Tolkien in the Classroom

(A brief theory on why Tolkien is rarely taught in School)

I wrote a dissertation on Tolkien`s work when I was in my final year at High School. It was called something like "Possessiveness and the Nature of Evil in Tolkien`s Middle-Earth". I still have a copy in a box somewhere in my attic. Looking back almost 15 years later it was a piece of trite, poorly reasoned nonsense, but it got me an A for my CSYS (a Scottish qualification equivalent to the English `A` Level).

The reason I mention this is that my English Lit. teacher was dead against me choosing this as a topic and did all he could to persuade me to change to Shakespeare or Dickens. His objection was not that JRR`s books lacked literary merit, but that the invigilator marking my dissertation would view them as frivolous and mark my work accordingly.

I found the same attitude when I started an Eng. Lit. degree at Glasgow University. The staff there derided Tolkien (and fantasy in general) as being insignificant and unimportant. After my first year I was bored to death with Shakespeare and various turgid Victorian novelists who apparently represented the pinnacle of the English literary tradition. I switched to Medieval History and never regretted it.

There must be a reason for this attitude among so-called literary cognoscenti, since I find it difficult to comprehend how any intelligent person could fail to enjoy Tolkien's work, LOTR in particular. Though after my experiences of English teachers, both at school and at university, I think that perhaps intelligence is something that most of them have only a passing familiarity with.

LOTR is not a book which lends itself to the kind of mind-numbing analysis that `proper literature` is often subjected to. I think this is why so many critics have a low opinion of the book. With very few exceptions, critics lack the talent to write well themselves and therefore rely on their painstaking analysis of literary masterpieces to earn a crust. As JRR pointed out many times, LOTR is not an allegory in any way, shape or form. There is no deep, hidden meaning within those 1000+ pages. The sheer scope of the book and the power of his language are what makes it a great work. Tolkien`s intention was to capture and hold the reader`s imagination from start to finish, which he did magnificently.

I think that educators are generally of the opinion that if a book is not `clever`, or if it has little or no allegorical significance for the intended audience then it is unimportant. I think that is why LOTR does not appear on many school curricula.

(BTW, this is my first post to this forum. Sorry if I bored anyone.)