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| Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity | |
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| Publication Information | |
| Author | Patrick Curry |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan (first edition) Houghton Mifflin (second edition) |
| Released | 1997 (first edition) 2004 (second edition) |
| Format | Hardcover (first edition) Paperback(second edition) |
| Pages | 206 |
| ISBNs | 9780312176716 9780618478859 |
Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity is a book by Patrick Curry on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, particularly the spiritual and ecological worldviews implicitly contained in The Lord of the Rings.
From the Publisher
First Edition
The work of J.R.R. Tolkien has sold nearly 100 million copies worldwide, and continues to enthral new generations of readers. Yet it has also been widely labelled as reactionary and escapist by hostile critics. Patrick Curry's book shows just how mistaken they are. He reveals Tolkien's profound and subtle advocacy of community, ecology and spiritual values against the destructive forces of runaway modernity. Tolkien's remedy, and the project implicit in his literary mythology, is a re-enchantment of the world. In helping us to realize that living nature, including humanity, is sacred, his writings draw on ancient magical mythology, but at the same time resonate closely with the ideas of contemporary radical ecology. Quoting extensively from Tolkien's works, the author argues that Tolkien addresses hard global realities and widely justified fears.
Second Edition
What are millions of readers all over the world getting out of reading The Lord of the Rings? Newly reissued with a new afterword, Patrick Curry's Defending Middle-earth argues, in part, that Tolkien has found a way to provide something close to spirit in a secular age. His focus is on three main aspects of Tolkien's fiction: the social and political structure of Middle-earth and how the varying cultures within it find common cause in the face of a shared threat; the nature and ecology of Middle-earth and how what we think of as the natural world joins the battle against mindless, mechanized destruction; and the spirituality and ethics of Middle-earth, for which Curry provides a particularly insightful and resonant examination that will deepen the understanding of the millions of fans who have taken The Lord of the Rings to heart.
Contents
- Preface
- 1. Introduction: Radical Nostalgia
- The Story
- Readers vs. Critics
- Postmodernity in Middle-earth
- Middle-earth in Postmodernity
- Three Worlds in One
- A Mythology for England
- A Great Book
- 2. The Shire: Culture, Society and Politics
- Englishness
- Country Folk
- Nation and Class
- A Pastoral Fantasy?
- Fascist?
- Politics in Middle-earth
- Radical Nostalgia
- Activism
- "Escapism"
- 3. Middle-Earth: Nature and Ecology
- Place
- Nature in Middle-Earth
- Forests, Woods and Trees
- The War on Trees
- The Tree of Life
- Tolkien and Trees
- The Ring
- Magic vs. Enchantment
- The Ring as Mega-machine
- Mordor on Earth
- The War on Life
- Selling Ourselves
- On "Sentimentality"
- Life's a Beech
- Save Us from the Experts
- 4. The Sea: Spirituality and Ethics
- The "Problem" of Evil
- Death
- Luck, Fate, Providence
- A Christian Work?
- A Pagan Work?
- Wizards and Stars
- All and None
- Post-Christian/Neo-Pagan/New Times
- From Religion to Myth to Fantasy
- 5. Fantasy, Literature, and the Mythopoeic Imagination
- Loss and Consolation
- Myth
- Local Mythology
- Universal Myth
- Back to Myth
- Other Approaches to Myth
- Story
- Fantasy
- The Lord of the Rings as Fantasy
- Disney World
- Angela Carter
- Discworld
- Tolkien's True Company
- 6. Conclusion: Hope Without Guarantees
- The Elements
- Place
- Wonder
- Hope
- Afterword