Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity

Portada
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004 - 198 pàgines

What are millions of readers all over the world getting out of reading The Lord of the Rings? Newly reissued with a new afterword, Patrick Curry's Defending Middle-earth argues, in part, that Tolkien has found a way to provide something close to spirit in a secular age. His focus is on three main aspects of Tolkien's fiction: the social and political structure of Middle-earth and how the varying cultures within it find common cause in the face of a shared threat; the nature and ecology of Middle-earth and how what we think of as the natural world joins the battle against mindless, mechanized destruction; and the spirituality and ethics of Middle-earth, for which Curry provides a particularly insightful and resonant examination that will deepen the understanding of the millions of fans who have taken The Lord of the Rings to heart.

 

Pàgines seleccionades

Continguts

Introduction Radical Nostalgia
1
The Story
3
Readers vs Critics
5
Postmodernity in Middleearth
10
Middleearth in Postmodernity
13
Three Worlds in One
16
A Mythology for England?
20
A Great Book?
23
The Sea Spirituality and Ethics
87
The Problem of Evil
88
Death
91
Luck Fate Providence
94
A Christian Work?
96
A Pagan Work?
98
Wizards and Stars
101
All and None
103

The Shire Culture Society and Politics
24
Englishness
26
Country Folk
27
Nation and Class
29
A Pastoral Fantasy?
33
Fascist?
36
Politics in Middleearth
37
Radical Nostalgia
42
Activism
43
Escapism
45
MiddleEarth Nature and Ecology
48
Place
49
Nature in Middleearth
50
Forests Woods and Trees
51
The War on Tree
53
The Tree of Life
55
Tolkien and Trees
58
The Ring
60
Magic vs Enchantment
61
The Ring as Megamachine
65
Mordor on Earth
69
The War on Life
72
Selling Ourselves
74
On Sentimentality
76
Lifes a Beech
78
Save Us from the Experts
83
PostChristianNeoPaganNew Times
106
From Religion to Myth to Fantasy
110
Fantasy Literature and the Mythopoeic Imagination
112
Loss and Consolation
114
Myth
118
Local Mythology
119
Universal Myth
121
Back to Myth
123
Other Approaches to Myth
125
Story
127
Fantasy
129
The Lord of the Rings as Fantasy
131
Disney World
133
Angela Carter
135
Discworld
137
Conclusion Hope without Guarantees
139
The Elements
141
Place
143
Wonder
146
Hope
148
Afterword
151
References
161
Bibliography
191
Index
193
Copyright

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Sobre l'autor (2004)

Patrick Curry, a Canadian-born writer and scholar, is a Tolkien expert featured on the extended DVDs of the films of The Lord of the Rings. He holds a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science and is the author of Introducing Machiavelli as well as several books and essays of social history.

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