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Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition (review)

Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition (review) Book Reviews paradigms one has only to recall his reminiscence of a sitting in a wartime lecture next to a soldier who suddenly exclaimed, "Yes, I think I shall express the accusative case by a prefix!" Just consider the splendour of the words! . . . What a pondering of alternatives within one's choice before the final decision in favour of the daring and unusual prefix, so personal, so attractive; the final solution of some element in a design that had hitherto proved refractory. Here were no base considerations of the `practical', the easiest for the `modern mind', or for the million--only a question of taste, a satisfaction of a personal pleasure, a private sense of fitness. As he said his words the little man's smile was full of a great delight, as of a poet or painter seeing suddenly the solution of a hitherto clumsy passage ("A Secret Vice," MC 199). Language creation, for Tolkien, was an act of gorgeous, individualistic rebellion in an era of barbarous conformity. These papers afford a glimpse over his shoulder as he worried at the details in the still of the night, repeatedly tearing up his work but, no doubt, also http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Tolkien Studies West Virginia University Press

Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition (review)

Thomas, Paul Edmund
Tolkien Studies , Volume 3 (1) – May 9, 2006
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Publisher
West Virginia University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 West Virginia University Press.
ISSN
1547-3163
Publisher site
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Abstract

Book Reviews paradigms one has only to recall his reminiscence of a sitting in a wartime lecture next to a soldier who suddenly exclaimed, "Yes, I think I shall express the accusative case by a prefix!" Just consider the splendour of the words! . . . What a pondering of alternatives within one's choice before the final decision in favour of the daring and unusual prefix, so personal, so attractive; the final solution of some element in a design that had hitherto proved refractory. Here were no base considerations of the `practical', the easiest for the `modern mind', or for the million--only a question of taste, a satisfaction of a personal pleasure, a private sense of fitness. As he said his words the little man's smile was full of a great delight, as of a poet or painter seeing suddenly the solution of a hitherto clumsy passage ("A Secret Vice," MC 199). Language creation, for Tolkien, was an act of gorgeous, individualistic rebellion in an era of barbarous conformity. These papers afford a glimpse over his shoulder as he worried at the details in the still of the night, repeatedly tearing up his work but, no doubt, also

Journal

Tolkien Studies – West Virginia University Press

Published: May 9, 2006

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