Tolkien would not be impressed with this argument. He argued that fantasy was a kind of escape from a bad modern world, one that should be pursued in the way that a soldier captured by the enemy has a duty to escape. It’s also the case that this life can be heroic, as surely the life of a priest or a paramedic often has the opportunity to be. Maybe the problem really is the world that makes so many of us into “Dave from accounting.”
UPDATE: A parallel complaint about superheroes, which for some reason strikes me as much more plausible.
6 comments:
I read it, and thought it was not so much wrong as just shallow. I can't think of anything to recommend beyond reading more Tolkien and Lewis. I suppose some playing of the games, to examine his own responses and those of the other players, might also work.
I also suspect he hasn't brought up children.
Fairy stories teach children that dragons can be slain, to misquote G. K. Chesterton. Fairy stories remind adults that dragons can be slain, and encourage us to be wary of beautiful things that harbor evil, or that lead to eating lotus and losing what is important.
In my opinion. Since I write and sell stories of heroism and nobility, or family and faith, I might be a touch biased.
LittleRed1
If your summary is accurate, Grim, that seems to me to be a really odd take on a story whose two primary characters are more concerned about getting a second breakfast than going on adventures.
"In such meetings, these Communists were not schoolteachers or longshoremen or electricians or lawyers. They were, in their own minds, underground fighters for a socialist utopia to come."
They were foolish and their cause was evil. But that doesn't mean that it is always and in all cases wrong to work for a cause.
I guess you could say about any of the American Founders that "In such meetings, they were no merchants or farmers or lawyers or shipowners. They were, in their own minds, patriots creating a new country."
I'm not convinced Jesus would have been impressed with the argument, either. He clearly did not believe anything remotely like the idea that what we do in earthly life is unimportant. He made it quite clear that what we do here determines our fate in eternity.
Religion was hijacked to lull people into a state of despair and obedience. The outcome was seen in 2020. When state ordered churches to close, the churches and man made religion leaders obehed. These were and are stilk state religions. Nothing against the state.
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