I’m learning some interesting odds and ends about Lewis and Tolkein. For example, Tolkein didn’t publish that much in his field (philology). Instead of academic writing, he invested in his students. Both Lewis and Tolkein were soldiers. Both men lost their mothers at a young age. Both men were clinical book geeks: for amusement, Tolkein would translate fairy tales into Anglo Saxon.
I’m seeing in both men an ability to laugh at themselves, and therefore to laugh at others without ill will. Here’s Tolkein: “I cannot help recalling some of the salient moments in my academic past. The vastness of Joe Wright’s dining room table (when I sat alone at one end learning the elements of Greek philology from glinting glasses in the further gloom)… My first glimpse of the unique and dominant figure of Charles Talibut Onions, darkly surveying me, a fledgling prentice in the Dictionary Room (fiddling with the slips for WAG and WALRUS and WAMPUM…).”
Lewis at age 9 identified a bad temper and a sensible nature as the Lewis family features. His mother he describes as “stout, brown hair, spectaciles, kniting her chief industry.” He describes himself this way: “I am like Papy, bad temper, thick lips, thin, and generally weraing a jersy.” Later, in describing his teacher Wm. Kirkpatrick, Lewis writes, “The idea that human beings should exercise their vocal organs for any purpose except that of communicating or discovering truth was to him preposterous. The most casual remark was taken as a summons to disputation.”
Their friendship is encouraging. Both are brilliant, exceptional men. That’s an open invitation to loneliness. Yet they found each other, and other forms of community as well. Tolkein (or “Tollers”) was a great clubber; he was always starting fellowships in his areas of interest. It’s good to see, at a time when so much of my own social being is necessarily confined to a young family. These guys were extraordinary, so if they can find community, surely I, amongst the ordinary, can too.
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