Tolkien’s prophecy
“More perceptive than most, [’Lord of the Rings’ author J.R.R.] Tolkien had prophesied the future of globalization as early as 1943, opining about the likely triumph of Mammon over Marx in a letter to his son:
” ’I wonder (if we survive this war) if there will be any niche, even of sufference, left for reactionary back numbers like me (and you). The bigger things get the smaller and duller and flatter the globe gets. It is going to be all one blasted little provincial suburb. When they have introduced American sanitation, morale-pep, feminism and mass production throughout the Near East, Middle East, Far East, U.S.S.R., the Pampas, el Gran Chaco, the Danubian basin, Equatorial Africa, Hitler Further and Inner Mumbo-Land, Gondhwanland, Lhasa and the villages of darkest Berkshire, how happy we shall be. At any rate, it ought to cut down travel. There will be nowhere to go. … But seriously: I do find this Americo-cosmopolitanism very terrifying.’
“Perhaps, it is more than a little encouraging that a work by a self-confessed ’reactionary back number’ should emerge as the most popular and influential work of literature of the 20th century, continuing to win converts to its wisdom and charm 50 years after it was first published.”
— Joseph Pearce, writing on “The Making of J.R.R. Tolkien,” in the April 26 issue of the American Conservative
How to be a writer
“I was recently asked what it takes to become a writer. Three things, I answered: First, one must cultivate incompetence at almost every other form of profitable work. This must be accompanied, second, by a haughty contempt for all the forms of work that one has established one cannot do. To these two must be joined, third, the nuttiness to believe that other people can be made to care about your opinions and views and be charmed by the way you state them. Incompetence, contempt, lunacy — once you have these in place, you are set to go.
“But why bother writing at all? What would motivate anyone to take up what often turns out to be a life fraught with many obstacles and few palpable rewards? This vexing question has received a number of usually unsatisfactory answers. They include the notions that serious writers are divinely inspired; that they have a preternatural love of aesthetic order; that they are in relentless pursuit of the truth … and, on the somewhat less complimentary side, that they are ego-driven and therefore attention-craving beyond all reckoning.”
— Joseph Epstein, writing on “Writing on the Brain,” in the April issue of Commentary
Hollywood swans
” ’The Swan’ is a reality show that does not stop at taking ordinary people and putting them in the Hollywood spotlight. This reality show from Fox actually changes ordinary people until they fit Hollywood standards. Sixteen ’average’ looking women are ’transformed’ — with the help of plastic surgery, liposuction, implants, a personal trainer and even psychological counseling — until three months later they have been carved into ’beauty queens.’
“The self-loathing shown by these women because they do not at first fit the Barbie-doll ideal is sad, even heart-wrenching. The show only reinforces the ideal that has made them so miserable. …
“Hollywood is filled with beautiful women who are whiny, negative and unhappy, their physical beauty adding pride to their unpleasant personalities, making them particularly obnoxious.”
— Gene Edward Veith, writing on “Sad swans,” in the April 24 issue of World
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