point is that in HP, LotR and Narnia there is a Christlike protagonist in all. And Christ in itself is the Universal Hero or Hero with the thousand faces according to Graves. Of these three Frodo comes closest to Christ suffering in Gethsemane when he faces the load of his burden. He also cracks and claims the Ring, weird for the writer who loathed allegory. And like Christ he is no longer realy among his friends. Arslan and Harry look far less like Christ although they both walked willenly to Golgotha. Arslan doesn't even go through Gethsemane and Harry may go through it a sort of reading the Prince's Tale, it is probably ment as an allegory for Gethsemane but it doesn't really work. Harry never pleads to have the burden taken from him, it is just: "OK dying it is, let's get over with it." He is immideately rewarded by not walking alone, not a moment of Eli, Eli, lama sabachthanibut then JKR muddles thing up real good, did he die and resurrect? too much halfbaken trickery in it to be sure
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Tolkien also did say that "an author cannot remain wholly unaffected by his experience" but he meant that he did not intend to write the Great War of the Ring as a representation of WWI or WWII. In the Icelandic and Germanic sagas of which he was a scholar, battles with supernatural forces were common. The difference between him and JKR was intent. She intended her story to be an allegory of Christ including calling Harry "The Chosen One" where Tolkien was taking bits and pieces from older stories and blending them into one not intending them to mean anything other than what they appeared to be.
Good point - I should clarify, too, that I believe Tolkien was being truthful when he said he wasn't intending to write either a Christian Allegory or a War Allegory. I believe he wanted to recrete the Icelandic Sagas and Roman/British history much more than he wanted to recreate the Bible
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When Tolkien denied writing an allegory, he was not denying any allegorical elements were present, just that the whole thing was not a thinly veiled retelling of something else. (e. g. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe *IS* a heavy-handed allegory, Aslan=Christ, the Emperor Over the Sea=God Almighty, etc.)
I seem to recall reading from his letters a discussion that the point of Frodo not being able to drop the Ring into Mount Doom was illustrating a point of Catholic theology about Grace - thet people cannot achieve Good despite their efforts, without that last little push from God (in this case, taking the form of Gollum's fortuitous topple over the precipice into the fire).
I would say Rowling is closer to Tolkien (Christian elements and themes present) than Lewis (fairly explicit allegory) in their writing.
I disagree with you, Ms. Arithmancer. Rowling is very far from Tolkien in her writing, and this is something friends on livejournal and I have already discussed. The reason is not the presence or absence of Christ figures (which are multiple in Tolkien, but all clearly *not Christ* - unlike Harry, whose death and resurrection was highly offensive to me), but Rowling's refusal to be taught by her work and to let her characters grow and develop naturally. Tolkien had a clear idea of the story he wanted to tell, but he also followed it and was taught by it. For example, when he first met Aragorn in the pub, he did not know who he was, and had to find out. The figure of Strider was originally very different. Similarly, he was surprised to find Faramir striding toward him in the woods of Ithilien
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Well, I was addressing the point about allegory specifically. If one takes TLTWATW as one end of an allegory spectrum, and LOTR as another, I would put HP in between, closer to LOTR. This assessment does not address the "quality" of any of these authors' writing
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The point about the internet is a good one. I am thinking of Michelle Paver, who is just finishing a really excellent series, and who does not go online, though she has a website specifically for fans. It's better to just focus on the work, I'm sure, and let the reception take care of itself. But the net has got to be a huge temptation for an author - look at the way I look for feedback on fanfic!
I think Tolkien (who admitted to being a terrible procrastinator, and playing countless games of solitaire) was probably lucky not to have that distraction in his life!
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Of these three Frodo comes closest to Christ suffering in Gethsemane when he faces the load of his burden.
He also cracks and claims the Ring, weird for the writer who loathed allegory. And like Christ he is no longer realy among his friends. Arslan and Harry look far less like Christ although they both walked willenly to Golgotha. Arslan doesn't even go through Gethsemane and Harry may go through it a sort of reading the Prince's Tale, it is probably ment as an allegory for Gethsemane but it doesn't really work. Harry never pleads to have the burden taken from him, it is just: "OK dying it is, let's get over with it." He is immideately rewarded by not walking alone, not a moment of Eli, Eli, lama sabachthanibut then JKR muddles thing up real good, did he die and resurrect? too much halfbaken trickery in it to be sure ( ... )
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The difference between him and JKR was intent. She intended her story to be an allegory of Christ including calling Harry "The Chosen One" where Tolkien was taking bits and pieces from older stories and blending them into one not intending them to mean anything other than what they appeared to be.
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I seem to recall reading from his letters a discussion that the point of Frodo not being able to drop the Ring into Mount Doom was illustrating a point of Catholic theology about Grace - thet people cannot achieve Good despite their efforts, without that last little push from God (in this case, taking the form of Gollum's fortuitous topple over the precipice into the fire).
I would say Rowling is closer to Tolkien (Christian elements and themes present) than Lewis (fairly explicit allegory) in their writing.
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I think Tolkien (who admitted to being a terrible procrastinator, and playing countless games of solitaire) was probably lucky not to have that distraction in his life!
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