Closure. The word is pregnant with meaning. It is referenced in all sorts of situations as the balm of woe. How many times do we hear, I just need closure? What is that? But upon finishing The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I find that closure isn’t at all times what we want. What we want is everything to be neatly sewed up and to end the way we want it to end, not the way it does. The trilogy ended. All questions were answered to a large part – except the one that is most glaring in my mind, the one that leaves a gaping hole. Why didn’t Frodo live out his days in the Shire? I know a smarter person could explain this to me, but although there was ample closure to the books, it wasn’t what I wanted. Why did Sam and Frodo have to part? Why did Sam move on to a normal life while Frodo did not or could not? Why did Frodo receive so little respect and acclaim compared to Merry and Pippin? Was it merely the clothes they wore? Or is it that some of the greatest achievements in life aren’t recognized and acknowledged? Does that change their greatness?
The more I think about it, the more I wonder about what happens the first time Aragorn comes to the Shire and Frodo is not there. What will he think? Will he understand? I guess the closure isn’t really there. More questions spawn as I think on it. Rob Bell would probably be thrilled (if you wonder about this or the next comment, just reference Velvet Elvis). He and Sean Penn would celebrate the mystery.
This whole idea just makes me think of literature in general. I have been asking a lot of questions about literature of late. Maybe it is because I have been thinking a lot of late. The whole reason I started the trilogy was I decided that I needed to read a great story. I outlined a plan of Austen and Tolkien. Two weeks ago I started with The Hobbit, jumped to Austen’s Mansfield Park, and then without taking the intended breaks to revisit other Austen works between the books of the trilogy (due to the fact that I was quite unsettled with Mansfield Park – I can’t even start that diatribe), I finished the trilogy last night. I needed a great story. I needed to run into a world and lose myself, instead of being lost in the world that surrounds me.
Sorry for that digression, back to my questions. If you have an answer, please tell me.
Who is writing the great stories of our time?
Are we living in a time of great stories?
Are there any great stories left or have they all been written?
I would especially like an answer to the last one as it dates back to a conversation Peter and I had years ago.
4 comments:
don't all stories reflect the story of christ? i thought about it as i was gardening yesterday. i won't leave a blog on your blog though, i'll just put it in my own blog and you can read it there.
also, why the myspace hate?
Does "great" imply "epic," or some other quality/qualities that make it "great?"
I think it is hard to see in our society what the great things are because there are so many people putting something out to be critiqued. Anyone can write something and get it published. Anyone can record a cd on their computer, mass copy it, and sell it themselves. Anyone can make a movie and simply skip the theater step, going straight to DVD.
What I'm saying is, there is very little black and white, pop and indie, New York Times and high school newspaper. The distinction between best and next-best is almost unnoticeable. It was probably much easier to notice how great the Iliad was at a time when storytelling was a specialized job in society.
Sidenote: if the "great"-ness of a story is determined by popular obsession as well as length of time that the story can hold people's attention, then it would seem that Harry Potter is the great story of our time. While I've enjoyed the movies, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that being the "great story" of my time.
Response to the questions - Meg, we have had talks about myspace, it isn't so much that I hate it, but it is a totally new world to me.
Tom, for it to be great, it has to be something that will last the test of time, which I think is the difference between high and low literature. However, I think that when things are published and acclaimed, it is at times easy to realize if they are high or low literature. Regarding Harry Potter, I don't think it is going to be read in in 50 years, it seems just a pop sensation.
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