tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post3082515457663810368..comments2024-03-14T06:20:59.015+00:00Comments on The Notion Club Papers - an Inklings blog: Humphrey Carpenter and TolkienBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-67050224700139571802013-11-10T07:08:44.797+00:002013-11-10T07:08:44.797+00:00@Anon - There isn't really any other full bio...@Anon - There isn't really any other full biography of Tolkien except Carpenter - the others are just rehashes or incomplete - so you pretty much have to start with that. The alternative would be to read through the Chronology volume of the JRR Tolkien Companion and Guide by Hammond and Scull. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-87342270462103211232013-11-09T23:12:55.763+00:002013-11-09T23:12:55.763+00:00I'm considering buying Carpenter's biograp...I'm considering buying Carpenter's biography of Tolkien. I've heard it's the best. But now I'm rethinking. So my question is: is there a better Tolkien biography out there?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-48623431114213778632011-09-30T18:44:19.222+01:002011-09-30T18:44:19.222+01:00@Troels - I think Carpenter has very serious limit...@Troels - I think Carpenter has very serious limitations in his writings of Tolkien and the Inklings (which derive from his limitations as a person, and I have read and heard a lot of HC's work) - so I am 'attacking' the idea that he is a core interpreter of their lives and work - which (quite naturally) tends to be the impression of outsiders, or of those first tackling the secondary literature. <br /><br />I hope I gave him credit for his abilities - after all I have read his Tolkien and Inklings books many, many times with considerable enjoyment - and the Selected JRRT Letters is wonderful.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-71820966089195519892011-09-30T13:47:22.115+01:002011-09-30T13:47:22.115+01:00Wow!
Would it be fair to call this an attack on ...Wow! <br /><br />Would it be fair to call this an attack on Carpenter? <br /><br />I have never been much of a student of the Inklings as a group, nor of any of the other individual members than Tolkien, and so I have never read Carpenter's book on the Inklings, but the strength of this attack(?) surprises me. The only thing that strikes me here is that one must be careful to distinguish between what is the goal and purpose of a group <i>as a group</i> and what personal goals and interests may be shared by more than one of the group's members. Even if more than half the group's members have roughly the same goals with their participation, and attach to their personal participation similar purposes, that doesn't necessarily make this purpose and these goals the purpose and goals of the group as a group. I have no way of giving even a semi-educated guess at what might have been the situation with the Inklings, and so I merely offer this as a distinction that should be observed. <br /><br />Speaking solely about the Tolkien biography, I do agree that Carpenter does not seem to be at every point sympathetic to Tolkien's very personal ideas about ethics and aesthetics, but I don't get the impression that he is disloyal to his subject as such. Instead, I rather appreciate that he he lets it shine through that he disagrees, since that allows us to take that into consideration, whereas if the author were to appear to agree with Tolkien about everything, I might (depending, of course, on the circumstances) suspect that the author was rather turning Tolkien into his own mouthpiece rather than the other way around. <br /><br />Carpenter, in my opinion, does a good job at portraying a person whose claim to greatness is in the works of his mind -- and I think it is only right that he leaves the interpretation of that greatness (and of any intention or project associated with Tolkien's art) to others.Troelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07515711722551393026noreply@blogger.com