Timeline for Looking for a specific Tolkien quote about the benefit of allowing suffering in the world
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 11, 2016 at 21:52 | comment | added | Matt Gutting | @aith I agree his characters aren't all absolutely good or evil. But his world is. | |
| Jan 7, 2016 at 17:54 | comment | added | Jason Baker | @Aith I'm pretty sure the quote I'm looking for isn't in Silmarillion (I put a couple from there that I know aren't right in my question), but if you do find something interesting you could either post a new answer, or edit it into this answer and ping me in a comment | |
| Jan 7, 2016 at 12:05 | comment | added | Aith | So is it by virtue of 'fundamentally religious' that Tolkien believes in the concept of absolute good and evil as applied to his world or does he actually state somewhere (like in a Letter) that he believes in absolutes in his world when in reality, there are several letters in the Letters book which go to lengths to describe how un-absolute his characters are and how important this is? In Letter 154, he's indignant about people boiling down his story to simplistic 'good versus evil' terms which is why he goes to lengths to explain how non-absolute his characters are. | |
| Jan 7, 2016 at 10:17 | comment | added | Aith | @JasonBaker - Whoops! I guess I ought to have asked. I've actually been in the middle of re-reading The Silmarillion (ought to finish by tomorrow if not later tonight). If I happen to find a Silmarillion-specific quote (or another quote specific to his created world) which might answer your question, how ought I share it with you? | |
| Jan 7, 2016 at 10:13 | comment | added | Aith | @MattGutting - And that was actually the whole point (unless I misunderstood your statement which I might have); Tolkien didn't believe in absolute good or bad as applied to his LOTR and The Hobbit world and so used his characters and their actions and reactions to demonstrate accordingly. | |
| Jan 6, 2016 at 17:06 | comment | added | Jason Baker | Interesting, but not what I'm after; I should perhaps have made it more clear that what I was looking for was related to Tolkien's fictional world, not necessarily his real-life opinions | |
| Jan 6, 2016 at 14:13 | comment | added | Matt Gutting | I'm not sure how the letter 154 quote proves that he doesn't believe in absolute good - only that all the created beings in this world weren't absolutely good. | |
| Jan 6, 2016 at 6:38 | history | edited | Aith | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added in specific letter numbers
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| Jan 6, 2016 at 6:19 | history | answered | Aith | CC BY-SA 3.0 |