Writing Down The Dragon, by Tom Simon
I’ve read Tom Simon’s blog for years, and have always enjoyed his insightful essays. WRITING DOWN THE DRAGON is a compilation of some of those essays, combined together to form a monograph on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, his method, and his influence upon subsequent generations of fantasy writers.
I found the essays dealing with the various moral and theological implications of Tolkien’s books to be the most interesting. THE TERMINAL ORC, a discussion of the morality of the Orcs, reflects on whether or not the orcs actually have moral agency or not. (And THE TERMINAL ORC, I should point out, was one of the inspirations for the Malrags in my DEMONSOULED books when I first read the essay a few years ago.) WHAT IS ELF, by contrast, posits the theory that the Elves in the LORD OF THE RINGS are actually unfallen humans – humans who have not suffered the effects of the Fall into Sin and therefore are naturally inclined to do good, rather than do evil, as is the normal state (alas) among human beings. That was a very interesting idea, and one I admit I had not considered before, as I had always considered Tolkien’s Elves to be biologically a different species than humans. An artifact of the fact that I started reading science fiction before I read fantasy, I suppose.
The chapter about dragons put forth the intriguing idea that dragons are a manifestation of humanity’s worst desires (avarice and the lust for power, in particular), with the theory that the Eastern conception of the dragon as a wise creature of celestial order might be a propaganda device a Western dragon would put out to mask its true intentions. I particularly liked the chapter on Michael Moorcock and his vendetta against Tolkien. Someone admiringly pointed me to Moorcock’s EPIC POOH essay a few years ago, and to be perfectly candid I found it to be utter twaddle. Mr. Simon’s presents several excellent arguments rebutting Moorcock’s criticisms of Tolkien.
Finally, the book has several chapters discussion Tolkien’s methods, how most of his ideas came from attempting to resolve the contradictory meanings of Old English words. This is of interest to students of history and literature, but also to writers as an example to avoid. Tolkien, for all his gifts and genius, had a devil of a time finishing anything. To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, the supreme gift of the artist is the knowledge of when to stop, and to paraphrase Steve Jobs, real artists ship. Tolkien was a master worldbuilder, but for most writers it is better avoid getting lost in the details of the setting and to simply get on with the story already.
To sum up, I found WRITING DOWN THE DRAGON both insightful and thought-provoking, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the history of literature, Tolkien, and to writers of fantasy fiction.
-JM