tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post3189621003279586116..comments2023-11-07T06:20:12.181-08:00Comments on Tolkien: Medieval and Modern: Blurring the Boundaries Between History and Myth "Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"http://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-46851843891578929362017-04-16T20:00:10.346-07:002017-04-16T20:00:10.346-07:00I'd like to think more about your proposition ...I'd like to think more about your proposition that "society and the standards and practices of living have changed so much over the centuries that to go back in time would result in placing oneself in an environment so foreign as to seem mythical". Instead of the imagination exercise of travelling back in time, why not think about the exercise of travelling to foreign countries - ones with such different culture, language, geography, and inhabitants to our own that they seem at first glance to be wholly made-up by a poet or an artist? For many, travel - across the surface of the Earth, if not across the eras of the earth - is indeed an escape into the fantastical, the slightly dangerous, where one can allow oneself to be distracted from the nitty-gritty boredom of labor and life in a foreign country, and focus on natural wonders, architectural glories, and unfamiliar sensations. What is a "vacation" than a time to "vacate" one's typical, mundane life, and to allow oneself to embrace an illusion of a world that is more pleasurable and beautiful? Is it not easier to see the layers of history in a foreign land while we meander through museums and palaces? I might sound like I'm getting rather distracted here, but I'm just exploring the relationship between "myth" and "history," using leisure-travel as a proxy to better understand our attraction to unfamiliar, and possibly somewhat illusory (or at least rose-tinted) places and recollections.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03929383832193318224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-51352803096692386262017-04-14T10:16:49.253-07:002017-04-14T10:16:49.253-07:00I think there is something more behind Tolkien'...I think there is something more behind Tolkien's idea of myth than just that it is made up or more fully fleshed out than our evidence allows. Tolkien suggests that it has a kind of psychic force that other stories don't. Does this mean that myths are different kinds of stories? When Tolkien says "myth" he tends to be thinking "fairy-stories." Perhaps his analysis of fairy-stories can help us here? RLFB"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.com