Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Tolkien might say, ‘I fear you have missed the point’

The Tolkien Society’s 2021 Annual Seminar demanded papers on “Tolkien’s approach to colonialism and neo-colonialism, representation of race, gender, sexuality and the rest in Tolkien, and so on.

https://thecritic.co.uk/woke-of-the-rings/

“This call was answered with appropriate gusto. The programme for the event is too large to reproduce here: but we can give a flavour of it. It kicks off with Gondor in Transition: A Brief Introduction to Transgender Realities in The Lord of the Rings. We then have delights such as ‘The Burnt Hand Teaches Most About Fire’: Applying Traumatic Stress and Ecological Frameworks to Narratives of Displacement and Resettlement Across Cultures in Tolkien’s Middle-earth; and The Lossoth: Indigeneity, Identity, and Antiracism. The second day continues with more in the same vein: “Something Mighty Queer”: Destabilizing Cishetero Amatonormativity in the Works of Tolkien; Questions of Caste in The Lord of the Rings and its Multiple Chinese Translations; and something which should puzzle anyone, Hidden Visions: Iconographies of Alterity in Soviet Bloc Illustrations for The Lord of the Rings.”

Those supposed aficionados of Tolkien need reminding: He wrote in English.

That “Cishetero Amatonormativity”? As near as I could find, it has nothing to do with thee and me, since we speak the language of daily communication. See above, Tolkien wrote in English.

Link at neveryetmelted.

The over-educated should read Harvard Lampoon's "Bored of the Rings" for some perspective.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.