tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post8907316985660687712..comments2023-11-07T06:20:12.181-08:00Comments on Tolkien: Medieval and Modern: Language for love, language for itself"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"http://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-22534758284089785422011-06-02T20:55:25.686-07:002011-06-02T20:55:25.686-07:00Language is “a marriage of the intellectual need t...Language is “a marriage of the intellectual need to communicate with the emotional need to express what is pleasurable.” Well-said! I think you are right in pointing out that Tolkien was a true aesthete for words. The way he talks about language, especially pleasant-sounding words like “Eärendil,” reminds me of a gourmand, or as you put it, a connoisseur. I agree with you: Tolkien’s love for words seems pure and simple and, like love so often is, also deep-rooted and escapes rational explanation. At the same time, as you note, Tolkien’s taste for words is something that comes with knowledge and experience. One must be learned and trained linguistically to truly develop a palate (or I supposed in this case, an ear) that can appreciate all its flavors/sounds.<br /><br />Your post has actually made me enjoy reading Tolkien’s works even more. If language is, as you say, really the basis of Tolkien’s stories, then his writing of The Lord of the Rings and all the works in his legendarium is in effect allowing him to indulge in precisely what he loves. In other words, Tolkien must have written with an intense passion—almost like someone dedicating a masterpiece to his lover. We, as readers, then are partaking of Tolkien’s love for language, and this should make his works all the more pleasurable for us to read as well!<br /><br />HY"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-11335782847948930362011-04-20T10:47:34.033-07:002011-04-20T10:47:34.033-07:00Tolkien does have a singular ability to create a m...Tolkien does have a singular ability to create a mimesis of language, which must be a marvelous achievement, certainly one that requires a wide-ranging study of - and intuition for - the nature of linguistic development. The aesthetic of a language is a difficult matter, as he must have recognized since he admitted that people seem disposed to certain flavors. As a linguist, he understood the logic of sound. If a tree is not a tree until so named, there is still something that’s more than semantic going on here. Does it have anything at all to do with naming? One can certainly be carried on languages without understanding them. It happens to me when I hear some speakers of German or Italian. Even beginning to understand a new language will cause odd punctuations in our perception that total ignorance protects us from. But sooner or later, with the right kind of study, I suspect that we come out on the other side, with a deeper knowledge, and so deeper experience, of the language. Going beyond magic, language must be in this case uninterrupted incantation, without magical cause and effect. This is why codes are so contemptible. They are mere riddles, like the allegory of a story, sapped of strength once solved. In this way, Tolkien’s insistence on the integrity of sound is quite consistent with his position on the integrity of story.<br />JT"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-53372933178707428162011-04-20T07:28:38.831-07:002011-04-20T07:28:38.831-07:00Excellent distinction between connoirsseurship and...Excellent distinction between connoirsseurship and code-making, the one involving both judgment and pleasure, the other more an exercise in technique. Likewise, comparing Tolkien to Bach as a composer is extremely apt! Both took equal pleasure in structure and beauty, rules and spiritual expression. I also particularly appreciate your observation about what it means not to be able to appreciate these flavors and hear only cacophony.<br /><br />RLFB"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.com