"I believe, that certain people — especially, perhaps, in Britain — have a lifelong appetite for juvenile trash. … You can see it in the tone they fall into when they talk about Tolkien in print: they bubble, they squeal, they coo; they go on about Malory and Spenser — both of whom have a charm and a distinction that Tolkien has never touched. As for me, if we must read about imaginary kingdoms, give me James Branch Cabell's Poictesme. He at least writes for grown-up people, and he does not present the drama of life as a showdown between Good People and Goblins. He can cover more ground in an episode that lasts only three pages than Tolkien is able to in one of this twenty-page chapters, and he can create a more disquieting impression by a reference to something that is never described than Tolkien through his whole demonology."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Edmund Wilson, "Oo, Those Awful Orcs!": A review of The Fellowship of the Ring, in The Nation (14 April 1956)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"I wept when I wrote that."
""The Shire" is based on rural England and not any other country in the world... The toponymy of The Shire...is a "par…"
"I should say that, in addition to my tree-love (it was originally called The Tree), it arose from my own pre-occupati…"
"Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more Perfect world, or …"
"The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical reasoning. It is at its best when it is …"
"That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me absolutely no pains at all. Usually I compose only with …"
"My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement woul…"
"There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nati…"
"Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures."
"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like …"