i am going to attempt to articulate something i have become curious about recently. i am almost done reading through the lord of the rings for the first time (3rd chapter of book vi, presently), and i am reading the 1965 paperback set which includes a forward from tolkien in which he references the scourging of the shire and he states that this was representative of the state of england after wwii but perhaps more reflective of his experiences in youth of wwi and even before that as modernity steam rolled its way to ubiquity. he says that, “the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guess from evidences that is inadequate and ambiguous.” and continues to say “It is also false, though naturally attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to suppose that the movements of thought or the events of time that were common to both were necessarily the most powerful influence.” none the less, the story of a great rending and war and the end of an age must also have had great resonance in japan at that time, which had been, to my knowledge, almost its on little world unto itself, also incidentally of similar scale in geography and time to middle earth. i suppose that the japanese may have more of a connection to their mystical past then tolkien felt that western people had to their own ancient histories, as i understand the lord of the rings was written in part to help remedy. uhh, but i guess i’m just kind of wondering how LOTR was received over there and i would love information about japanese works which might have been influenced by tolkien. i apologize for any lack of cogency and appreciate the readers in advance for parsing and responding to my query.
by imguitarded