TongueTiedLabourerfromtheLandoftheLittlePeople
37752
1056
9
#diane_wynne_jones #tolkien #history #lotr #writing #story #oxford
May 25, 2025 9:15 PM
TongueTiedLabourerfromtheLandoftheLittlePeople
37752
1056
9
#diane_wynne_jones #tolkien #history #lotr #writing #story #oxford
dearbluey
DWJ's "A Sudden Wild Magic" includes parallel-world-hopping fuckin'. Just saying.
CryAboutIt69
christianity is a disease
UnlimitedTrickPony
who?
ATastyCorpsesicle
Author of some book that got made into an animated movie. "Howl's Moving Castle" or something. You've probably never heard of it. /silly
BlindGardener
Author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, also a lecturer at Oxford for a time.
SomeGeek75ygh
Tolkien wishes he could be half as good as DWJ. Both as an author AND as a person. Tolkien was a rampant racist who wanted to genocide at least 3 different peoples.
EternallyIgnorant
Do you have a source on that? Because I have never heard of him being genocidal, and I know he spoke positively of Jewish people and condemned Nazis. Which doesnt mean he WASNT genocidal as you claim, but it does seem a bit dubious. https://www.good.is/in-1938-nazis-demanded-to-know-if-the-hobbit-author-was-jewish-he-responded-with-a-high-class-burn-ex1
SomeGeek75ygh
--Burns, PERILOUS REALMS, page 19 Tolkien describing Ireland as 'naturally evil.' https://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2009/d.html">https://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2009/12/evil-emanating-tolkien-on-ireland.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_and_race">12/">d.html">https://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2009/12/evil-emanating-tolkien-on-ireland.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_and_race https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/winston-churchill-genocide-dictator-shashi-tharoor-melbourne-writers-festival-a7936141.html - Tolkien DID support this and supported Churchill for doing it (and encouraged him to redo it) but I can't find the quote in a casual look
EternallyIgnorant
Also, AI summary, which of course may be wrong, but if you dont provide a source i want bother with further research: "Tolkien himself was explicitly anti-racist in his personal life and writings, but some descriptions in his books can be interpreted as racially coded or influenced by the prejudices of his era. The scholarly consensus is that, while there are problematic elements by modern standards, Tolkien was not personally a racist, and in some ways was progressive for his time."
SomeGeek75ygh
He hated the Irish and called Ireland "an island people are born to evil" or something, he strongly supported Churchill's attempt to kill all the Indians (Asian) with starvation, both are written down in letters he sent and public info now. He also hated Mongolians (even described his Orcs as "looking like Mongols") and wanted them wiped out. He had no problem with Jewish people and hated Nazis, both are true, but that doesn't mean he didn't want to wipe out other people.
Guestmod
Considering his friendship with Lewis who proudly considered himself Irish, I am very sceptical
SomeGeek75ygh
"I doubt Tolkien's own words about Tolkien's own racisms". OK, whatever. And it's skeptical.
MerriMod
Bonus points for teaching me a new word!
Obdurate - Adjective; Obdurately - Adverb;
Stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action, stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing.
ShadyHunter
I was a decently well read adult when I first read Howl's Moving Castle and I found myself looking up words several times. That book is categorized as Young Adult. Still one of my favorite novels, alongside the sequel.
Ryebread91
How does Chaucer fit into Tolkien?
newsguycraigevans
Practice!
onlyhalfghost
and lube
kikisdeliveryservice
"What little i heard of it was wholly fascinating" is a great line.
Conejito
And so it "limped into the future"
FarceMajeure
Good backhanded compliment. Yeah, he's a good teacher, when he can be forced to teach
SamHeldComics
I do love Tolkien, but when I watched interviews with him I did have to rewind them a few times to figure out what he was saying
ShadyHunter
For those not familiar, Diana Wynne Jones is the author of Howl's Moving Castle, the English novel that the Ghibli film is loosely based on. Great read, and part of a trilogy.
kaitekarue
The dark lord of dirkholme was my fave of hers. That entire short series was badass. A large scale, capatilist Isekai hell that the wizards gotta fix
Chronomechanist
"English"?? How very dare you. It is British, yes but not English. That book there is WELSH. (Sort of. Jones was born in England but raised in Wales and Howl is Welsh)
BlindGardener
Dark Lord of Dirkholm and Archer's Goon are also good.
PhoenyxStar
Wait, TRILOGY?? I thought that ended with Castle in the Air! TO THE LIBRARY
ShadyHunter
The third book was published in 2008. Castle in the Air is easily my favorite of the three.
Slash0mega
i knew i knew that name!
AnAverageBoxEnthusiast
my next read
somethingnotyettaken
.. TIL.
Whatdoyousaytoanicecupoftea
+1
Scobragon
Chrestomanci is also an absolute must read.
CatShadowleaf
I loved Charmed Life so much as a child.
JackalopeElope
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrestomanci
IDontKnowWhatToDoAnymoreAndImTired
I knew her work, but I had no idea she went as far back as Tolkien. I guess I had kind of assumed that she was much younger when she wrote Howl's Moving Castle.
iguessihaveto
Tolkien died in 1973. Not so very far back.
IDontKnowWhatToDoAnymoreAndImTired
Yeah, but "lived at the same time" is a little different from hearing lectures from before LOTR was finished.
NiftyGoblin
only complaint I have about her books are that they're so short. Would have loved see more of the world in her books
MrAcurite
If only she had studied under, say, the greatest worldbuilder that ever was, and only if he had actually enunciated properly while lecturing.
LariCheltsy
If they've boned, he'd've been In Diana Jones
ApostleOfMalum
This has no right to be hilarious
Inkfinger
...I'm gonna give you an upvote. But I don't wanna give you an upvote.
stryhf
So this?
LariCheltsy
beneaththewillowtree
You magnificent bastard
LariCheltsy
godofhorizons
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlNTJ5OHU1cjJsNDVyc3VzZTVuZjEyb2MwbmZoeDNjejFhdDZta3AyeCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/9J8gnvAxmDFbG/giphy.mp4
WilliamKeith
Newton's lectures at Cambridge were so poorly attended he published a rule that if no students were there after 15 minutes, he would leave.
DaveSamsonite
Which Newton? Most of these stories about Tolkein and Oxford lectures are ancient, apocryphal and impossible to verify. And when there are old tapes or proper transcriptions of them, usually they aren't at all consistent with the tall tale. This particular narrative rings true, however.
Christopher Lee's tales in particular about Tolkien simply don't stand up to scrutiny. He was notorious for stories woven out of whole cloth about meeting Tolkien, being a secret agent, inspiring 007, etc.
candar
"I'm legally allowed to leave"
xizar
You have a source for this? I took a History of Math class way back and read that he'd teach to empty classrooms, not leave them.
WilliamKeith
"People's Book of Biography," James Parton, page 250. While I am no historian to judge the quality of his details overall, his other anecdotes match items I have read about Newton in other sources.
Dimestream
Sourcing! https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1MWU5dGh1cXhud2ZqbXZ1ZnY0ZzZiZnBwMXRzdmRhZXYzbWt2a2x5dSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/3WCNY2RhcmnwGbKbCi/200w.webp
xizar
I am sorely vexed that your 150 y/o book is not on project gutenberg. (am not suggesting age invalidates; just want to read it for myself.)
WilliamKeith
Public domain, and available in its entirety on Google Books!
xizar
Obvs. it's publick domain. That's why it should be on Project Gutenberg so I can get a pdf. (can't figure out how to with googlebooks.)