The Summer of Biographies has turned into the summer of Lewis and Tolkien biographies. It seems I often head in certain directions during my summer biography reading. Last year it was an exploration of men from the Great Awakening. This year it is Lewis and Tolkien. I’ve already shared my thoughts on The Narnian. I also just picked up two more books (one on Lewis, one on Tolkien) from the library. But today I want to write down some thoughts about Humphrey Carpenter’s book on Tolkien.
As always, I’m not trying to review this book. Rather, I simply want to record the areas I found most interesting or applicable to my current situation.As for the book, I found it to be extremely well written. I’m not a huge Tolkien buff so I cannot commend or condemn its accuracy. I can only give you my impressions.
One thing I found interesting was that Carpenter’s account of the rift that occurred between C.S. Lewis and Tolkien (after years of friendship) was quite different from that of Alan Jacobs in The Narnian. Strangely, at least to me, Tolkien’s biographer seems to put the blame for this rift mostly on him, while Lewis’ biographer places the blame squarely on the shoulders of Lewis. Even more strangely, I think I believe both of them. It seems that it all depends on which angle you approach the situation from.
Carpenter is very even handed in this book. He is not afraid to point out Tolkien’s flaws. You’re left with the impression that Tolkien was unorganized, a great procrastinator, unconcerned about deadlines, bull-headed (when it comes to taking criticism), dogmatic in his religion (whether this is good or bad is an open question), was unwise in how he languished many of the hours he could have been working, and that he was a sentimentalist to a great degree. You also get the impression that he and his wife almost lived separate lives for most of their long marriage (he points out several times that they kept different hours and slept in different bedrooms).
Yet at the same time you see that he is brilliant thinker and writer who accomplished a massive amount of brilliant work, that he was a devoted husband and father who loved his family greatly, that he was a true friend while friendship lasted, that he was steadfast in his religious practices, and that he was a valuable instrument in the conversion of C.S. Lewis.
He was also a staunch perfectionist in his writing (I don’t know whether that’s a positive or negative necessarily, so I put it by itself).
I for one appreciate a biography that weighs a man so evenly. This is no hagiography. But neither is it a smear job.
It is precisely because of the balance of the book that I found myself both attracted and repelled to Tolkien. I found myself relating to him and yet being aggravated by him. I related to him mostly in the hours he kept. He stayed up late. He worked late into the night. He piddled too much. The same can be said for me. With two small children and a full time job to go along with my preaching duties, most nights I find myself having to stay up to the wee hours of the morning to study and read and write. I feel Tolkien’s pain. So much work to do, so little daylight, so much unwinding that needs to be done while the work continues to pile up.
That’s about as far as my relating to him goes. He is a different creature. He was a brilliant philologist (that kind of goes without saying). I’m not a word-man myself. But he makes me want to be one. Very rarely do I think of words as beautiful things, things worth wrapping myself up in, immersing my thoughts in. Tolkien spurs me on. He shows me a world I don’t know or appreciate as well as I ought.
Of course his dogmatic Roman Catholicism annoys me. I’m a true blue Protestant, what do you expect? I won’t linger on this. I hate that he didn’t see the genius in much of what C.S. Lewis was doing and writing. His religious presuppositions (and some literary presuppositions) wouldn’t allow it. But I can’t necessarily blame him for this – his reasoning certainly justified this in his mind – and what a great mind it was.
All in all I appreciate Tolkien the man a little more after reading this book. I find myself encouraged to engage words and language more, and to work hard and repent of my procrastination. I also find myself both wanting to be more of a perfectionist and yet less staunch a perfectionist. There is a time to demand the best in precision and clarity, and a time to just let it fly and face the criticism afterward like a man. But you better pick your spots wisely.
I appreciated the book and recommend it.
An even-handed review of a biography you, in turn, consider to be even-handed. Well done!
Thank you very much for the encouragement.