Post by Andorinha on Jan 27, 2008 11:45:33 GMT -6
RE Stormrider's: "Although magic aids are so much fun for the reader."
Absolutely! I think that in the traditional Fairy Story, the use of magical devices is one of the most charming aspects of the genre. It allows the commonplace person to achieve "heroic" stature immediately, and enlivens the tale, produces a high excitement when the reader can identify with the "regular Joe" who is transmuted by the simple control of a magical device. "What would I do with a Ring of Invisibility and Good Luck?! If only I had a magical sword..." lol.
Farmer Giles is such a hero, but by 1950 (at least) JRRT is leaving the traditional heroics of the Fairy Tale behind him. In Letter # 131, to Milton Waldman, Tolkien tries to explain his evolving conception of "magic," and it is no longer a harmless, fun sort of thing. Now, if I'm interpreting him validly, magic has become something unnatural, something irrevocably at odds with the purposes of reality. Magic becomes the illicit means of creating changes in the pattern of reality, changes that reflect the ego of the one using the magic, changes that most usually will tear the fabric of reality and create situations of chaos and despair. Morgoth's attempts to alter the original Song of creation can be seen in this regard, as he uses various forms and devices of magic to alter the universe to suit his own ideas of what reality should really be. Feanor introduces great strife and sorrows into the flow of Elvish history with his own attempts to use his magics to subvert the processes of reality. Sauron, copying the Ring Smiths of the Noldor, does the same and by the time of LotR, the once "happy little ring" of The Hobbit has become a wicked device of magic designed only to alter/ destroy the reality of creation. In this sense, Frodo becomes a "new-style" hero simply because he is able to resist using/ claiming the degenerative power of the dark coercive magic that Sauron has deposited in the Ring.
The desire to alter reality, to press one's own thoughts upon it, creates a situation of personal Fall, that becomes entwined with a desire for immortality, and a search for "devices" that can artificially deliver the power needed to alter reality towards those selfish ends:
"This desire [to impress one's own desires on reality] is at once wedded to a passionate love of the real primary world, and hence filled with the sense of mortality, and yet unsatisfied by it. It has various opportunities of 'Fall'. It may become possessive, clinging to the things made as 'its own', the sub-creator wishes to be the Lord and God of his private creation. He will rebel against the laws of the Creator -- especially against mortality. Both of these (alone or together) will lead to the desire for Power, for making the will more quickly effective, -- and so the Machine (or Magic). By the last I intend all use of external plans or devices (apparatus [like the One Ring]) instead of developments of the inherent inner powers or talents -- or even the use of these talents with the corrupted motive of dominating: bulldozing the real world, or coercing other wills. The Machine is our more obvious modern form though more closely related to Magic than is usually recognised."
Letters, pp 145 -46
At this point, 1950, JRRT, it seems to me, has left the Farmer Giles, and Bilbo in The Hobbit sort of magic and heroics far behind. Sigh, I see his point, in searching for a "deeper, truer" sort of heroics -- but I still like the older forms of "happy magic" implied in his earlier works and still nicely alive in the traditional Fairy-story format.
Absolutely! I think that in the traditional Fairy Story, the use of magical devices is one of the most charming aspects of the genre. It allows the commonplace person to achieve "heroic" stature immediately, and enlivens the tale, produces a high excitement when the reader can identify with the "regular Joe" who is transmuted by the simple control of a magical device. "What would I do with a Ring of Invisibility and Good Luck?! If only I had a magical sword..." lol.
Farmer Giles is such a hero, but by 1950 (at least) JRRT is leaving the traditional heroics of the Fairy Tale behind him. In Letter # 131, to Milton Waldman, Tolkien tries to explain his evolving conception of "magic," and it is no longer a harmless, fun sort of thing. Now, if I'm interpreting him validly, magic has become something unnatural, something irrevocably at odds with the purposes of reality. Magic becomes the illicit means of creating changes in the pattern of reality, changes that reflect the ego of the one using the magic, changes that most usually will tear the fabric of reality and create situations of chaos and despair. Morgoth's attempts to alter the original Song of creation can be seen in this regard, as he uses various forms and devices of magic to alter the universe to suit his own ideas of what reality should really be. Feanor introduces great strife and sorrows into the flow of Elvish history with his own attempts to use his magics to subvert the processes of reality. Sauron, copying the Ring Smiths of the Noldor, does the same and by the time of LotR, the once "happy little ring" of The Hobbit has become a wicked device of magic designed only to alter/ destroy the reality of creation. In this sense, Frodo becomes a "new-style" hero simply because he is able to resist using/ claiming the degenerative power of the dark coercive magic that Sauron has deposited in the Ring.
The desire to alter reality, to press one's own thoughts upon it, creates a situation of personal Fall, that becomes entwined with a desire for immortality, and a search for "devices" that can artificially deliver the power needed to alter reality towards those selfish ends:
"This desire [to impress one's own desires on reality] is at once wedded to a passionate love of the real primary world, and hence filled with the sense of mortality, and yet unsatisfied by it. It has various opportunities of 'Fall'. It may become possessive, clinging to the things made as 'its own', the sub-creator wishes to be the Lord and God of his private creation. He will rebel against the laws of the Creator -- especially against mortality. Both of these (alone or together) will lead to the desire for Power, for making the will more quickly effective, -- and so the Machine (or Magic). By the last I intend all use of external plans or devices (apparatus [like the One Ring]) instead of developments of the inherent inner powers or talents -- or even the use of these talents with the corrupted motive of dominating: bulldozing the real world, or coercing other wills. The Machine is our more obvious modern form though more closely related to Magic than is usually recognised."
Letters, pp 145 -46
At this point, 1950, JRRT, it seems to me, has left the Farmer Giles, and Bilbo in The Hobbit sort of magic and heroics far behind. Sigh, I see his point, in searching for a "deeper, truer" sort of heroics -- but I still like the older forms of "happy magic" implied in his earlier works and still nicely alive in the traditional Fairy-story format.