Excellent thoughts on this, Grace! I agree with you when you say "I think that Tolkien, while right to resist readings of his own work as allegorical, sells that work of allegory short."
When you view allegory like you describe it as a stepping-stone to and method of training for more sophisticated and deeper things, I think you can appreciate it for what it is instead of looking down on it for what it isn't.
Almost laughed out loud at your comment about how dreadful the covers of George MacDonald's books are 😂 A few of them have been reprinted by Haleigh DeRocher with her artwork and they are gorgeous. I highly recommend!
But on a more serious note, I really enjoyed this piece. Since reading that Tolkien quote, I have been pondering how to view allegories. I love what you said about how allegories train us to look for deeper meaning. Thank you for sharing this!
Excellent thoughts on this, Grace! I agree with you when you say "I think that Tolkien, while right to resist readings of his own work as allegorical, sells that work of allegory short."
When you view allegory like you describe it as a stepping-stone to and method of training for more sophisticated and deeper things, I think you can appreciate it for what it is instead of looking down on it for what it isn't.
Yes!! Plus, I didn't include this, but I feel like geniuses like Tolkien maybe forget that a lot of us need more handholding than they do 😂
Oh totally 😂 I need a liiiiitle more help than your typical Oxford professor, let alone a genius like Tolkien lol
Almost laughed out loud at your comment about how dreadful the covers of George MacDonald's books are 😂 A few of them have been reprinted by Haleigh DeRocher with her artwork and they are gorgeous. I highly recommend!
But on a more serious note, I really enjoyed this piece. Since reading that Tolkien quote, I have been pondering how to view allegories. I love what you said about how allegories train us to look for deeper meaning. Thank you for sharing this!
Oh that sounds amazing about the MacDonald covers! Googling now... 😂
Thank you for your kind words!