Literati have loathed him and consigned his work to the level of juvenile balderdash. Readers, worldwide, have loved him. Surveys have named his book 'The Lord of the rings' as the best work of fiction of the 20th Century. The man in question is JRR Tolkien, the visionary author and (almost) the creator of fantasy genre. Even 50 years after the publication of LOTR, Tolkien's works remain as popular as ever. What do we attribute this to? And why is Tolkien the definitive 20th Century author?
To those people who have read his works (and even to those who have watched the movies, for they were brilliant adaptations) Tolkien appeals to us at different levels. The form of his story telling, romanticizing everything from friendship to valor, his lyrical prose, his settings in lands far removed from our age and times in fantastic settings appeals to the escapist, the adventurer and the romantic in us. We love the stories of friendship, camaraderie, sacrifice, love and valor. We also , somewhere relate to the ultimate underdog spirit of the book, in which Frodo, a small (and therefore weak) Hobbit ultimately triumphs against such a big evil. To some, the descriptive nature of his writing, is his quintessential hallmark. But there is an instinctive appeal in the book, which can not be described as easily.
For this, we have to delve into Tolkien, the man , and try to find our answers. In many ways The Lord of the Rings was Tolkien's reaction to 20th century and the horrors he witnessed in it. Tolkien served in the British Army in the World War 1. The horrors he witnessed then, and later on in the World War 2 had a lasting impact on his works. There are subtle undercurrents of his political inclinations throughout the book. While he describes The Shire as an idyllic society, with no concentration of power and fair amount of de-regulation, Mordor is described as the place having power concentrated in one hand (Sauron) with evil and obsessive focus on industialization (vis-a-vis the fascist powers of Germany and Italy). This is not to say that he was against technology, but owing to its misuse then, definitely suspicious of it. And the ultimate theme of the book is that power corrupts, in the form of the ring. Whoever has ring, gets seduced by its power and ultimately turns to evil. Even strong and good characters like Gandalf and Galadriel, realise this and refuse to bear the ring. Through this Tolkien is telling us that power, even in the hands of good people, ultimately corrupts them. And is this not what human political history is about? Specially the 20th century is full of such examples: Hitler, Stalin, Mao and now Bush. And even though philosophers (like Plato in The Republic) have argued in favour of such a concentration of power, albeit in good hands, if history is anything to go by, the concentration of such power is the biggest perpetrator of human misery.
Thus, at heart Tolkien was a libertarian, who deeply believed that a decentralised, liberal society, without any concentration of power, where humans are left free to pursue happiness, is the only solution of our political problems. And though the book does end in Aragorn being crowned the king, Tolkien's heart is always in The Shire and in peaceful Hobbits. Tolkien, with this book, conveyed his deep understanding of the political problems of 20th Century, in a way that captivates us and speaks to us intuitively, no matter what the literati and the critics have to say. And ultimately we are all suckers for a good vs evil story, specially the one which has an underdog triumphing in the end.
Tolkien is the defintive 20th century author.
P.S. His publisher, fearing that LOTR would never make money, made the contract such a way that profits would be split 50:50. To this date his literature alone has earned over 2 billion pounds, half going to the publisher. This is the difference between foresight and luck; Tolkien had foresight and the publisher luck!
My post is heavily influenced by these articles.
