Dear Mr. Howe,
Although I've read some of your ideas on art and Lord of the Rings in articles and books, I've never read anything as intensively thought out, and as passionately presented, as your recent article, "From Babel to Barad-Dàºr". It was fascinating and thought (and image). I'm so glad I found a link at "Middle-earth News" to follow.
Of all the great material, this bit most struck me:
"John Ruskin, when he launched his ambitious plan to teach factory workers to draw, had no desire to fill London's parks with labourers toting sketchbooks and charcoal, his desire was to teach them to see. For their own sakes, not to make them better artists, but to have their vision constantly refreshed. Drawing, whether in nature or from some interior landscape, is a form of meditation, an effacing of self, a suspension of time and conscious thought. The local park or the banks of the Anduin: little difference, just a question of detail."
I think LotR does that for the reader, which I think was your point: constantly refreshes their vision. To learn to see like that, is it not something greatly to be desired?
Although I've read some of your ideas on art and Lord of the Rings in articles and books, I've never read anything as intensively thought out, and as passionately presented, as your recent article, "From Babel to Barad-Dàºr". It was fascinating and thought (and image). I'm so glad I found a link at "Middle-earth News" to follow.
Of all the great material, this bit most struck me:
"John Ruskin, when he launched his ambitious plan to teach factory workers to draw, had no desire to fill London's parks with labourers toting sketchbooks and charcoal, his desire was to teach them to see. For their own sakes, not to make them better artists, but to have their vision constantly refreshed. Drawing, whether in nature or from some interior landscape, is a form of meditation, an effacing of self, a suspension of time and conscious thought. The local park or the banks of the Anduin: little difference, just a question of detail."
I think LotR does that for the reader, which I think was your point: constantly refreshes their vision. To learn to see like that, is it not something greatly to be desired?