I take my dad for a haircut. He hasn't had one in months and he looks like some nineteenth-century politician with long, hairy sideburns or a mad professor who has spent months in a laboratory. On the way home, we pick up the film we are going to watch tonight: Tolkein.
We have the first film club meeting since February. Not many people come, but it is also very cold and it is quite nice to just have a small group. I did some research about the film and discovered a couple of things about Tolkein. One is that his name is pronounced Tolkeen. The other is that he was a very committed Catholic and that his faith shaped his writings.
However, as is the way these days, the producers of the film decided to leave his religious leanings out of it. I find this very interesting. Why is it that a modern audience takes such umbrage to religion? If Tolkein was a Catholic and you are not, so what? What is it that makes people feel uncomfortable about finding out that a favourite author was religious? Is it because many people love his books and he has become a cult figure of sorts, so when you find out he was a deeply religious man, it doesn't sit well if you are not? This is typical of our increasingly narrowing outlook on life in which everyone we like must be like us or they are the enemy.
Or is it the fact that he was a Christian that is the problem? Would a modern audience be more willing to forgive him his religious beliefs if he had converted to Islam or travelled to India in search of yogic enlightenment?
There is so much I could write about this. One of my favourite books is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. Greene was a lapsed Catholic who explores the idea of a vengeful God and whether, by hating something, you can bring it as much into existence in the same way that you can by loving it. Yet the film changed the story quite considerably, confirming that there is no God, rather than exploring the idea that there could possibly be one, even if it was a vengeful God.
There are some people so used to Christian or church bashing that they will not acknowledge anything positive about the religion. In general, although they talk about all religion being 'made up fairy stories', in reality, they centre on Christianity. Part of this is a cultural thing, but it is also because they would feel more uncomfortable attacking Islam, for example, not only because they no little about it, but because it may also be seen as a form of racism and they like to think they are quite open-minded. Muslim-bashing is the realm of far-right extremists.
One of the big problems of our world is our growing inability to see the grey areas in life. I don't like Christianity therefore all Christians are horrible people therefore I do not want to know that Tolkein was a Christian otherwise I won't like his books anymore. That's how simple minded we have become.
Religion has inspired some of the greatest works of art, literature and music the world has ever seen. Political correctness, on the other hand, inspires nothing but an empty conformity.
Tolkien may have been very supportive of the film producers and modern audiences. An article extract below on the subject...
ReplyDeleteBy Austin Cline
Many fans are aware that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were close friends who had a great deal in common. Tolkien helped return Lewis to the Christianity of his youth, whereas Lewis encouraged Tolkien to expand his fictional writing; both taught at Oxford and were members of the same literary group, both were interested in literature, myth, and language, and both wrote fictional books which propagated basic Christian themes and principles.
At the same time, though, they also had serious disagreements--in particular, over the quality of Lewis' Narnia books--especially where the religious elements were concerned.
Christianity, Narnia, and Theology
Although Lewis was very proud of his first Narnia book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and it would spawn a massively successful series of children's books, Tolkien didn't think very highly of it. First, he thought that the Christian themes and messages were far too strong--he didn't approve of the way Lewis seemed to beat the reader over the head with such obvious symbols referring to and Jesus.
There was certainly no missing the fact that Aslan, a lion, was a symbol for Christ who sacrificed his life and was resurrected for a final battle against evil. Tolkien's own books are deeply imbued with Christian themes, but he worked hard to bury them deeply so that they would enhance rather than detract from the stories.
I appreciate your point, but I think that writing a fictional novel and writing about someone's life are two different things. When you want to show the influences that developed a writer's talent, then I think you need to show all of them. The film shows the great influence that the 1WW had on Tolkien, so why not his religious leanings? I feel this is because there is a fear that this will discredit Tolkien in the eyes of a western film-watching public as he is such a cult figure. There is a general suspicion of Christianity and a dislike of presenting it in a positive way, so it got left out the film. Had Tolkien been a devout Catholic who became an atheist, I don't feel the film makers would hesitate to show this.
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