A Quick Post of Links

To stuff on Tolkien, J. D. Vance (SHUDDER), and the ongoing appropriation of Tolkien by far-right extremists (FREs) becoming a Thing again.

“In light of recent events, we will be replacing Lord of the Rings as the definitive Catholic fantasy epic.” (Tony Ginocchio)

I second this motion!

---

I am working through my “to do” list (most of which I’m behind on, but have had some unexpected medical appointments and tests to try to figure out why I have some abnormal levels of something or other, so it’s sort of a quest!), but I simply have to link and connect to a bunch of posts so that I can keep track of things I know I want to talk about (in regard to my “Culture War” project).

I am grateful to whatever algorithm put this post in my Substack “Notes” feed so I could see it this morning:

The Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence

I have read both Tolkien (a gazillion times) and Gene Wolfe (only a few times because it is, while brilliant, an extremely difficult text for me to read, although I’m now thinking I need to revisit it when I can dig out enough time)! I’d be interested in hearing what people who haven’t read Wolfe think about this modest proposal!

Some links to articles Ginocchio shared :

First: how did I miss Politico’s story on “How Lord of the Rings Shaped J. D. Vance’s Politics”?

Second: OK, I can agree with Prior about the problems with Vance’s reading of Tolkien, but as a 68 year old who has been reading fantasy for oh, about 63 years (Oz books, age 5), screw this “39-year-old dude equals rise of the fantasy generation” shit. I mean, WTF?

Third: Not about Tolkien specifically, but Ginocchio links to an earlier post of his about how living as a Catholic is not like living in a “Tolkienesque high epic” because “life is a lot more boring than that.”

So, as Ginocchio says:

I should note that I am not a Catholic (atheist!), but I know that there are progressive even radical people who are Catholics (and FREs who are atheists, so. . .). And I don’t think that Wolfe’s work will ever replace Tolkien’s for me, but of course, I never managed to see the kind of message that Vance (and other FREs) apparently do in Tolkien (yes, I know that Giorgia Meloni proves that a woman can take that message for herself, so it’s not just men, but I suspect it’s mostly men).

But I think that Ginocchio has a point here where he explains one of the reasons for his proposal:

If you become a Tolkien Catholic, you run the risk of thinking that God has chosen you to do something great, that you are at the center of the story, that you need to form your fellowship and begin your journey to vanquish Sauron, however you define that. In the bleakest, darkest version of that scenario, you decide to enter American politics because of what you learned from Tolkien, you read a story about powerlessness and decide that you need to build up power for yourself, power like all the cool swords and big trees in the book.

And also why Gene Wolfe’s tetraology is a better model for Catholics than Tolkien’s trilogy:

Severian carries every person he meets on the road with him - in some cases, extremely literally - and ultimately, the moments that drive the plot are not the big wars or the political intrigue, but the moments of mercy, the moments when Severian could have hurt or killed someone and instead acted counter to his instincts. Tolkien, of course, was saying the same thing in Lord of the Rings. But my book is cooler and JD Vance doesn’t drool over it.

Given what I found when I googled “Vance and Tolkien,” whereupon I learned there’s some discussion going on concerning Rachel Maddow’s comment about FREs being influenced by Tolkien (naming their companies which believe me, I have noticed) and what that means, I am going to end this post by recommending Verlyn Flieger’s GOH talk about how the contradictions in Tolkien’s writing are the reasons why there are so many conflicting interpretations of his work:

Flieger, Verlyn. "The Arch and the Keystone," Mythlore, vol. 38, no. 1, article 3, 2019, pp. 7-19.

I have to take some time to read the varied responses since this debate fits right into my Culture Warrior Project!

But I’m also hoping to get my Adaptations series finished up (a planned post on the Ents (book and film), and one on Éowyn (book and film)! Plus, I have my paper on Ista (Paladin of Souls) to finish in order to present, erm, next weekend at Mythcon 53!