editing will be a topic for another day. Pruning, weeding, editing, throwing away--most of us are hoarders rather'n tossers, eh?